Sunday, June 6, 2010

Medvedev urges global eco-disaster fund

Yahoo News via Agence France-Presse: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday called for a global fund to fight ecological catastrophes like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as he sought to burnish his credentials as a green leader. Admitting that Russia itself was lagging behind other countries in its standards of environmental protection, he also said Russians should feel free to protest against the authorities on environmental issues.

Medvedev said that the oil spill from the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico -- the worst in US history -- had showed that the world had been unable to imagine the scale of such catastrophes. He said a global fund was needed to insure and reinsure against the risk of such disasters "as in some cases the richest companies and even the big countries" would not have sufficient funds to fight their consequences.

World powers would put money into the global fund, he said in the statement, published via his video blog. "I am proposing that Russia could put forward a corresponding initiative," Medvedev said. "I will raise the issue at the G20 summit" to be held in Canada later this month….

What, don't you recognize the coat of arms of the Russian Federation?

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