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…

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…

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…

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…

Space-Time irregularities in the Siberian troposphere

Air circulation in Russia has been changing in particular the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) influence, affected by global temperature increases. Extreme weather in 2020 produced 372 events causing significant damage to Russia’s economy and population.1 Regional climate changes have greater space-time irregularities most commonly surface air temperatures rising faster in high latitudes. However this changes…

What is lurking in Svalbard’s waters?

Researchers looked at marine biodiversity in Arctic waters near Svalbard, in particular the marine ecosystems in the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait region. In the lower benthic layers of the waters, there are greater biodiversity of e.g. zooplankton and fish species. There is a mix of warmer and saltier Atlantic water and colder Arctic…

Understanding climate politics in Central Asia – interview with Alina Bychkova

Alina Bychkova has nearly completed her PhD thesis ‘Understanding climate change narratives in Central Asia: science, politics and media discussions’ at Nottingham Trent University. She co-published ‘Kazakhstan’s climate change policy: reflecting national strength, green economy aspirations and international agenda’, Post-Communist Economies,34:7,894-915,DOI: 10.1080/14631377.2021.1943916 What is your PHD and how is it going? My PhD is in…

Digging deeper and deeper into the Lake Chany basin

Lake Chany in Western Siberia has historically been a shallow lake, approximately 2 metres deep and a 2.2 thousand km2 area. It is saline which is similar to other lakes in the region due to intensive evaporation after rain and run off. This theoretically increases the affect of climate change in water levels and surrounding…