Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 10/2012

A Climate Vision for Russia: From Rhetoric to Action

Adnan Vatansever, Anna Korppoo

August 2012

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

Regardless of many benefits available to Russia from adopting a more practical approach to climate mitigation, the country remains on the outskirts of the international climate policy debate—an important element of foreign policy in this decade. Russian leaders tend to point to the post-Soviet decline of Russia’s greenhouse gas emissions as a major contribution to global climate mitigation efforts. Yet, because the country’s carbon intensity remains very high, that stance undermines Russia’s role as a serious global climate actor.