Outlook 2022: Russia plays catch-up

The Eurasian giant has announced an aggressive decarbonisation plan while striving to relieve Europe’s power crunch

Russia’s 2035 energy strategy, released last year, failed to mention climate change, but the country has undergone a sea-change in its approach to decarbonisation over the subsequent 18 months. In April, President Vladimir Putin included environmental and climate issues as a priority for his country’s development for the first time in his state of the nation address, while also adding the climate emergency to Russia’s National Defence Strategy. In July, Putin signed legislation limiting greenhouse gas emissions for private enterprises and, in November, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced an ambitious decarbonisation strategy—although slightly watered down from the initial draft drawn