Russian industry giants commit to climate change action

As a part of preparations for the Paris Climate Conference large Russian companies signed the commitment to join efforts in order to reduce the impact on the climate and shift to a low carbon economy by creating the ‘Climate partnership of Russia’.  

RusAl, RusHydro, Sberbank, Rosnano and Ingosstrakh are among the signatories. According to their joint statement, this step demonstrates support for action on climate change and the conclusion of a unified and legally binding climate change agreement in Paris that takes a strong step forward toward a low-carbon, sustainable future.

The companies also called for the provision of equal conditions in the international market and the use of effective tools to stimulate the transition to a low-carbon business development.

"On behalf of Russian companies that have signed this letter, we appeal to all participants of the international negotiation process. We call for a legally binding agreement that will allow all countries to exercise joint responsibility in combating climate change. To ensure the agreement effectiveness, we need a single, universal format for all of the obligations, common mechanisms for the implementation of these commitments, as well as comprehensive monitoring of obligations implementation. We reaffirm the need to shift our operations to low-carbon green economy path, we will also strive to ensure that our products meet these standards. We declare that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by combining the efforts of states aimed at the introduction of innovative, nature-like technologies in the field of energy efficiency, industrial application of nano modification of basic materials, increased use of renewable energy sources, " - a joint statement of Russian companies says.

Like many other countries Russia presented its INDC climate commitments which implies the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 25-30% from 1990 levels by 2030, taking into account the absorption capacity of Russian boreal forests. State and business measures will contribute to the development of low-carbon economy an global climate change fight.