MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia calls upon the United States to refrain from baselessly accusing Moscow of devoting too little effort to the fight against climate change, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The diplomat said that US politicians, including former president Barack Obama, criticized Russia for lack of action during the COP26 conference in Glasgow.
"Those baseless accusations raise eyebrows, at the very least," she said. "We call upon the United States, the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter, to refrain from baseless attacks on anyone and to work jointly on international platforms in order to efficiently tackle negative consequences of the climate change."
The comment also says that Russia is at the forefront of the global de-carbonization process, and is rapidly developing its low-carbon power generation sector.
"Today, the share of energy generated by zero-carbon or nearly zero-carbon sources (nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants, wind and solar power stations) exceeds 40% in Russia. With the addition of natural gas (the lowest-carbon fuel among hydrocarbons), the share will increase to 86%, which is among the world’s best," she said.
"Further measures in this regard will be taken within the framework of implementing the state program of conserving energy and raising the economy’s energy efficiency in order to reduce the environmental impact until 2035," the Russian diplomat added.
In a video message to the participants of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia planned to build a carbon-neutral economy by no later than 2060, and was relying, "among other things, on the unique resource of forest ecosystems," for it accounted for "around 20% of the world’s forestland.".