After years of publicly dismissing climate change, President Vladimir Putin is finally prodding officials to take the threat it poses to Russia’s economy more seriously.
The shift in thinking means the Kremlin is likely to come to the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November with proposals to synchronize its efforts to measure carbon emissions with those in Europe, according to four people familiar with the plans.
While the moves hardly amount to the kind of ambitious new emissions-reduction target for Russia that Western capitals were hoping for, it’s a significant step for Putin as the leader of one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon producers, who until recently belittled climate issues.