“Less Money for Fur Coats”
Ignorance and Arrogance in Russian Climate Policy
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
There was one good thing about the collapse of the Soviet economy: Afterwards, Russia was able to produce an excellent climate record, because greenhouse gas emis-sions fell dramatically. But it cannot be said that Russia is a paragon of virtue in climate policy. After the United States and China, Russia is the world’s third-largest producer of greenhouse gases; the national economy is extremely energy intensive and produces more CO2 than hardly anybody else. In politics and society, knowledge about climate change is astonishingly poor. The myth that Russia profits from climate change is wide-spread. The negative consequences and material costs are already to be felt today. One of the central international challenges is to win over Russia as an active partner for global climate protection.
(Osteuropa 4-5/2008, pp. 217–236)