MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed to wildfires raging in America, hitting back at US President Joe Biden’s remarks on Russia’s ‘burning tundra’.
"The tundra is, indeed, burning, but let’s not forget that forests are ablaze in California, Turkey and elsewhere across the world. This is precisely one of the consequences of climate change that we are confronted with," Peskov specified.
He noted that in some respects, Russia has to cope with even more serious climate challenges than other countries. In particular, this refers to the pace of warming in the Arctic and not only in that region, the Kremlin spokesman said.
"We do not agree with the issue formulated in this way," the Russian presidential spokesman said, commenting on Biden’s remarks.
"It is Russia that displays quite a responsible approach and we have formulated forward-looking and concrete work plans in this area [climate change]. Here, it is very likely that the US president was not informed of all this work when he spoke about Russia’s non-attendance at the forum [the Glasgow Climate Change Conference]," the Kremlin press secretary said.
US President Biden earlier said at a press conference following a two-day summit of the heads of state and governments within the framework of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that the Russian and Chinese leaders had made a big mistake by not attending the forum and the G20 summit in Rome.
The US president also accused Moscow of being "mum on willingness to do anything" on climate change.
"His tundra is burning," Biden said, referring to the Russian president. As Biden further claimed, President Putin "has serious, serious climate problems".