In October 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an updated version of a climate doctrine for Russia, 2023 version (RU), 2009 version (EN), which will be reviewed as part of development of a future state policy.¹

In November, a group of researchers from four Russian universities published their analysis of the mission statements of the top 100 Russian businesses (based on capitalisation) to understand references to environmental concerns, which they have defined as:

company declarations related to nature protection, reduction of greenhouse emissions, etc., that are stated officially but voluntary, i.e., they are not just formal statements required by the national law or the existing policy practices (in other words, these concerns reflect the strategic thoughts of company managers)

Molchanova et al., (2023), nvironmental Concerns of Russian Businesses: Top Company Missions and Climate Change Agenda, Climate, available at https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8040056

They discovered 81 of the 100 available online, some in English as well. They found environmental concerns expressed in businesses across hydrocarbon production, mining, electric energy production, chemical production and transport with the majority in electrical energy and transmission. The researchers found descriptions for caring for nature, production ecologization (including renewable sources and ecological safety), energy efficiency, and ecological standards for areas such as energy, waste management, environmental reporting etc.

Climate change as an issue was not found in any of them but they found priorities which impact and are influenced by climate change under the broader environmental terminology used. The researchers note that these 100 companies have a significant impact on the Russian economy. They make three recommendations to support the climate agenda of Russia over the next decade:

1. Actively include environmental issues in all mission statements.
2. Explicitly include climate change in the mission statements, especially for companies with the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
3. Complete more extensive research to understand the attitudes and motivations of the managers responsible for strategy development, investigating links between economic and environmental development.

Molchanova, T.K., Yashalova, N.N. and Ruban, D.A., 2020. Environmental Concerns of Russian Businesses: Top Company Missions and Climate Change Agenda. Climate, [online] 8(4), p.56. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8040056.

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1. Kremlin (2023), Russia’s new Climate Doctrine approved, Kremlin.ru, available at http://en.kremlin.ru/acts/news/72598