MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - Russia has threatened to block UN climate meetings this month because official members of its delegation have still not received German visas.
"The Russian Federation has been preparing for this session well in advance. We wanted to take part in this session as a whole, large Russian team. Nevertheless, [...] some leading members of our team responsible for conducting the negotiations in key areas of the climate agenda have not received visas despite filing their visa applications on April 22. The hosting side has still not issued visas to four individuals from our delegation. Given the circumstances, we were forced to block the adoption of the agenda of the subsidiary bodies of the Framework Convention on Climate Change until the four Russian delegates have been issued with visas by the hosting side," a Russian representative said at a plenary meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and Subsidiary Body for Implementation on Monday.
German authorities reassured the organizing committee that the visa issue of the Russian delegates had been resolved, SBSTA Chair Harry Vreuls said. "With these reassurances, can we now proceed?" he said after a break.
"Being aware of the importance of solving the problems facing us all, we are ready to heed your information and drop our objections to adopting the agenda. But on the sole condition that the hosting side will indeed issue visas to our four experts. Should the hosting side break this promise, we reserve the right to block the course of our sessions of the subsidiary bodies at any moment," the Russian representative said.
"Moreover, we reserve the right to disagree with any decision made without our experts, who still have not received their visas, and who are supposed to take part in decision making in key areas, namely, Article 6 [of the Paris Agreement, regarding trade in emissions reductions and the implementation of climate projects] and on the just transition," he said.
The UN climate meetings began in Bonn, Germany, on June 3 and will continue through June 13. The attendees are expected to draft decisions for approval at the UN Climate Conference due to be held in Baku on November 11-22 (COP29). Topics include climate finance, preparations for the next round of national climate strategies (nationally determined contributions, or NOCs), timely preparation by countries of the first biennial transparency reports, work on national adaptation plans, and expediting the approval of measures to fight climate change through the just transition.