Ruminations: Russia's Taiga, Worth Its Weight In Carbon Offsets

"Russia has twenty percent of global forests, so the international community must be fair in that respect."
"We have the potential to turn them into a massive carbon capture hub."
Alexey Chekunkov, minister for the development of the Russian Far East and Arctic

"The lion’s share of Russia’s plan to cut emissions should be renewable energy, new technology and energy efficiency."
"Additionally, and with very strict criteria, would come forestry development."
Alexey Kokorin, director, climate and energy program, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Russia

"We will need to demonstrate to the international community that calculation of CO₂ absorption in our offset projects is precise, reliable and not a single unit is miscalculated,."
"One mistake, let alone an intentional falsification, and the credibility of our projects may be lost."
Anna Romanovskaya, director, Moscow-based Yu A Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology

Russian President Vladimir Putin and defence minister Sergei Shoigu on holiday in the Siberian taiga, Russia, March 21 2021. Picture: KREMLIN VIA REUTERS/SPUTNIK/ALEXEI DRUZHININ

The world's largest country gographically boasts a truly vast and remote Far East left to the stewardship of bears, wolves and a species of tiger that call it home. But there are plans afoot cooked up in the Kremlin to make practical anti-pollution use of the immense tract of northern forest in a bid to find respectability in the great global battle against climate change by a country that has not to the present distinguished itself particularly through involvement, pledging in good faith to reduce its carbon footprint.

Enter Russia's taiga, an area close to twice the size of India. As the world's biggest energy exporter, one of the globe's largest polluters, Russia is looking to create an entirely different reputation for itself as a global site where carbon offsets can be had for the greater benefit of those countries and their companies seeking to counter their own carbon footprints in a bid for welcome into the greater consortium of nations who take the campaign against global warming seriously.

To that purpose, Russia is in the process of creating a digital platform for the collection of satellite and drone data relating to the C02 absorption capacity of the forests of its vast northern regions. The goal is to transform the forests into a marketplace where companies may offset their carbon footprint in the hope that the plan will reflect well on Moscow ahead of talks later this year at the United Nations where Russia has argued it should be given some respect in climate discussions to reflect the sequestration potential of forests known to hold some 640 billion trees.

Up to the present, the taiga has been inadequately managed. Forest fires in the past two years have been unusually fierce reflecting the capacity of global warming to produce hotter and dryer summers. The proposed system would see companies leasing sections of forest from the government of Russia to allow for the planting of new trees and in the process protecting those already in situ. Should data confirm that the investment made by companies tends to improve C02 absorption, companies could then proceed in the creation of a carbon credit, traded on a digital platform.

West Siberian Taiga, oneearth

Scientists warn that to avoid catastrophic global warming, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut in half globally by this decade's end, and go on to reach zero emissions by the year 2050. Scientists tend not to be too enamoured of carbon offsetting as adding to the solution, but rather distracting from one. An environmental campaign group, Fern, based in Brussels and the United Kingdom, speaks of offseting as being akin to "moving deckchairs while the Titanic sinks".

Not a message that Moscow particularly values, as the country with the weakest climate target of any of its peers in major world economies, particularly since, looking ahead to 2030, it anticipates a slight increase in emissions.