The Position of Russian Environmental NGOs to the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change COP 20, Lima, Peru, December 2014

Environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) consider it necessary to adopt a strong global climate agreement in December 2015, as set out in the documents of the UN Convention on Climate Change. UN climate conference in 2014 in Lima, COP-20, shall make a practical step towards the conclusion of such an agreement.

In 2015, we call on Russia to take strong commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the time period till 2030. We also call on Russia to become in 2015 a participant of the New York Declaration on Forests.

We emphasize that nuclear power and large hydropower cannot be considered as environmentally sound solutions to reduce the impact on the climate.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy shall become the priority for low-carbon development, which requires strengthening state support for these sectors.

The new agreement, in our opinion, shall:

• be global one and involve equal participation status for all major countries - emitters of greenhouse gases; binary division of countries by belonging to Annex 1 of the UN Convention on Climate Change is unacceptable;
• be legally binding and be subjected to ratification by states;
• include numerical commitments (inputs of countries) to global emissions reductions;
• include commitments to reduce emissions that correspond to the goal of limiting global warming to 2 C at the end of the 21st century;
• include the global adaptation goal adopted by all countries that implies equal allocation of funds for adaptation and emissions reduction;
• oblige all countries to develop and implement national strategies and plans for adaptation to climate change;
• cover all forests and terrestrial ecosystems of all countries;
• commit all major countries to introduce national systems for regulation of greenhouse gas emissions;
• imply the possibility of cooperation at the subnational level (regions, provinces, cities);
• necessarily involve information transparency and public access (to information) on all its elements: reduction of emissions, adaptation, means of implementation - finance.

Rules of entry into force of the new agreement shall necessarily imply its ratification by all major emitting countries: China, the U. S. A., India, and Russia.
We support:

• the ongoing efforts to stop deforestation in tropical countries, which, in the new agreement, shall be extended to protection of forests and lands all over the world;
• fair and transparent competition principles for promotion of the projects, aimed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (to avoid corruption), and we consider it is necessary to use the best technology approach in selection of projects;
• Russia's intention to be a voluntary donor in the framework of international climate finance, supporting the most weak and vulnerable countries.

We demand an end to the practice of reducing the number of seats at Conferences of the Parties of the UN Convention of Climate Change for representatives of observer organisations.
The position was adopted at the 7th Annual Conference on Climate and Energy of the Russian public organization “Social Ecological Union” in St. Petersburg on October 27-28, 2014 (76 participants from 28 regions of the Russian Federation).