While other world leaders have strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris climate accord, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he would not judge.
“Don’t worry, be happy,” Putin said after being asked for his reaction while attending an economic forum in St Petersburg, Russia.
The climate deal does not formally go into effect until 2021, giving nations years to come up with a constructive solution to combating global warming, he said.
For Putin, leader of the world’s biggest crude oil producer and fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, there was plenty to cheer in Trump’s rejection of the agreement painstakingly negotiated by former US president Barack Obama’s administration and signed by 195 nations.
Trump’s move drives another wedge between the US and its traditional European allies, while aligning its stance closer to Russia in boosting fossil fuels while deferring action to curb climate change.
While Putin’s government signed the 2015 Paris accord, he has delayed formally ratifying the agreement for at least two more years.
Russia’s voluntary reduction goals under the deal are among the weakest submitted by any country, potentially allowing it to spew more planet-warming emissions in future years, not less.
Russia pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
That gives Putin lots of wiggle room because the fall of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s triggered the collapse of the country’s centrally planned economy, greatly reducing carbon emissions in subsequent years.
Russia also insisted in its Paris submission that it receives the maximum potential credit for carbon adsorbed out of the atmosphere by Siberia’s vast undeveloped forests.
Under current projections, Russia could step up its carbon emissions and still claim to meet its 2030 goals.
That gives Putin’s government little economic incentive to invest in “green” technologies. There are no utility-scale wind turbines or solar farms in Russia, which — like the US — continues to get most of its electricity from burning fossil fuels.
Vladimir Chuprov, who tracks the Russian energy industry for the environmental group Greenpeace, said Kremlin hardliners would be buoyed by Trump’s decision.
The Russian economy is highly dependent on revenues from oil and gas exports.
“There are no real plans to change the energy balance at all,” Moscow-based Chuprov said. “Trump’s decision signals business as usual.”
While Trump has claimed that evidence of global warming is partly an elaborate hoax, Putin agrees with the overwhelming consensus of scientists that climate change is being driven by man-made carbon emissions.
“Pressure on the ecosystem is increasing and as a result of human action and as a result of natural processes, these questions require deep study, research and analysis,” Putin said on Friday. “It is clear that when working out our politics, our inclusive line of action, we must be responsible and effective.”
Still, Putin lamented that it was still so chilly and rainy in Russia, joking that future responsibility for the impacts of global warming could be pinned on Trump.
“Now we can blame it all on him and US imperialism,” Putin said, laughing. “It’s all their fault.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese