COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Moscow announced plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent if it is part of a new comprehensive climate deal, Russian delegates said.
World leaders inaugurated a summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Monday with the aim of finding a climate deal to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in November that his country would cut emissions to 25 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020.
Oleg Shamanov, the Russian environmental envoy to the ongoing climate change summit in the Danish capital, said his statements show the country is serious about a new environmental accord, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reports.
"We are not ready to sign under the plans to cut 22-25 percent as part of a direct continuation of the Kyoto Protocol," he stipulated.
Russia's carbon emissions are below 1990 levels currently due in part to an industrial collapse that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union.
