28.11.2022
Russia defends its climate interests at COP27
Photo by: Christophe Gateau / DPA
On the morning of 20 November 2022, the UN international climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh came to an end. For Russia, the event was a success, believes First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ilya Torosov. The Russian delegation succeeded in defending the principle of non-discrimination of emission reduction technologies, Torosov told Interfax.
An important point in the negotiations was Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which regulates market and non-market mechanisms for implementing measures to combat climate change. Thus, the Russian delegation insisted that climate projects should be evaluated precisely on the basis of results.
“It was important to us that independent assessors would not say, ‘We like this project — renewable energy — and we don’t like this one — capturing CO2 in a polluting factory. So now the assessor will not be able to say, for example because of the political situation, that we no longer consider this type of project climate-friendly. This is the key point that my colleagues and I have been chipping away at,” Ilya Torosov shared.
We also succeeded to achieve mentioning of not only renewable energy sources (RES), but also low-carbon ones in the summit’s final protocol. Some countries insisted that only renewables should be mentioned. For Russia, this is disadvantageous because low-carbon energy sources are available in the country — gas, LNG, hydrogen power and nuclear.
“Everyone has the task of making the energy transition, the transition to green energy sources, as smooth as possible and without losses for economic development. This is what the debate is all about,” the deputy minister said.
In addition, Russia has succeeded in getting forests, which account for 20% of the world’s forests, to be included in its climate projects. The country is now drafting a law on forest-climate projects to regulate this area.
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development had previously said that it was going to promote the withdrawal of low-carbon technologies from sanctions. There were such talks at COP27, but due to disagreements between the countries, the issue was left open for discussion for next year, Torosov confirmed.
Cover photo: Zuma / TASS
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