The environmental/energy Interfax-ERA Rating Agency published the energy efficiency rating of Russian regions. Its leaders became the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, Republic of Tatarstan, City of St. Petersburg, Belgorod and Murmansk Regions and Altay Krai. The ratings show some success stories but as a whole, the energy efficiency programs do not operate in full force and even the leading regions have huge potentials for enhancement of their energy efficiency, representatives of public environmental organizations believe.
The combination of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources will free the economic growth from CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, say the authors of the new World Energy Outlook 2016 report by the International Energy Agency.
The year 2016 has not become a game-changer for renewable energy in Russia, yet it did bring a few things that gave us the reason to be optimistic. Special means of support for RES were promised, several documents that lay the basis for providing subsidies and other incentives to RES were adopted, new facilities have been brought online in Russia’s regions. Now is the time for core changes in Russia’s energy development strategy, say environmental NGOs.
At the UN COP22 Climate Conference in Marrakech, where countries, companies, and coalitions declared the unconditional priority of the green energy, Russia indicated its special way: the medium-term priorities are focused on gas extraction development, enhancement of energy efficiency in the coal and material-intensive industries and also on nuclear power production. 
Extraction of fossil fuels is a direct threat to perdurance of small indigenous peoples all over the world. This theme goes as a red line through all presentations of the representatives of indigenous peoples at the events within the frame of the UN climate negotiations in Marrakech. 
On November 16, at the UN Climate Conference in Marrakech, the annual review on the Climate Change performance Index was presented; the study on the climate policies and actions of states was carried out by the Germanwatch Organization with participation of more than two hundred experts from various countries including experts from the Climate Secretariat of the Russian Social and Ecological Union. According to the review, Russia has preserved its “non-honorable” 53rd place.
Observers and participants of the Climate Conference of the UN FCCC (СОР22) in Marrakech (Morocco) articulate their expectations. Representatives of public environmental organizations push for the global community to abandon hazardous and risky projects and provide support to the development of well-tried low-carbon technologies. 
Every day one can hear the theme of renewable energy (RESs) at the negotiations in Marrakech. Two years of crashing prices for oil, natural gas, and coal triggered dramatic downsizing in those industries, while renewables have been thriving. Clean energy investments broke new records in 2015 and is now seeing twice as much global funding as fossil fuels. 
In the days of the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (СОР22), a “Clean Energy” conference took place in St. Petersburg. It was dedicated to the issues of energy and sustainable development, balance of business interests and preservation of natural resources.