Can Steppe trees grow fast enough to suit international climate agreements?

Researchers from Voronezh reviewed the planned timeframes for carbon absorption / emissions reduction in the Paris climate agreement, which has separate credits for projects lasting 5, 10 and 15 years with some extensions. A common method is to use reforestation together with forestry management to help absorb carbon. They noted that most Reducing Emissions from…

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%…

Soviet and Russian perspectives on geoengineering and climate management

With geoengineering being a hot topic in climate change discussions, Jonathan Oldfield and Marianna Poborezhskaya reviewed the history and current thinking from both Soviet and Russian perspectives. During Soviet history, discussions mirrored other countries about human influence on climate change such as stratospheric sulfur aerosols to mitigate the effect. Even within the 1950s Soviet scientists…

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…

Highway to decomposed organic matter – heavy metals in Central Siberian forests

Mining and potential toxic elements (PTE) causing soil contamination is an internationally researched issue due to the transfer and resilience of the metallic elements in the soil affecting ecosystem health. Metals move from mining dump sites either as airborne elements or through plant root structures into the soil. The researchers studied the Vilyui plain on…

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…

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: