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West pressed others at COP26 to ditch emissions, code for abandoning development — Lavrov

Sergey Lavrov noted that the Russian side will continue to consistently work at international platforms "towards a balanced, non-discriminatory approach to the energy transition"

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. The developed countries that have entered the postindustrial stage, obviously attempted to bind others by an obligation to abandon the environmental pollution, which means development as well, at the Glasgow-hosted COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a forum sponsored by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on Tuesday. 

"A desire by developed Western countries that have already reached the postindustrial stage of their economic development, [to get] others to stop polluting, which means stop developing, was evident. The balance between the interests of climate protection, environmental protection and the legitimate interests of the socio-economic development of countries, which are at a much lower level, was key in our position, and as a result, this logic prevailed in Glasgow and is reflected in its decisions," he said.

The Russian side will continue to consistently work at international platforms "towards a balanced, non-discriminatory approach to the energy transition," the minister noted. "We will insist that particularities of all states without exception be fully considered," he concluded.

On November 13, delegates from as many as 200 countries participating in COP26 approved the texts of the final documents of the forum, 24 hours behind the schedule. The adoption of the rules for implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement passed in 2015, was one of the key provisions of the forum’s final documents. The previous forum — COP25 — took place in Madrid in 2019 and collapsed particularly due to the fact that the parties failed to agree on how to implement the Paris Agreement.