MOSCOW, Nov 5 The energy crisis in Europe will not affect long-term plans to combat climate change, climate scientist Alexei Kokorin said.
Last year, at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, about 50 countries signed an agreement on a phased transition from coal to clean energy. This year the UN climate conference is being held in Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November.
«It was written in the Glasgow decision that countries are taking efforts to move away from coal — they do not stop, but gradually reduce their use. The distance from the movement to carbon neutrality was also written there — this is 30, 50 or more years. If in some year the trend in general, the opposite, it’s okay – you can catch up later,” the climatologist said.
According to him, the energy crisis of a “specific year” will not affect the long-term plans of states to combat climate change.
«Here is the mechanism for sustainable development of the Paris Agreement. There is an opportunity to make projects. What? Any. No restrictions, technologies will be discussed there at all. It is the decision of each of the parties, what it does within the country. At the international level, no restrictions are set either» , the climatologist stressed.
In addition, Kokorin believes that at the upcoming conference, which is being held in Egypt this year, the topic of the energy crisis in Europe will not be so relevant.
«You see, there is no energy crisis in Africa, they rather food crisis, and it has been going on for more than a year. This is a difficult problem, much harder than even the climate, because people are dying of hunger there. They would rather talk about it,» the expert said.
The Paris climate agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015 following the 21st Conference of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris. The document was signed by 175 countries, including Russia. On September 23, 2019, then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government decree on the adoption of the Paris climate agreement.
For the first time in history, the elaborated climate agreement united the efforts of all world powers to curb climate change.