Decarbonizing Russia: Lessons from global carbon pricing practices

Abstract Climate change mitigation increasingly relies on carbon pricing as a core policy tool. This study investigates the applicability of such mechanisms within the Russian context, given the country’s heavy fossil fuel dependence and evolving energy landscape. A mixed-method approach is used, combining case studies (EU ETS, Nordic carbon taxes, Sakhalin pilot) with scenario modeling based…

Climate influence on Russian floods, fuel, forestry and more

Impacts from the annual Arctic 0.5°C increase continue to generate discussion and modelling within the Russian economic community. The researchers wanted to holistically assess the macroeconomic effects of climate change on the Russian economy, using the latest data. They used “a change in Russia’s annual GDP with an increase in the average annual temperature by…

Decarbonising economies – Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, India

All six countries have strategies towards achieving carbon neutrality. The researchers report that they have 44% of global population, 39.2% global GDP, 44.8% primary energy consumption and 49% global CO2 emissions. They note that different views on economic development and energy transition affect an overall international climate outlook from agreements such as Paris 2015. They…

Remotely sensing methane over Tatarstan between 2019-23

Tatarstan is in the centre of European Russia, with an area of 67.8km2, and 4 million human population. 90% of the region is no more than 200m above sea level, mostly forest and forest-steppe with deciduous and coniferous trees. It has over 500 rivers, including Volga, Kama and over 8000 lakes and ponds. It is…

Implementing green finance in Russia

A new study suggests implementing a regulatory framework and strategy to encourage the development of green financing in Russia. The researchers suggest that green financing initiatives can help implement costly environmental projects, using mechanisms to support the national ‘Ecology’ project. Using data from Rosstat, they found that sustainable finance is approximately $2 billion, and 0.18%…

Climate concerns of Russian businesses

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…

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…

Great Norilsk Expedition results in 2023

In 2020, scientists from across 14 branches of the Russian Academy of Sciences began the expedition in Taymyr. They are assessing the state of Arctic ecosystems in the area. Early results of impacts on Arctic waters, via TASS and the Institute of Biophysics (EN) at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB-RAS);…

Bring me sunshine – solar energy pioneering clean energy transition in Russia

Boute and Zhikharev analysed clean energy transition in Russia. They argue that the recent development of the solar energy industry in the country dependent on traditional energy sources is caused by the vested interests of the producers. They looked at the competition between renewable energy sources under the Russian subsidyscheme and found that the manufacturing…