At a meeting with Deputy Prime Ministers, Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Medvedev, restated the commitment to promote ‘new’ energy again. According to Medvedev, “without due attention to the ‘new’ energy we will be hostages of the existing hydrocarbon model.” It is hard to argue with this, but it is not just outside circumstances but also ‘inner’ strife of market participants that hinder the promotion of the energy alternative in Russia.
International experts believe that Russia would be a welcome member of the carbon market, if it changes its pride of unused emissions for modern ambitions.
Mass media all over the world are filled with news that the rate of СО2 in the atmosphere has reached its historical maximum. 97% of global research proves that mankind is to blame for the irreversible climate change, Guardian has reported recently. Environmental NGOs believe that urgent abandonment of fossil fuel in favor of renewable power and energy efficiency can mitigate the consequences of the climate change.
On 8 May the "Transport and Environment" (T&E) federation published results of the study that confirmed expected benefits of the EU Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). The potential price differential between tar sands and conventional oil, resulting from the FQD, would shift investments from tar sands to lower-carbon oil sources, saving the planet up to 19Mt CO2 a year. This is equivalent to removing over 7 million cars from roads every year.
Draft amendments to the Government Decree "On Measures for Implementation of Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol ..." proposed by the Ministry of Nature Resources removes restrictions on issuing emission reductions in an already registered projects. Despite the non-participation of Russia in the second period of the Kyoto Protocol and the absence of new joint implementation projects in this country, business aims to increase the capacity of existing opportunities, and bankers do not deny the emergence of new opportunities for creation of a carbon market.
“The warming, which is a manifestation of the global trend, continues on the territory of the Russian Federation.” This is the conclusion by the authors of the annual report on the Russian climate in 2012. Representatives of environmental organizations emphasize that Russia needed serious climate programs and actions to adapt "climate-sensitive" sectors and regions to changing climate conditions.
Russia does not use its possible reserves of sustainable development. This is the conclusion by analysts of Yale University. According to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Russia is at the 106th place in the sustainability list. The reason is the lack of environmental policy priorities, inadequate forest management system and reliance on abundance of fossil resources.
Russia's Gazprom is in the top twenty "producers" of greenhouse gases in the world. Gazprom takes the fourth place among 347 pollutants in the list of Earth Focus Private Sector Carbon Emissions. According to the authors of the report, this list of top climate polluters shall prompt companies to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Russian climate policy became active lately: the first meeting of the interdepartmental working group on climate change took place, a draft of the Decree of the President of Russian Federation "On the level of greenhouse gas emissions" was published. As part of the BRICS alliance, Russia signed under the intention to develop "green economy". However, these actions cannot be named productive so far.