Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 42 2021

FSUOGM ENERGY TRANSITION FSUOGM

Russia to become carbon

neutral by 2060

RUSSIA RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin set the goal And Russia’s upping its game is important
of carbon neutrality by 2060 during comments for the global drive to contain emissions growth.
"Russia is ready for in his speech at the plenary session of Russia’s Analysis by climate science website Carbon
such constructive and Energy Week on October 13. Brief named Russia as one of the countries most
close co-operation," "Russia in practice will strive for carbon neu- responsible for global warming. The research
Putin said. trality of its economy," he told delegates. "And we shows that Russia has contributed 6.9% of the
set a benchmark for this – no later than 2060." world’s CO2 emissions since 1850. When pre-in-
"The planet needs informed, responsible dustrial emissions are factored in, that makes
actions by all market participants – both produc- Russia the third-biggest producer of CO2 his-
ers and consumers – focused on the long term, in torically, behind the US and China.
the interests of the sustainable development of all Putin’s comments represent a significant
our countries," Putin said. hardening of Russia’s position on emissions, as
"Russia is ready for such constructive and only a week ago the Ministry of Economy was
close co-operation," he added, as cited by the flip-flopping on neutrality and said it was not
Moscow Times. under consideration.
Putin’s announcement brings to an end con- As part of the new plan the share of renewa-
siderable confusion and contradictory state- bles is set to increase greatly. Part of the plan is
ments coming out of the Kremlin in recent also to reduce emissions through absorbing CO2
months on just how tough the Kremlin was going by doubling the area of forest density through
to be in the climate fight, as bne IntelliNews has planting. Russia is already home to the world’s
been reporting. biggest forests.
Russia has introduced a new long-term The Paris Accords suggest that countries cut
energy strategy and is taking the problem of CO2 emissions by 30% from the levels of 2005.
climate change increasingly seriously after the In Russia's case it was emitting 1,734mn tonnes
country was plagued by floods and massive for- of CO2 emissions per year (mtCO2/yr) in 2005,
est fires this summer. The temperatures are rising however, the Kremlin has set 1990 as the base
two and half times faster in Russia, the president when it was emitting 2,397 mtCO2/yr – a much
noted, and even faster in the Arctic. As bne higher bar and way above what Russia is emitting
IntelliNews reported, Russia’s permafrost is melt- today.
ing and could do a trillion dollars of damage to A 30% reduction from the 1990 level would
cities and energy infrastructure in those regions allow Russia to produce 1,678 mtCO2/yr, which
that cover a third of the country’s territory. is only slightly less than the 1,765 mtCO2/yr it
The new energy strategy takes account of the was producing in 2017. However, if 2005 were set
shift towards renewable energy and “the role of as the benchmark year then Russia would have
oil and coal will decrease,” Putin observed. to reduce its CO2 emissions by a third from the
Criticised for being slow to grasp the net- current levels, or by a hefty 550 mtCO2/yr.
tle, Russia set itself easy targets after it adopted Russia’s forests offset its CO2 emissions and
the Paris Accords in 2019, as bne IntelliNews absorb approximately 635 mtCO2/yr. Russia
reported in an overview of Russia’s emissions, accounts for 70% of the world’s boreal forests and
and plans to reduce them. 25% of the world's entire forest resources. The
With abundant oil and gas reserves Russia area of Russian forests has increased by 4.3mn
has been slow to invest into renewable energy. hectares over the past 10 years – equivalent to
Moreover, with abundant nuclear and hydro- the size of Denmark – after falling for years due
power resources, neither of which emit CO2, to two decades of illegal and unregulated logging
there has been even less interest in investing into operations.
wind and solar. Deputy Minister of Energy Evgeny Grabchak
But the government ratcheted up its game said that the Ministry of Energy forecasts that
in June when Putin ordered it to come up with under Russia’s increasingly serious green deal
plans to emit less CO2 than the Europe by 2050, the updated energy strategy predicts that elec-
when the EU aims to become carbon-neutral tricity demand will grow 24% by 2035 compared
under its Green Deal. to 2020, and 43% by 2050.
Putin’s call to become carbon neutral by 2060 In 2035 the electricity generation split is
is new, as the previous plans were for Russia’s expected to be 19.8% hydropower, 23% nuclear
emissions to increase modestly before dropping power, 4.5% renewables and 40% gas (with a
to net zero some 80 years from now, according 9.5% contribution from coal), according to
to Katie Ross at the World Resources Institute, as Grabchak. By 2050, this is to be 19% for HPP,
cited by the Moscow Times. 24% for NPP, 12.5% for renewables, 43% for gas

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