Putin proposes at the climate summit international cooperation to control all emissions

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday proposed establishing broad and effective international cooperation to calculate and monitor all emissions harmful to the atmosphere, in order to better fight climate change.

“All the factors that cause global warming must be taken into account. For example, methane accounts for 20% of anthropogenic emissions. And each ton creates a greenhouse gas effect between twenty-five and twenty-eight times greater than a ton of _CO2,” Putin said during the Leaders’ Summit on Climate.

The Russian president has indicated that, if in the next thirty years it were possible to reduce methane emissions by 50%, then, according to experts, the global temperature would be reduced by 0.18 degrees until 2050.

“Comprehensive and effective international cooperation”

For all these reasons, he said, “it would be very important to establish broad and effective international cooperation to calculate and monitor all types of emissions harmful to the atmosphere.”

The Russian president has further maintained that it is no longer enough to talk only about the volumes of new _CO2 emissions, but also about the absorption of carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere.

Putin has assured that Russia contributes “in a colossal way” to the absorption of global emissions, both its own and those of others, given the absorption capacity of its ecosystems, which is estimated at 2,500 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

Bridging the gap between countries

Putin stressed that global development should not only be “green”, but also sustainable in all countries without exception, so it “must go hand in hand with progress in such important areas as the fight against poverty and reducing gaps between countries”.

The Russian president has said that Russia is willing to consider possible “benefits even for foreign companies that would like to invest in clean technologies, also in Russia.”

In addition, Putin recalled that he wants greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced in Russia in the next thirty years to levels below those of the European Union (EU), which has set itself the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050 and achieving a net reduction in emissions of “at least 55%” by 2030.

“Despite the size of Russia, the peculiarities of its geography, climate and economic structure, this task, I am sure, is achievable,” Putin said.

Reduction from 3,100 to 1,600 tons

The Russian leader stresses that, compared to 1990 levels, Russia has reduced greenhouse gas emissions “to a greater extent than many other countries”, by lowering them from 3.1 billion tons of _CO2 equivalent to 1.6 billion tons.

“As a result, now 45% of our energy basket is made up of low-emission energy sources, including nuclear,” Putin said.

“I would like to stress once again that Russia is sincerely interested in intensifying international cooperation in order to continue the search for effective solutions to the problem of climate change, as indeed to all other major world problems,” Putin said.

The Russian president also invited interested countries to join common scientific research, jointly invest in major climate projects and become more actively involved in the development of low-carbon technologies to mitigate climate change.

Source: The Newspaper