Russia is more vulnerable than most countries in the world to higher temperatures, said the head of RUSNANO Anatoly Chubais. According to him, the rate of warming in the Russian Federation is 2.5 times higher than the average in the world, and this poses a threat to regions with permafrost. As an example, the entrepreneur cited a technological accident in Norilsk and drew attention to the peculiarities of the construction of buildings in Yakutsk.
“In Russia, not only does the temperature rise faster than in the world, but Russia is more vulnerable than most countries in the world to a rise in temperature. It would seem why? Well it was cold in winter, it will get warmer. We have no deserts in Russia. It is not very clear why. But nevertheless it is a fact. The fact is that two-thirds of the territory in Russia is permafrost ", - said Chubais during his speech at the international corporate forum "Horizons".
The head of RUSNANO stressed the importance not only of Russia's accession to the Paris Climate Agreement, but also its consistent and widespread implementation. “The most important document was adopted last December [2019] year, this is the national action plan for its implementation. This is an informal, and from my point of view, a real working document, which, by the way, recognizes the over-relevance of this problem for Russia, and it says that the growth rate of temperature rise in Russia is two and a half times higher than the world average. ", - he clarified.
Chubais cited Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha Republic, as an example of possible problems that warming could cause. In this city, according to him, the buildings are built on piles that "are frozen into the permafrost." “Only further this permafrost begins to thaw. These are whole cities. The entire infrastructure, from gas pipelines to highways, is also there,” - added the entrepreneur.
The head of Rusnano also recalled the accident at the TPP-3 in Norilsk, where a diesel fuel storage tank was damaged due to subsidence of the supports. As a result, there was a leak of oil products. The rivers turned out to be more than 20 thousand tons of diesel fuel on an area of about 350 square meters. Rosprirodnadzor has estimated the damage to the environment at almost 148 billion rubles.
“There is no exact reason there yet, I mean the leakage of diesel fuel at the CHPP, or rather not even a leak, but actually the destruction of the storage facility itself. I am convinced that the reason, of course, is related to the thawing of the permafrost, and in this sense this is not a special case, it is, rather, on the contrary, the beginning of a process that is very dramatic for us,” - he summed up.
At the end of August, the Deputy Head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that the introduction of the EU carbon tax from 2025 pursues not so much climate as political goals and is "hidden protectionism" of goods in the Western market. According to the politician, in this case, the competitiveness of Russian exports will decrease, due to which the Russian economy may lose “billions of euros”. Medvedev promised that Moscow in this situation will support domestic producers, including through "measures of external response."
The introduction of a carbon tax on imports of goods is one of the measures proposed at the end of 2019 by the European Commission as part of the Green Deal project. Its goal is a more "green" life in the EU countries. It is also envisioned that Europe should fully transition to a carbon-free economy by 2050.
