Putin could miss COP26 climate conference
Vladimir Putin has not decided whether to attend the upcoming COP26 climate conference in Glasgow later this month.
Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, told Andrew Marr that a decision on the president’s trip has “not been taken yet”.
This follows Wednesday’s comments from the Russian premier that he might avoid the conference due to the “pandemic situation”.
The uncertainty surrounding Putin’s potential appearance follows China’s president Xi Jingping’s decision to snub the upcoming summit.
It is a further blow to the UK’s plans to unite the world’s richest countries and heaviest polluters in a more radical climate agenda.
However, Kelin stressed that Russia was taking its obligations to cut carbon emissions seriously and that they will send a large delegation of more than 200 people.
He said, “The government will be represented at a very high level”.
Russia signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2016 alongside nearly 200 countries.
The accords pledge to keep the rise in mean global temperatures below two degrees, and reduce emissions as soon as possible.
The country’s current plans include reaching carbon neutrality by 2060 – the same date as China.
Russia is the fourth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and accounts for approximately five percent of the world’s CO2 emissions.
President of COP26 and minister of state at the cabinet office Alok Sharma wants the G20 nations to commit to limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees.
He said that potentially two billion people could be put at risk of extreme heat waves by the previously agreed two degree rise in the Paris Agreement signed five years ago.