Putin Touts CO2 Uptake By Russia's Forests As Siberian Fires Expand By 70,000 Hectares In One Day

[hatrack]

In June, as western Siberia recovered from its worst forest fires in a decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin toasted his country’s contribution to the struggle against climate change at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the premier get-together for the country’s business elite. “Our country accounts for one fifth of the world’s forests. They absorb several billion tons of CO2 equivalent on an annual basis,” he said.

Putin’s declaration was the latest airing of a claim made by Russia’s deputy prime minister for environmental policy Viktoria Abramchenko that Russia’s ecosystems — primarily its forests — neutralize as much as 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

With Russia’s annual emissions adding up to around 2.2 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent, the estimate, if true, would make the country a net-zero bulwark of the fight against climate change, despite its decarbonization commitments being among the weakest of any G20 country.

Many scientists, however, have their doubts. According to eight Russian and international forestry and carbon accounting experts interviewed by the Moscow Times, the 2.5 billion figure is — at best — unproven, and at worst unrealistic. “It’s a fantasy,” said Alexei Yaroshenko, head of the forestry department at Greenpeace Russia. “It’s hard to say what the true figure is, but it certainly isn’t 2.5 billion.”

EDIT

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/climate-crisis/2021/07/russia-says-its-forests-neutralize-billions-tons-greenhouse-gases-scientists

Wildfires ravaging northeastern Siberia have spread by nearly 70,000 hectares in the past day, marking a 17.5% increase in a single day, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing the regional emergencies ministry. Some 400,000 hectares of forest are now burning in Russia’s republic of Sakha.

Abnormally high temperatures and historic drought as well as strong winds have all contributed to the rapid wildfire spread, Sakha’s deputy ecology minister and chief forester Sergei Sivtsev told Kommersant.

“For the central regions of the republic, June 2021 became the second driest in the entire history of observations; the last time such a drought was observed was at the end of the 19th century, in 1888,” Sivtsev told Kommersant. Average June temperatures were 2-5 degrees Celsius above the norm this year in Sakha, Russia’s largest region, Kommersant cited Sivtsev as saying. The town of Verkhoyansk, one of the coldest inhabited settlements on earth, saw temperatures hit a blistering 48 C last month.

The bulk of fire extinguishing efforts is being carried out near settlements in the Gorny and Tomponsky districts, with 15 districts affected by the wildfires in total, Kommersant reported. Some 2,800 firefighting personnel and 340 pieces of equipment as well as members of the federal paratrooper firefighting service have been deployed to fight the fires. The republic of Sakha is especially vulnerable to wildfires as more than 80% of its area is covered by boreal forest known as taiga. During last summer’s record-setting wildfire season in Russia, 70% of all forest fires were located there.

EDIT

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/07/09/siberian-wildfires-spread-175-in-24-hours-a74481

[Mickju]

1. More Putin bullshit.