Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 38 2019

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM
Russia signs off on Paris accord, sets easy CO2 target
RUSSIA
THE Russian government has ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement on combating climate change, committing itself to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 70% of 1990 levels by 2030.
While that sounds impressive, the target actually means that Russian can increase its CO2 emissions from current levels and doesn’t have to reduce them at all.
As the chart shows, CO2 emissions peaked in 1990 in the last year of the Soviet Union and the subsequent collapse of the economy in 1991 as the Soviet Union broke up lead to mas- sive fall in CO2 emissions. By choosing 1990 as the benchmark year, Russia has set itself the lowest possible hurdle to clear in order to com- ply with the reduction targets imposed by the Paris Accord.
“The Russian Federation has accepted the Paris Agreement and is becoming a full-fledged participant of this international instrument,” Ruslan Edelgeriev, the president’s climate advi- sor, told the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23.
European Commission figures state that Russia emitted 2.379mn tonnes of CO2 in 1990, falling to 1.589mn tonnes in 1996 before rising to 1.765mn tonnes in 2017.
However, BP’s Statistical Review of Energy reports slightly lower figures, with Russia producing 1.551mn tonnes in 2018, up from 2.235mn tonnes in 1990.
What this means is that Russia has almost already met its target, and needs to do little to meet the 2030 commitments.
“Russia is already playing a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions compared to the 1990 base-line,” Edelgeriev continued.
“Our total emissions over this period have decreased almost by half. This represents 41bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which on the plane- tary scale has allowed [us] to cumulatively hold global warming for an entire year.”
Moscow now has until the end of 2020 to present its new long-term strategy for achieving that goal, said Edelgeriev.
Russia also intends to develop new cleaner technology that will lower emissions and pro- mote renewables energy.
“We have to take account for the fact that the Russian economy is in large part built around carbon-intensive industries,” Edelgeriev said. “Russia needs to become a leader not just in the export of fossil fuels, but also in the export of new technologies and clean energy.”
The government issued a decree to ratify the Paris goals ahead of the New York summit on August 23.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medve- dev said: “The threat of climate change is [the] destruction of the ecological balance, increased risks for successful development of key indus- tries...and most importantly, threat to safety of people living on permafrost and increase of nat- ural disasters.”
Green convert
Given Russia’s unique record in lowering emis- sions, the government’s newfound enthusiasm for climate change and its commitment to the Paris agreement is a political action. The govern- ment actually needs to do little to meet its new Paris targets.
Russia, which is currently the fourth-largest producer of GHGs behind China, India and the US, has lagged behind other countries in worry- ing about climate change.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for his lukewarm attitude to climate change and emissions over the last two decades. How- ever, as Bloomberg reported recently Putin has recently done an about face, not because he has been converted to the dangers of cli- mate change, but because he sees it as a way to increase Russia’s clout on the international stage.
Having said that temperatures in Russia are rising twice as fast as in the rest of the world and Russia has recently suffered a series of envi- ronmental disasters. In summer 2019, Russia suffered from a series of wildfires and floods, prompting the government to discuss seriously for the first time the economic and environmen- tal dangers of rising temperatures.
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