Russian factories hatch plans to make money from Kyoto
Businesses in the Russian town of Archangel have big plans for capitalizing on the Kyoto Protocol. Under the treaty, more-developed countries can help meet their commitments by financing cleaner technologies in dirty facilities elsewhere, like the ones in Archangel. Vadim Eremeev of Archangel’s Energy Efficiency Fund is blunt: “It’s no secret that we see Kyoto as cheap money to help us modernize. There’s huge scope for that across Russia.” Taking another strategy, Archangel Pulp and Paper mill has set a voluntary goal of cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 12 percent, even while increasing production, figuring it can sell the resulting credits for up to $25 million, making money to reinvest in further modernization and efficiency measures. But while many in the business sector want to move fast to benefit from the newly enacted treaty, the Russian government is lagging behind in coming up with an implementation plan.
