Putin accepts Biden's invitation to virtual climate summit
April 19, 2021
Despite tensions between Washington and Moscow, the Russian president has agreed to take part in an online conference on the climate crisis.
Russian President Vladimr Putin will attend and address a virtual climate summit hosted by US President BidenImage: Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin Pool/ZUMAPRESS/picture alliance
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Even as relation fray between them, US President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin agreed to address the worsening climate crisis in a virtual conference on Thursday. Dozens of other national leaders are also set to attend.
"Vladimir Putin will outline Russia's approaches within the context of establishing broad-ranging international cooperation aimed at overcoming the negative consequences of global climate change," the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday.
Relations between the US and both China and Russia have slumped to new post-Cold War lows since Biden took office in January.
However, the new administration has used the growing climate emergency as a way to find middle ground.
Russia and the US succeeded in holding climate negotiations earlier this year. The two nations identified forest fires, nuclear energy and the Arctic as areas of cooperation.
Wildfires envelope Siberia, choke Russian cities
Russia has been struggling to put out gigantic forest fires in Siberia that environmentalists have dubbed an ecological catastrophe. Observers warn of a disaster that could accelerate the melting of the Arctic.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/Orenburg Region Branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry
Huge environmental impact
The image shows an aerial view of the wildfires in Russia's Siberia. Massive forest fires are a common occurrence in the region, but the magnitude of this year's blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term effect on the environment.
Image: Reuters
High temperatures
More than 3.2 million hectares (7.9 million acres) were on fire on Monday alone, mainly in the vast regions of Yakutia in the north and Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk in Siberia, authorities said. The fires, triggered by dry thunderstorms in temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), were spread by strong winds, Russia's federal forestry agency said.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/TASS/A. Ryumin
Slow to act
The picture shows a woman taking part in firefighting exercises for volunteers at the Mechta [Dream] forest summer camp outside Moscow. Russian authorities have been slow to declare emergencies and firefighting efforts have been scaled back over economic concerns. The lackluster response has prompted residents to post pleas for help and demands for action online.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/M. Tereshchenko
Accelerating global warming
The fires could exacerbate climate change, warn experts. Greenpeace says almost 12 million hectares have been burnt this year, causing significant CO2 emissions and reducing the future capacity of forest to absorb the carbon dioxide. Some scientists posted satellite images from NASA showing the clouds of smoke reaching Arctic areas.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/A. Ryumin
Smog engulfs cities
The smoke from the wildfires has affected not only small settlements, but also major cities in western Siberia and the Altai region as well as the Urals such as Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, and disrupted air travel. The image shows how the smoke has enveloped the city of Kemerovo in southern Siberia.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/D. Aikin
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Russia's economy is still highly dependent on fossil fuels. However, Russian weather officials have acknowledged that increasingly destructive Siberian fires and historic declines in summer sea ice in the Arctic could be partially traced back to climate change.
US Climate Envoy John Kerry has already talked about the environment with Chinese officials last weekImage: Zhang Ling/Xinhua/AP/picture alliance
President Biden's special envoy for Climate, John Kerry, met with Chinese officials over the weekend to personally invite Chinese President Xi Jinping to the summit.
Previous talks between Chinese and US delegates in Alaska yielded little more than an agreement to work jointly on climate issues.
