YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 28. /TASS/. The formulas for calculating the carbon balance suggested by the European Union do not take into consideration the peculiarities of Russia’s territory, particularly its offshore zones, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) President Alexander Sergeev told a forum on Tuesday.
"We say that Sakhalin should be turned into a ‘green’ region, carbon-neutral, but do we know what it is like now? We don’t. We know the volume of emissions, but not its depositing (absorption - TASS). And if we use the formulas that [our] foreign colleagues offer us, <...> overall our country becomes a polluter of the global atmosphere. Though [Russian scientists] stick to the viewpoint that the Russian Federation deposits more than it emits. <...> The role of science is to learn how to correctly measure and validate the coefficients that we should put into those formulas. And this task is more important for us than it is for the global community," Sergeev said.
As an example, he cited the fact that the ocean stored more carbon than forests. However, the formulas adopted by the European colleagues do not take that into account. That said, Russia’s maritime territory is comparable to the territory of forests and farmlands in terms of area, that’s why it is necessary to find out how to properly take into account the role of seas and how to prove it.
"The governments of European countries will not accept new scientific data unless it is handed down by their scientists. Here the role of science and scientific diplomacy is to determine, mainly with our foreign colleagues, the actual rates of deposit and emission of forests, oceans and so forth. Here it is very important to rely on science because only through science we will be able to prove to the globe that we are a ‘green’, clean country," the RAS president noted.