Adviser to the President Ruslan Edelgeriyev: Mr President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
Climate change is one of the main challenges facing the world. This conference, given the outcome of the conference in Marrakech in 2016, is a major stage in the implementation of the Paris action plan.
To strengthen mutual trust and attain the goal set out in the Convention and in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, we must respect the universal rules of the Paris Agreement and harmonise our approaches towards its implementation, considering that this agreement has been formulated flexibly to reflect the parties’ opportunities that depend on national conditions. We must work harder to coordinate a common legally binding format for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The reduction of anthropogenic pressure on climate systems calls for the involvement of all states and their consistent efforts to honour their commitments.
Russia’s contribution to the joint efforts to prevent global warming includes systematic and consistent compliance with its obligations. Russia has not simply implemented its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol but has done more than it needed to. In other words, it has not only prevented but considerably reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
We will definitely comply with our voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 75 percent of the 1990 base year figures by 2020.
For the purposes of the Paris Agreement, Russia has submitted data concerning the possible parameters of its commitments. By 2030, we will reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to 70–75 percent of the base year 1990, with the greatest possible regard for the role of forests and their importance in mitigating and adjusting to climate change.
In the 21st century, Russia has severed the connection between economic growth and a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. While Russia’s GDP was growing in 2011–2016, the aggregate greenhouse gas emissions only increased by 0.3 percent.
This goal has been achieved thanks to the technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time increase resource efficiency, including energy.
The introduction of low-impact technologies and high environmental standards, as well as proper consideration of climate change factors, constitutes the basis of our forward looking national development.
Russia is seeking to strengthen its research and technological potential and to promote international cooperation in this field.
An increasing number of Russian businesses are changing their operations to incorporate environmentally friendly principles. They introduce the best available technologies, develop environmental and climate strategies and set targets, and submit corporate reports on their sustainable development activities and on greenhouse gas emissions.
We believe that not only mitigation measures but also efforts to adapt to climate change must become a climate policy priority in both developing and industrialised countries.
In accordance with a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impact of global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, delays in taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will not only increase the unfavourable impact of climate change on natural and socioeconomic systems, but will also affect their ability to adapt to climate change.
The ongoing climate change in Russia can be defined as a warming process that is twice as fast as average global warming.
The current and future climate changes in Russia will have various and widely different effects on the country’s natural and economic systems, as well as the population.
We are preparing a national plan that will formulate the basis for the country’s development in conditions of climate change.
As part of preparations to ratify the Paris Agreement, the Government of Russia has adopted a roadmap that provides for drafting and adopting legal instruments of state regulation of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a long-term strategy of low-emission economic development and a national strategy for adapting the national economy and social sphere to the current and projected climate change.
Much attention is being given at this session to climate financing designed to help developing countries overcome related problems.
Although Russia has not assumed any obligations to provide financial assistance to developing countries under the Convention or the Paris Agreement, we are providing climate financing on a voluntary basis.
This year, the Government of Russia has decided to make voluntary donations to the IPCC’s Trust Fund and Green Climate Fund.
We will be marking 25 years of the Convention in 2019. In this connection, it would be advisable for the Katowice Conference to adopt a set of rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which will move multilateral cooperation that was launched in 1994 to a fundamentally new level with the global involvement of all countries in efforts to mitigate anthropogenic pressure on the climate system.
Thank you.