Morality and Law
Green Transformation: Saving the Planet or Economic Competition?
Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall, Bolshaya Tatarskaya 42, Moscow, Russia
List of speakers

On April 22, the Valdai Club discussed climate change, carbon regulation and the development of hydrogen energy. The discussion, titled Global Greening: A Threat or New Opportunities for Russia and the World? coincided with the online Leaders Summit on Climate Change.

Nuritdin Inamov, Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, identified two components of climate change as a global problem - objective and subjective, saying that the latter were associated with attempts by individual governments to use environmental issues to pursue political objectives other than protecting nature. In this regard, according to him, equal but differentiated responsibility is important. It is impossible to solve the issue of adaptation to climate change at the expense of others. It is in this context that Russia views the attempts of some countries to introduce cross-border carbon regulation, which changes the rules of the game on the go, he stressed.

Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, gave an overview of the Leaders Summit and outlined its agenda, noting that its participants - with the partial exception of the United States - limit themselves to general words and aren’t making clear commitments despite the threat which global warming creates for human civilisation. Speaking about the US position, he pointed to its nationalist aspect. The Biden administration seeks to develop green energy not for environmental reasons, but as part of its competition with China, and this approach has several dangerous aspects.

Nikolay Durmanov, Special Representative for Biological and Environmental Security at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, noted that, contrary to popular belief,  reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone will not solve the problem of global warming. Our atmosphere is warmed by gases trapped in it decades ago. This underscores the particular importance of forestry and agricultural projects aimed at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which are usually underestimated, because Europe does not have much potential in this area. He also emphasised the importance of a global system for measuring the situation with greenhouse gases, which could make it possible to understand who is responsible for emissions and to avoid turning the fight to save the planet into an economic competition.

Christoph Van Agt, Director of Energy Dialogue at the International Energy Forum, highlighted the tremendous historic opportunities associated with the green transformation that opened up in 2020 and expressed hope that the Leaders Summit will lead to greater international climate solidarity. As fossil fuels remain the basic source of energy on Earth, and access to energy is needed no less than the fight against climate change, complex solutions are required, he said. At the moment, there is a large gap between the United Nations development goals and the actual policies of countries, and this gap must be overcome.

Mikhail Kuznetsov, Director of the Federal Autonomous Scientific Institution “Eastern State Planning Centre”, said that climate responsibility is extremely important, regardless of its political and competitive aspects, which inevitably arise when anything is discussed. For Russia, in his opinion, it is important to promote a unifying rather than dividing green agenda at international forums. It is necessary to understand that it is impossible to divide peoples and countries into losers and winners from climate change - its consequences are too unpredictable. In particular, the Arctic looks extremely vulnerable to global warming, and this makes it, like the Russian Far East, a potential testing ground for technology to combat climate change and as a stronghold of green transformation.