Belarus

Rating

Assessment

As of May 2012, Belarus' has pledged to reduce its emissions by 8% relative to 1990 levels by 2020 (thus providing a clarification of its previous commitment to cut in the range of 5 to 10% under 1990 emissions by 2020). Belarus’ pledge is rated as inadequate, as it keeps the commitment limit above the various projected business-as-usual levels in 2020.

Description

Belarus proposed a target of -8% relative to 1990 (1995 for F-gases) for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012), which is still to be ratified. Base year emissions for this pledge are set by Belarus initial report under the Kyoto protocol. For 2020, Belarus originally proposed a target of -5 to -10% relative to 1990 emissions. This has now been clarified to -8% relative to 1990 levels by 2020. The target is still conditional on access to the Kyoto flexible mechanisms, intensification of technology transfer, capacity building and experience enhancement for Belarus. For the 2020 pledge, we assume the most recent inventory data for 1990 as the bases. These are substantially higher than the emissions stated in the initial report. Therefore, despite an unchanged pledge, the actual emissions allowed by the pledge for 2020 are higher than for the first commitment period and the emissions pathway shows growing emissions from 2012 to 2020.

In May 2012, Belarus submitted a provisional QELRO level of 92 for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This means that Belarus’ average yearly emissions during the period of 2013-2020 are proposed to be 92% of 1990 levels.

Status

Official announcement

Date of pledge
May 2012