How Krasnoyarsk could transition from coal to pellet heating

Coal has been used as a primary energy fuel across Siberia but in recent years this has been changing. Finding an optimum balance between transitioning from coal, increasing production of wood pellets but not at the expense of reducing carbon sequestration is an ongoing challenge. In 2012 the national Ecology project launched a range of…

Power, law and sustainability amongst indigenous socioecological communities in Russia and Thailand

The researchers define an indigenous socioecological system as: a linked system of “people and nature” [1] that encompasses the interactions between Indigenous peoples and their local surrounding environment [2,3]. It includes naturalresources such as water, land, and wildlife, which these people depend on. This alsoencompasses the spiritual and cultural aspects attached to these resources. Sakapaji,…

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…

What is in defrosted Russian Arctic ice?

Carbon deposits in thawing permafrost include widely reported methane gases released as bubbles and present in craters across Siberia. Scientists wanted to find out more about the greenhouse emissions and what was in the defrosted ground ice including dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM). They studied four locations across the Russian arctic…

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…

Is climate change affecting buffalo treehoppers?

There were 213 records between 2017 and 2023. Originating from North America, they appeared in Europe in 20th century including Russia in the second half of the century. They are usually found in summer and early autumn. Russian researchers wanted to review the impact of climate change on their species distribution across Russian wood and…

Inspecting climate, chlorine and carcinogens in southern Baikal’s water

248,000 water samples between 2011 and 2022 were recently investigated by researchers at the East-Siberian Institute of Medical and Ecological Research, in Angarsk. Lake Baikal is the world’s largest freshwater lake. It is a UNESCO protected site, also protected in Russian national legislation. Chemical engineering and agro-industrial sites in the region also access the water,…

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…

Cuckoo clocks ahead of time in Tatarstan

Climate change continues to affects birds and plants, changing resource availability. This is causing problems for both the common and oriental cuckoos. Ornithologists in Kazan, Tatarstan completed research over a 1200km2 area between 1988 – 2023. The sub-taiga area includes forests, farms, lakes, rivers and other human settlements. They recorded arrival times, visual and audio…

Climate Change and organic carbon in Rostov soils

Research has shown that there is an accumulation limit for organic carbon in Chernozem (black) soils, resulting in carbon emissions once that limit has been reached. Agricultural management practices can include crop rotation, fallowing, residue management and fertilisation to counter the less carbon-rich soils as they arise. The researchers previously studied a 40 year period…