President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has previously warned of the world's predatory attitude towards nature

IMAGE: Kremlin.ru

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus has said that it intends to meet its obligations to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and ratify the Paris Agreement in 2016.

Belarus' First Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Iya Malkina said that “Belarus has plans to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 28% by 2030 against the level of 1990. We are not going to lower the set parameters. Now the task is to set specific goals for the period between 2020 and 2030. The obligations that we will assume as soon as the agreement comes into force will be reviewed every five years in order to set more ambitious goals. We should understand that it is not right to take on some obligations and fail to fulfil them. It would be the same as not to care about our responsibilities. We should participate in the collective action to reduce emissions. Our right to a healthy environment should be closely connected with our obligation to protect this environment.”

Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Andrei Kovkhuto, also stepped forward to say that the Ministry is taking its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and has assured the Secretariat of the UNFCCC that Belarus will be doing everything it can to meet its INDC targets.

So let's take a look at what those targets actually are, and what Belarus intends to do to meet them: