One Month After Ratification Of Paris Agreement, Is Russia Making A U-Turn?
Credit to Author: Ciara Gillan| Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:25:03 +0000
Published on November 4th, 2019 | by Ciara Gillan
November 4th, 2019 by Ciara Gillan
At the start of the month, we reported on the fact that after four years of deliberation, the Russian government appeared to finally give support to the Paris Agreement. Not a complete ratification but on the way to it, by all accounts from Russian sources. For many, it felt like a strange turn of events in the face of President Vladimir Putin’s strong denials of global warming, while also proving a step in the right direction toward global consensus on climate change action.
Image credit: Climate Action Tracker
However, it would not be without controversy that the Russian government would attempt to legislate for change. Classed as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) (1.6 billion metric tons of CO2 in 2017), Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of oil. It continues to invest largely in the development of its coal, oil, and gas industries. So it is not surprising that no less than a month after ratifying the Paris Agreement, its draft bill to regulate emissions has been stalled.
According to a report from Climate Change News last week, changes have included removing “legally binding targets and sanctions… Also scrapped was a section detailing a fund to support carbon-cutting projects, along with sections allowing the government to strengthen the bill over time.”
The Chair of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Alexander Shokhin, spoke earlier in the month at an environmental forum objecting “to climate regulations, such as cap and trade, carbon taxes or a fund for carbon-cutting projects, stressing that Russia had already “fulfilled [its] obligations to reduce to the level of 70-75% (greenhouse gas emissions) from 1990.”
While this may surprise some, it is, in fact, true. Russia’s emissions have fallen since 1990. According to Diana Elagina, writing for statista.com, “Russia’s territorial carbon dioxide emissions per capita fell 32.53 percent between 1990 and 2017.”
While on the surface this may seem like good news, it does not detract from the fact that Russia remains in the top five of the biggest emitters. Shokhin’s use of this data only serves to confirm the concern that it allows countries like Russia to expand on its emission production, safe in the knowledge that it is lower than the 1990 standard. Despite ratifying the Paris Agreement, Russia’s history is to waver between climate change denial and empty pledges. In 2016, Russia “pledged to reduce emissions by at least 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and 25-30% from 1990 levels by 2030,” which is something it has yet to do.
So where to now?
Putin and his government claim to be paying closer attention to climate change now that it is starting to impact their economy, so it remains to be seen how long opposition from the energy industry can continue to fight against Russia’s new reality — extensive wildfires, floods, and deaths from environmental disasters. However, with Putin still skeptical about the potential of renewable energy and claiming wind turbines kill unsuspecting birds and worms, it may be a while before any real change is enacted.
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Ciara Gillan Ciara Gillan is a writer, audio producer and a lover of crime stories. She writes about the environment and is currently figuring out how long it would take her to get from Berlin to Dublin ‘Greta Thunberg’ style. You can find her on Twitter, or find her audio work here.