The economic Group of Seven nations and Russia, known as G8, have agreed in principle not use international trading of greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the need for difficult reductions in domestic emission levels.
The prospect of emission trading was raised at the Kyoto summit in December 1997, but was not fully resolved.
European countries feared that the USA and Canada would try to evade reductions in their own levels of carbon dioxide emission by purchasing surplus emissions from Russia. Emission trading is common between electricity generators within the USA.
The target set at Kyoto for emission reductions in Russia was considered generous enough for the country to be able to meet its target with a considerable margin to spare. It was this margin which might have been sold by Russia to other countries.
The G8 nations agreed that emissions trading and transfers of climate-friendly technology to developing countries should be supplemental to domestic action. Whether this wording will be sufficient to completely prevent trading remains an open question.
