Good Melt

In 2015, when President Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in France, he shocked those in attendance when he abandoned his previous climate change skepticism and echoed the concerns of other nations about global warming. “Climate change is one of the most serious challenges for humanity,” Putin said, adding that it brings “hurricanes, floods, drought… [and] destroys the human environment we’re used to.” He said Russia had “exceeded” its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, bragging that “Russia’s efforts have slowed global warming by almost a year,” and called for a new, legally binding climate agreement based on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

But at this year’s Arctic Summit he hosted in the northern city of Arkhangelsk, Putin reverted to form, arguing that global warming is not caused by emissions, and, moreover, that Russia can benefit from it, since it makes it easier to develop the Arctic.

The Arctic has been a Russian priority in recent years, as Moscow has built a number of military bases there, and eyes trade opportunities of the Northern Route, which could open a shorter shipping path to Asia.

In his speech on the Arctic, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto warned of the “growing risk of climate change,” adding, “if we lose the Arctic, we will lose the whole world.”

Putin meanwhile barely mentioned environmental risks. Instead, he welcomed international investment in projects like offshore oil production, and invited countries to use the Northern Route for their trade needs.

“With climate change, conditions improve for using this region for economic ends,” Putin said, listing Moscow’s brand-new port in Sabetta, the Yamal LNG natural gas project, and the goal of shipping up to 30 million tons per year via the Northern Route by 2035.

“Our plans to develop this region of the world are absolutely justified,” Putin said, saying the climate would warm regardless of what humans do. “The warming, it started in the 1930s,” he said, “when there were no such anthropological factors. The issue is not stopping it... because that’s impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth or even of planetary significance. The issue is to somehow adapt to it.”

To support his claim, Putin said an Austrian explorer named Payer visited Franz Josef Land archipelago in 1932, mapping out the icebergs. Later, Payer was shown photographs from the same place 20 years later by an Italian explorer who happened to be “the future king of Italy,” Putin said, and saw in the pictures that “there were fewer icebergs.”

Problem is, Putin got his history wrong. Julius von Payer discovered the archipelago in the 1870s. And no future king of Italy ever visited the area, let alone in the 1950s (Italy became a republic in 1946).

Putin’s climate views, however, are likely to find a sympathetic ear in US President Donald Trump. In fact, the Russian president even endorsed Trump’s pick for head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, saying “good luck to him,” while saluting his opposition to environmental scientists as “not so stupid.”