Even Putin Is Now Worried About Climate Change & has dropped its doubts about joining the Paris

[applegrove]

Even Putin Is Now Worried About Climate Change

Russia has dropped its doubts about joining the Paris accords.

By Leonid Bershidsky at Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-09-24/putin-is-finally-worried-about-climate-change?__twitter_impression=true


"SNIP.....

Given how little the Paris accord actually requires countries to do (they’re allowed to determine their own contributions based on the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of this century), Russia doesn’t really have to worry about implementation costs. When it signed the agreement, it promised to keep greenhouse gas emissions to 75% of the 1990 level. That target is easy to meet, after the collapse of Soviet industry in the 1990s. Indeed, on CO2 emissions, Russia is doing better than Germany, not to mention the three bigger emitters – China, India and the U.S.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Russia is doing its bit for the climate today. According to the Climate Action Tracker, a research project backed by the German environment ministry, Russia is one of the world’s laggards. Merely joining the Paris accord as a symbolic step won’t change it; after all, only two major nations – the U.S. and Turkey – haven’t done so yet.

.....


Putin’s decision to stop dithering and join the accord, however, is likely more than a symbolic step: It's a signal of the Kremlin's growing seriousness about the threat. As such, it doesn’t augur well for industry lobbyists, who have objected to the introduction of emissions pricing. Before the end of this year, the Russian parliament expects to see a government draft of a new emissions law, and it’s likely to hold some unpleasant surprises for the energy industry, especially for coal-burning power plants. Russia certainly has room to improve when it comes to emissions reduction. According to the consulting firm Enerdata, it has the second most energy-intensive economy in the world – after neighboring Ukraine.

The Russian government is about to try a climate-related set of goals to reduce the country’s fossil fuel dependence and improve the economy’s energy efficiency. Whether these intentions will lead to a drop in Russian emissions, or simply end up creating another tax on industry, is impossible to predict. But at least the evolution of Putin’s views on climate appears to be going in the right direction. 

......SNIP"

[NCLefty]

1. I saw a Vice special a year or 2 ago about how Russians viewed climate change.

They didn't seem even remotely concerned. In fact, they were happy some of the snow regions would melt so they could get to more oil and more easily move through northern sea lanes because there's less ice.

I have to wonder if he's doing this to make America look worse than Russia to Europe. And whether he actually follows through with the agreement remains to be seen.

This video is a *very* unflattering view of Russia: https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/global-warming-is-increasing-russias-profits-and-pollution/5a565d1f177dd479712cb0d1

[applegrove]

2. Yes. At least Russia doesn't think it is a big joke anymore. I used to sardonically

jest that i was moving to Nova Scotia because the waters would be warmer due to global warming. Actually I was moving for personal safety reasons. Putin seriously seemed to think melted north would be a good thing. It is not. It is just going to speed up mayhem and spread disease and disaster in a way the tundra would not be ready for.

[roamer65]

3. They started to realize the northern destination for 1.5B Chinese will be Siberia.

Hard to export oil and gas when you don’t own it anymore.

[NCLefty]

4. Good point.

[applegrove]

5. Or when the countries you export to hate you because you have not implemented the

Paris Accord.