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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir V. Putin will not attend a meeting United Nations climate summit The Kremlin said on Wednesday that this month is viewed as crucial for reducing emissions of planet-warming gases, but could hold a speech via video link.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, did not announce the decision regarding the summit in Glasgow, but emphasized: climate change stayed high Russia’s agenda. “The issues to be discussed in Glasgow at the moment constitute one of the priorities of our foreign policy,” Peskov said.
A Russian delegation is expected to go to Scotland for the conference.
Mr Putin, a speech energy conference Last week in Moscow, he said he was reluctant to attend because of the risk of spreading the coronavirus. He said his circle would include about a hundred people and travel would pose a risk. Mr Putin, who has a vaccine, had to isolate in September after exposure to the virus.
Russia is the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but appears to be keeping up with its pollution prevention policies. It is also a major exporter of oil, coal and natural gas, the fossil fuels that are the main culprits of climate change. Mr. Putin has argued that some policies aimed at slowing climate change are actually aimed at hurting Russia’s energy exports.
The country has participated in past efforts to control emissions, most recently committing in 2015 to keep climate warming pollution below the levels it spread in 1990. But due to the industrial collapse that followed the end of the Soviet Union, Russia already made fewer emissions in 2015 than in 1990. The commitment has done little to reduce global greenhouse gas pollution.
Last week, Mr. Putin announced a new plan. Russia will be carbon neutral by 2060. The plan suggests that Russia should be given more credit for the carbon absorbed by the country’s vast forests in Siberia, and that this absorption could be increased through new forest management practices, such as tackling wildfires more aggressively.
Chinese officials have not confirmed whether China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, will attend the event. But if it did, it would probably be remote; Mr. Xi has not left the country in public since Covid-19, which spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan in January 2020.
Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate negotiator, told Reuters He said on Tuesday that global climate officials will have to wait for approval from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and “we’ll only tell you after they make a statement.”
The Chinese government otherwise openly supported the COP26 efforts and supported some of its own climate goals, including the plans. reduce emissions and stop building new coal-fired projects abroad. In September, Han Zheng, a Chinese vice premier, held a virtual meeting He met with British cabinet minister Alok Sharma, the presidential candidate at COP26, and said the summit would “send a strong political signal”. an account in the state media.
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