{"id":49916,"date":"2024-03-12T13:41:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T13:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=49916"},"modified":"2024-03-12T14:15:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T14:15:58","slug":"despite-putin-promises-russias-emissions-keep-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2024\/03\/12\/despite-putin-promises-russias-emissions-keep-rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Putin promises, Russia’s emissions keep rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Citizens of the world\u2019s fourth-largest emitting country are heading to the polls from March 15-17 in an election that is certain to guarantee Russian President Vladimir Putin another six years in office – and unlikely to help curb his country’s carbon pollution.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early in his rule, Putin joked<\/a> that 2-3C of warming might be good for Russia as its people would “spend less on fur coats”.<\/span><\/p>\n

But more recently he has warned<\/a> against rising temperatures, in 2015 calling planetary heating an \u201cissue that shall affect the future of the entire humankind”.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and get Russia to net zero – balancing any carbon emissions it puts out with CO2 absorption through forests or other solutions – by 2060.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fossil fuel firms seek UN carbon market cash for old gas plants<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But despite these pledges, Russia’s emissions have kept on rising, and its gas-heavy electricity mix has barely changed in Putin’s 24 years in power.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Mikhail Korostikov, a Russian analyst at Climate Bonds Initiative, an organisation that promotes low-carbon investment, told Climate Home that Putin \u201cclearly does not [care about climate change]. It\u2019s absent from his worldview. It\u2019s not part of his agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Misleading baseline<\/h3>\n

Shortly before the world adopted the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming in 2015, Putin <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> that Russia would cut emissions by 25-30% below 1990 levels by 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the Paris pact, countries are supposed to increase the ambition of their climate plans every five years. So in 2020, Putin raised the goal to a reduction of at least 30%. The next year, he said Russia would reach net zero by 2060.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the 2030 target is less ambitious than it seems. Like most Soviet countries, Russia\u2019s emissions plummeted in the early 1990s as the\u00a0 Soviet Union broke up and the economy tanked. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the late 1990s, when Putin came to power, emissions were already 25% below their 1990 levels.<\/span><\/p>\n