Putin touts Russia's CO2 absorption potential
Russian president Vladimir Putin took the opportunity of the US-hosted Leaders Summit on Climate on April 22 to promote the CO2 absorption potential of Russia's forests.
"It is not enough to tackle the issue of new emissions. It is also important to take up the task of absorbing the CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere," he said in a speech. "Russia makes a gigantic contribution to absorbing global emissions owing to the great absorption capacities of our ecosystems that are estimated at around 2.5bn tons of CO2 emissions per annum."
Russia has some 815mn hectares of forest land, according to UN estimates, which is more than any other country. The government has recently talked up prospects for using the vast Taiga and Russia's other large forests as commercial carbon sinks. Forestation initiatives in Russia could earn internationally-recognised carbon certificates, which both domestic and foreign businesses could then purchase to cover unavoidable emissions, to make their activities carbon neutral.
Russian authorities are planning to lease areas of the Taiga to businesses for planting trees and protecting existing woodland, in order to generate certificates, the minister for the development of the Far East and the Arctic, Alexei Chekunkov, announced in March. The government is also creating a digital platform to collect satellite and drone data about forests' CO2 absorption capacity.
"Russia accounts for 20% of the world's forests...we have the opportunity to turn them into a large carbon sequestration centre," he told reporters.
Modest goals
Putin also noted that Russia had nearly halved its annual greenhouse gas emissions from 3.1bn to 1.6bn mt since 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union. "This was possible because of a fundamental restructuring of our industry and energy that has been underway for the last two decades," he said.
Russia has already surpassed its Paris Agreement commitments, helping to explain why its government does not envisage any significant changes to its energy mix in the coming decades. Russia met 54% of its primary energy demand with natural gas in 2019, as well as 20% from oil, 15% from coal, 7% from nuclear and 3% from hydropower, other renewable sources of power and bioenergy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts in its Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), which reflects existing climate policies, that gas will retain the same 54% share in Russia's mix in two decades’ time. Oil will command an 18% share, coal 12%, nuclear 8% and hydroelectric, other renewables and bioenergy some 8%.
Russia remains the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. But while the EU plans to reduce its net emissions by 55% by 2030 versus the 1990 baseline and bring them to net zero by 2050, Russia's goals are far more modest. Putin ordered the government to strive towards achieving a 30% cut in emissions by 2030 compared with 1990, which would actually allow for a rise in emissions from the current level. Moscow does not envisage reaching net zero before nearly the end of the century.
Addressing methane emissions will be key for keeping global temperature growth in check, Putin said. Russia will look to scale back its emissions by improving energy efficiency, using carbon capture and storage and developing hydrogen, the leader said. It has also launched a pilot project in the Far Eastern Sakhalin region for creating a carbon pricing and trading system. "This project will allow this Russian region to become carbon neutral as soon as by 2025," he said.
Hydrogen ambitions
Russia is also eager to establish itself as a major hydrogen exporter, taking advantage of its abundant natural gas resources and its untapped renewable energy potential, as well as its proximity to markets for the fuel in Asia and Europe. The government wants to create four main hubs for producing and exporting hydrogen, Konstantin Grebennik, project director for the energy ministry's analytics centre told a conference in Moscow on April 20.
Hubs in the northwest Leningrad region and the southwest of Russia would supply hydrogen to Europe, and provide volumes for domestic transport, power generation and energy-intensive industry. The hydrogen in Leningrad would be produced from Siberian gas passing on route to Europe, while hydrogen in the southwest would be created from water using renewable energy. Many of Russia's solar power plants are situated in that region.
Another hydrogen cluster would be established on Sakhalin Island, to target Japan, South Korea and other Asian markets, while the final one will be spread along Russia's Arctic coast, primarily in Murmansk, Yamalo-Nenets and Kamchatka. In Murmansk, the fuel would be produced from water using wind power.