Abstract
As the world’s largest fossil fuels exporter, Russia is one of the key countries for addressing global climate change. However, it has never demonstrated any significant ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper applies ideational research methodology to identify the structural differences in economic, political, and social normative contexts between industrialized fossil fuel importing economies and Russia that lead to the fundamental gap in motivations driving decarbonization efforts. Russia is unlikely to replicate the approach to the green transition and climate policy instruments of energy-importing countries. In order to launch decarbonization in Russia, interested stakeholders need to frame climate policies in Russia differently. Specifically, the framing must address the priority of diversification as a means to adapting the national economy to a new green landscape, the combination of diverse channels for decarbonization, the promotion of energy-efficiency, closer attention to climate-related forest projects, and linkage of climate change with other environmental problems. Moreover, considering Russia’s emissions as a part of the global economic system and shifting from a simplistic national focus on GHG emissions reduction would help coordinate policies through dialogue between exporters and importers of fossil fuel energy-intensive goods, which is essential for the global movement towards a net-zero future.
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Within the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, these incentives were eliminated as the Doha Amendment strictly limited the trade in Assigned Amount Units coming from “hot air.”.
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Benjamin Beuerle, Katja Doose, Marianna Poberezhskaya and three anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their constructive comments that helped to improve the initial version of the paper. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Partial financial support was received from the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
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This article belongs to the topical collection “Climate Change in Russia – history, science and politics in global perspectives”, edited by Benjamin Beuerle, Katja Doose, and Marianna Poberezhskaya.
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Makarov, I. Does resource abundance require special approaches to climate policies? The case of Russia. Climatic Change 170, 3 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03280-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03280-0