WHY RUSSIA’S CLIMATE POLICY MATTERS
Global temperatures have to be kept from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a potentially dangerous level of warming according to international consensus among climate scientists. Achieving that target requires taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Understandably, China and the United States, the world’s two largest emitters, have attracted most of the attention in international climate negotiations. Yet, Russia, the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, following India, has a vastly important role to play. In 2010, it emitted 2,202 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which does not take into account the amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere by Russia’s carbon sinks. Its emissions from fuel combustion alone were greater than all of the emissions by Central and South America.