Russia is one of the largest Countries in the world.  What are they doing to reduce their Carbon footprint?

Russia spans from Europe to Asia

Poor Wikipedia only had carbon emission records for the Soviet Union from 1990-91 and then it was 13.0 tons per capita!

Russia with a population of 143 million will put out a lot of carbon base on the preliminary figures.  Even at 13 tons per capita that would equal 1.859 billion tons.  Add 23 years worth of growth and it’s probably a lot more per capita. Nevertheless, it’s a large number.  Check the link below for a list of all the countries in the worlds carbon emissions!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

So What Are Russia’s Policies?

While researching Russian policies, there really wasn’t much put out by the Russian government, however, The European Environmental Law site I happened on to gives a fairly good run down on what Russias recent policies are. A recent policy paper signed by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in May of 2012, identifies in general terms what Russia would like to implement by the year 2030.

 The EEL stated that, “The document was published on the Kremlin website in Russian language only. We prepared an English translation (see below). Does the policy offer any prospects for a change to the better in Russia under President Putin, who resumed the office of Russia’s President on 7 May 2012?”

Russia in this new Policy release does acknowledge issues with pollution and climate change in their country!

“Interesting in the light of the Russia’s refusal to commit to new obligations in international climate negotiations is that the document admits that “global environmental problems associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and other negative environmental processes” have an impact on Russia and its citizens (point 1). Noteworthy as well are references to the facts that a large percentage of Russia’s urban population is faced with high and even very high air pollution, and that some 100 million hectares are threatened by desertification (point 3). Industrial pollution is to be reduced to a level similar to that “in economically developed countries” (point 13.c).”

So it appears that, as usual, Politics will have an important role to play on any implementation.

Read the entire report at the EEL website;

http://eelcaselaw.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-environmental-policy-adopted-in.html

Where does Vladimir Putin stand on CO2 emissions?

The St. Petersburg Times article from May 3rd of 2012 gives a glimpse of what Russian reporters think about the new policy.

The 2,000 word policy paper indicates the understanding that Russia has towards the environmental degradation that is going on and makes a few proposals…

“Proposals in the wide-ranging document include promoting “environmentally oriented economic growth,” slashing pollution from industry to levels “of other developed countries” and making environmental education a key part of schools’ curriculum.

Businesses may face compulsory environmental impact assessments for new developments, phased introduction of a system of an environmental audit system and a ban on unsorted garbage.

The document offers no estimate of the costs of the transition to higher standards, but says such projects will be financed from federal and regional budgets, as well as public-private partnerships.

Environmentalists have applauded the sentiments, but warned that though the strategy promises much, it offers little detail.”

So the Answer to the Question posed by this blog is “Not Much!”

Sound familiar?

To read the full article go to the following site;

http://www.sptimes.ru/story/35579

So how do the major polluting countries in the world (Australia, the United States, India and Russia) compare?

I believe that they all have “good intentions with poor follow through”.  Each nation acknowledges problems but economics over the past five or six years has stalled any outlay of funds or even proposals for the collection of carbon taxes to use to reduce green house gas emissions. This can only be expected as most nations have been impacted one way or another by the major recession of 2008-10 and are still struggling to get their feet back on the ground

As a matter of fact, recent political news will change the environmental policies of the worst per capital polluting country in the world.  Australia has recently proposed to remove their existing carbon tax and join with the European Union concerning carbon taxes (see link below!).  This reduces the overall effectiveness of the tax and can mean business as usual in the use of fossil fuels!

Australia Contemplates Removing Their Carbon Tax!

The Future Looks Hot Dry and Thirsty