Source: Interfax Information Services, B.V.
Date of Publication: December 28, 2004

MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax) - Russia may net $1 billion to $3 billion by selling quotas of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere allowed to it by the Kyoto protocol, Vsevolod Gavrilov, deputy director of the Economic Development Ministry's Material and Land Relations and Nature Use Economics Department, told Interfax on Monday.

"The sale of quotas may proceed in two stages. The stage that will end in mid-2006, the so-called truncated version, and the subsequent period. Truncated version deals are not likely to fetch more than hundreds of millions of dollars while those of the subsequent period, from one billion to three billion dollars," he said.

At the moment, the Russian pollution totals 70% of the basic 1990 level, Gavrilov said. Under the so-called Marrakech agreements a country cannot sell more than 10% of its reserve, he said. "Our current 2008 - 12 reserve totals 5 billion tonnes. Consequently, we may sell within 500 million tonnes," Gavrilov said.

"The market does not need that much at the moment," he said. The way they are now the Marrakech agreements do not hinder an active marketing policy, Gavrilov said.

First sales of carbon dioxide quotas under the Kyoto Protocol may be signed as early as in the second quarter of 2005, he believes.

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