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Climate activists in Glasgow: There used to be no such interest
Photo: Alastair Grant / dpa
Even if Putin himself did not travel to Glasgow - Russia is represented with one of the largest delegations at the UN climate conference.
The country sent 300 representatives, plus observers and journalists.
The preparations have been reported in many Russian media, from the business press to prominent bloggers.
Suddenly the topic of climate change has become very important. For me, who have been traveling to the UN climate negotiations since 2008 and have been writing and teaching about climate change in Russia for many years, this is a big change. There used to be no such interest, there seemed to be too many other, more pressing problems for Russia. Now that has changed.
There are mutliple reasons for this. Some come from outside: For example, the EU's Green Deal and the planned CO₂ levy on imports have sparked the interest of Russian exporters in decarbonisation. But there are also more negative effects of climate change in Russia. Forest fires have been widening for years. Smog from smoldering peat bogs hung over southern Siberia until mid-October. Dust storms raged in Kalmykia and Dagestan. Storms and floods occur regularly in Sochi. Reports of the shrinking ice surface in the Arctic and new craters on the Jamal Peninsula in the north lead many to suspect that "something strange is going on."
Not everyone is aware of the connection with burning fossil fuels. But more and more Russians admit that the climate is changing at all, and that people play an essential role in it. Politicians, celebrities and business people also talk about it more often, emphasizing the risks and the fact that climate change in Russia is happening 2.5 times faster than the world average. Even if they don't talk very often about the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and change the structure of the economy in order to mitigate the change. At the end of September, the government set up special cross-departmental working groups to prepare the economy for a global energy transition.
Of course, the population continues to react more strongly to local environmental problems - waste management, water and air pollution, the disappearance of green spaces. But I can feel that something is changing, especially among the younger generation. There is also the Fridays for Future movement in Russia. However, its members can hardly hold protests on the street, they concentrate on online campaigns. The boys are generally more open to the issues of climate and responsible consumption, to new models of socio-economic development.
Most of my students and young colleagues no longer ask me how one can prove the responsibility of human beings for global climate change - they no longer doubt it, although on state television in some talk shows and reports, climate change as such is still questioned and the issue is dismissed as an international conspiracy.
Instead, they ask: What should Russia do with its economy, which is tied to the extraction and export of fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive goods?