Russia in the Time of Climate Change

Climate change is profoundly reshaping the global landscape — and no country more so than Russia. Permafrost thaw, infrastructure degradation, methane craters, and extreme weather patterns — wildfires, droughts, and floods — exert a growing force on Russian domestic politics and center-region dynamics, as federal and regional officials shift responsibility to one another for managing the consequences of climate change.

Russia is both a climate victim and a carbon emissions perpetrator. As a global effort begins to transition away from hydrocarbon use, Russia’s leadership faces a stark choice: continue unrelenting oil and gas production or begin diversifying into renewables in response to this shift. Russian energy companies and government officials are uncertain how to proceed as their largest energy export markets demand carbon neutrality in the next 30 years.

Please join the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program for a discussion on Russian climate policy and the effects of climate change on Russia’s strategic future with CSIS’s three Russian Visiting Fellows: Angelina Davydova, environmental journalist and Director of the Bureau of Environmental Information, Georgy Safonov, Director of the Center for Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Associate Professor at the School of World Economy at the Higher School of Economics, and Andrei Semenov, Senior Researcher and Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Perm State University.

The Russian Visiting Fellows Program at CSIS is made possible by the generous support of Carnegie Corporation of New York.