BRICS and global climate governance

[Ed. The article was authored by Turkish researchers but is relevant to discussion of climate change sciences in Russia] They wanted to understand more about the developing role of BRICS during international negotiations and dialogues. BRICS nations have recently developed some policy convergence around climate change based on their economies, emissions and resources. For example,…

Ice jams and models along the Volga river

Ice is one of the leading causes of damage to infrastructure from water factors including flooding, ice blockages and hanging ice: In 2020, The Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) recorded 1,000 dangerous hydrometeorological phenomena in Russia (97 phenomena more than in 2019), of which 372 phenomena caused significant damage to critical…

Surfing the Russian coast – an atlas of wind and wave energy

Russia’s coastline includes seas and oceans stretching along 40,000 km. Wave energy varies between 29kW/M – 35 kW/M (Myslenkov et al., 2023) The researchers investigated on and offline mapping and methodologies forecasting wind and wave movements. They developed an open-access atlas so that anyone can get updated wind and wave information. This is now available…

Predicting carbon friendly and investment friendly climates in Russia

Between 1990 and 2019, Russia had halved its GHG emissions, with 2019 emissions at 2.1 GtCO2e with carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted during energy consumption representing the bulk, alongside methane CH4 from oil and gas infrastructure, waste and nitrous oxide (NO) from agriculture. As previously mentioned, Russia’s energy mix includes natural gas, nuclear, some coal, oil…

Klimat: Russia in the age of climate change

Book review by Marianna Poberezhskaya who describes it as as a ‘must read’ for anyone who wants to understand exactly what drives Russia’s emissions (and therefore, how they can be contained) as well as the fundamentals of Russia’s economy and its current inner politics (including informal and formal arrangements impacting key state decisions). Following the…

How West Siberia’s atmosphere may help prevent anti-microbial resistance

Russian scientists have been studying proteins and particles in atmosphere aerosols for over 20 years. Generally, microorganisms over marshlands are less well studied. The researchers wanted to investigate bioaerosols in the atmosphere over Vasyugan marshes in Siberia, approximately 52,000 km2. They wanted to measure the concentration of proteins and culturable microorganisms. The mix of forest,…

Exploring the ‘carbon polygon’ of Ladoga

Sustainable soil management (SSM) initiatives review organic matter in soil and carbon sequestration to understand how best to mitigate carbon and methane emissions, improving mitigation of climate change. In Russia, the government established a ‘Carbon Polygons’ project assessing and monitoring carbon in different ecosystems and biomes, especially boreal forest regions. The researchers wanted to assess…

Arctic Science Diplomacy webinar recording

The Arctic Institute is a Washington based NGO. A recent article by Pavel Deyatkin summarises their view about cooperation prospects. The webinar was then streamed. Recording:

Measuring methane from the Russian Arctic shelf

CO2 (carbon dioxide) are widely publicised but CH4 (methane) emissions are less known. These more potent methane emissions in the atmosphere are also caused by either natural or anthropogenic sources. When oxidised, CH4 leads to the formation of CO2 emissions in atmospheric ozone. Studies of land and water sources of emissions are more widely known….

Economic vs climate strategy face-off in the Russian Arctic

Russian climate doctrine and strategy include climate change as one of the biggest 21st century challenges especially socio-economic development of the Arctic region with both opportunities and risks (Drachkova et al., 2023, Kremlin, 2020). The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other areas with reduced snow cover, reduced permafrost, increased precipitation. Sea ice is…