“Unfortunately, Putin will not fly to Glasgow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. Nevertheless, climate change is “one of the most important priorities of our foreign policy”.
Russia will still be represented
The heads of state and government of numerous countries will meet in November for the climate summit in Glasgow. Experts see the meeting as a “last chance” to prevent catastrophic global warming. Peskov said Russia would be represented at the summit, but did not provide any further details.
Russia is the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and one of the largest oil and gas producers. Putin, who had long questioned man-made climate change, has adopted a different tone in the past few months.
Russia plans carbon neutrality by 2060
In mid-October he announced that Moscow would strive for so-called carbon dioxide neutrality by 2060 at the latest. Carbon dioxide neutrality means that a country does not emit more quantities of the climate-damaging gas than can be offset by forests and other natural reservoirs.