Climate Summit in Glasgow – Wakes up sinner and victim

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There is no country in the world It is at the same time a major polluter and a giant victim of the same pollution that Russia pollutes. As the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world – after China and the US – only the USA emits more greenhouse gases per capita. per capita share. This is despite the fact that Russia has a much lower car density and much less prosperity than the United States. put another way; Nobody is more dense in their nest when it comes to climate than our great neighbor to the East. Russia is arguably the world champion in energy waste.

Until very recently – World champion in denial that climate change is man-made. Until recent years, some of Russia’s leading climate researchers insisted that climate change is part of a natural cycle. How much of this has been politically motivated is speculation. But the alleged scientific denial of climate coincided with a lack of political will to hang the bell on the cat, while acknowledging that climate change is man-made.

Idiot on behalf of the president

So – this – now. Because even if President Vladimir Putin does not attend the Glasgow climate summit that opened on Sunday, he is expected to address the meeting in a video address. There he will certainly repeat his commitment just a few weeks ago that Russia should be emissions-neutral by 2060. The goal is far from ambitious – and absolutely necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change – but it is a quantum leap when it comes to realization. The leap from denial to realization is also a prerequisite for action.

Russia needs action. One thing is the car fleet, which includes three roughly equal classes of cars. The first is a giant diesel-sucking supercharger, running into the millions, even without Norwegian taxes. The other is similar to a regular European fleet of cars. The third consists of cars that emit black exhaust, and would have long ago been separated elsewhere in Europe. Then there’s the heating of homes, schools, and office buildings, from thermal power plants that pump water to radiators through poorly insulated pipes, and the nearly empty gas left by people who can’t afford exorbitant electric bills burns on a stove around the clock to keep them. Heat in their drafts. apartments.

luxury cost

another thing It is the horrific experiences of fires, floods, and thaws of permafrost that have marked the news picture in Russia in recent years. For many years in a row, there have been huge fires in Siberia, and for the first time this year, smoke from fires in the Arctic has been recorded. The small town of Verkhoyansk in eastern Siberia set a heat record a year ago with a frenzy of 38 degrees. But the city also measured the coldest ever measured on the planet, with the exception of Antarctica, at minus 67, 8 degrees Celsius. Thus, the distance between the hottest and the coldest is 106 degrees. No wonder people became naughty by nature, because he was clearly a savage.

You know that very well In large parts of the wide belt of permafrost that runs through eastern and western Russia, embracing the hemisphere. There, temperature changes cause apartment blocks to suddenly stand on a slope, become uninhabitable, oil pipelines crack, and an insane amount of spillage spills into already polluted waterways. Under the people the earth trembles. Yes, more than that, because often the soil itself burns, or the peat in swamps that has so far stored huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Now these gases are released, and in themselves they help to heat the atmosphere.

The epidemic is not over yet

And the third thing Contributing to the new realization is the increased awareness of the natural crises in the Russian leadership. It is, of course, driven by the dramatic news image in Russia and the rest of the world. But it’s also driven by two of Putin’s most modern fanatics. Former Finance Minister German Gref and Anatoly Chubais, who was the privatization general in the 1990s and modernized Putin’s economy, worry that Russian business will be left behind if the green turn is missed.

cognition process On climate issues, it is also driven by the fear of falling into a fossil reality, while the rest of the world turns it green. It’s a Glasgow summit approach which is comforting anyway. Although Putin – who has hitherto been fiercely cynical about the climate – is not the one who wants to take the first or biggest steps toward a green transition. The good news is that he also doesn’t seem to want a brake pad.