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Russia Rejects Calls To Tighten CO2 Emissions Targets: ‘Unreasonable’
Climate Change Dispatch / 3h
putin gas pipelineRussia’s climate envoy described a recent global trend towards ambitious new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as an “unreasonable race”, saying Moscow would focus on the commitments it has made so far.
In written responses to questions from Reuters, Ruslan Edelgeriyev also criticized proposals by the European Union to impose carbon taxes on imports, which he characterized as unfairly benefiting a small number of countries.
“Setting new targets every year for a few percent of additional emissions reductions not only raises questions about feasibility but also pushes the whole world into an unreasonable race for numbers, diverting attention from the need for concrete results,” Edelgeriyev said.
“We adhere to all our commitments and advocate for maintaining this fragile consensus.”
Russia, the world’s biggest exporter of natural gas and number two exporter of oil, joined the Paris climate change pact in 2019, which commits countries to set targets every five years to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The latest new targets were due to be announced last year, but that has been put off until later this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists say the world needs to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050 to meet the agreement’s aim of keeping temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.
Russia’s self-imposed target, reiterated last year by President Vladimir Putin, is for its emissions in 2030 to be 30% lower than in 1990.
It has long been on course to exceed that goal easily, due to the massive de-industrialization that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.
Read rest at Reuters
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