Russia cuts greenhouse gases emissions by 30% over 31 years — legislator

YAKUTSK, September 28. /TASS/. Russia cut the greenhouse gases’ emissions over 31 years by 30%, thus observing fully the Paris Climate Agreement, the State Duma’s Deputy Nikolai Kharitonov said in a presentation at the session Climate Changes: Legislative Base for Adaptation in Sustainable Development at the 3rd Northern Forum in Yakutsk. "The Russian Federation complies fully with the undertaken international obligations," he said. "Being a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a country, which has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, Russia has made the biggest cuts of the so-called greenhouse gases’ emissions. Against the basic year, 1990, the cut has reached about 30%, or if we take into consideration the forests’ absorbing abilities, the figure could be even 50%." Under the Paris Agreement, he continued, Russia must cut the emissions by 70% by 2030. "This is much, and the country undertakes every effort to meet this target," the legislator said. Russia has adopted a legal base to accord interests in the ecology and economy: those are laws on technical regulations, on the environment protection, on industrial security and others. The most costly national project in the country is Ecology - with the budget of more than 4 trillion rubles ($55 billion), he continued. In 2021, Russia has adopted a federal law on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, he said. It is another consequent step towards meeting the international obligations and also a step to protect Russian exporters, who "may suffer from possible manipulations with trans-border carbon fees." The State Duma’s deputy called on experts to focus on mutual recognition of the methods to calculate amounts of greenhouse gases emissions, since Russia had been observing all the undertaken obligations. About forum The 3rd Northern Sustainable Development Forum is underway in Yakutsk. The organizers are the Northern Forum, Yakutia’s government and the North-Eastern Federal University. The first Northern Sustainable Development Forum was organized in Yakutsk in 2019. TASS is the event’s general information partner. Read more