A state secretary at the Environmental Protection Ministry, Nikola Ruzinski, said Croatia had not ratified the Kyoto Protocol yet because it had tried and succeeded in winning an equal position as the other signatories.
He explained that the Protocol, taking 1990 as year zero, envisages limiting the emission of greenhouse gases to 31.12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which he said would return Croatia to 1974 and obstruct its industrial development. Croatia therefore managed to negotiate a 34.62 million tonne limit, he said.
Ruzinski said Croatia had behaved so far as though it had already ratified the Protocol, developing its industry accordingly, and would show its responsibility towards climate change upon ratifying the document.
Ruzinski said the European Union had committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 20% by 2030, or by as much as 30% if other countries adopted the same standards. He said Croatia would join the EU by 2012 and its greenhouse gas reduction project and could then also count on assistance from more developed countries.
Speaking of methods the Kyoto Protocol envisages as necessary for the reduction of greenhouse gases, Ruzinski mentioned higher energy efficiency through a reduction of energy consumption and a higher usage of renewable sources such as wind farms, hydro-electric power plants, biomass and solar energy, gas instead of oil, etc.