Tag: Russia

Report: In year of crisis, growth continues on Northern Sea Route

The Barents Observer discusses how, In year of crisis, growth continues on Northern Sea Route. Figures for the first 10 months of 2020 show that Arctic shipping continues to increase despite the coronavirus and world economic downturn.

In the first ten months of 2020, a total of 26,37 million tons of goods was shipped on the Russian Arctic route. That is an increase of 2,9 percent compared with the same period in 2019, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport informs.

According to the state agency, it is transit shipping that now has the strongest growth. A total of 1,28 million tons of goods were in the period shipped between the Asian and European sides of the Arctic corridor. That is an increase of 83 percent compared with 2019.

The updated shipping data come as sea-ice gradually again starts to cover the remote northern waters and vessels move out.

On the 10th November, there were only four ships sailing in waters between the Yamal Peninsula and the Bering Strait.

What could a good green recovery plan actually look like?

The Guardian discusses What could a good green recovery plan actually look like? What do governments across the world need to do to shift economies away from fossil fuels?

What does a green recovery look like? That is the question governments around the world are considering as they decide how to align their $12tn worth of economic rescue packages for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with their obligations under the Paris climate accord.

The UK is expected to announce a 10-point recovery plan this week, and observers have warned that if it lacks ambition, it could undermine the world’s goals of limiting catastrophic climate breakdown.

While some countries – notably the EU, and especially member states France and Germany – have emphasised a push for low-carbon economic growth, prioritising renewable energy, green transport, nature restoration and other environmentally beneficial projects, others – including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – have not.

Guardian analysis has also revealed that in some countries – such as South Korea, the US and China – the green part of a national economic rescue package has been outweighed by the high-carbon elements, including bailouts for fossil fuel companies or carbon-intensive industries such as airlines.

Moscow pushes for more Arctic drilling

The Barents Observer discusses how Moscow pushes for more Arctic drilling. Prime Minister Mishustin wants to tap into vast oil and gas resources on the Arctic shelf and commissions his cabinet ministers to make a plan for big drilling.

While governments and energy companies in Europe rapidly scale down investment in petroleum, the Russian side moves in the opposite direction.

The new Russian Arctic Strategy signed by President Putin on the 26th October includes big stress on hydrocarbon development, including Rosneft’s grand oil projects in the Taymyr Peninsula and Novatek’s expansion in Arctic LNG.

The document includes an ambition to produce up to 91 million tons of LNG per year by 2035 and a boost of Arctic oil production to 26 percent of total national output.

On Monday this week, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin followed up with a series of instructions for his cabinet ministers.

Russia rules out cutting fossil fuel production in next few decades

The Guardian discusses Russia rules out cutting fossil fuel production in next few decades. Energy minister says Moscow will also focus on clean-burning hydrogen and carbon capture.

Russia has no plans to rein in its production of fossil fuels in the coming decades despite the global efforts to shift towards low-carbon energy, according to its energy minister.

Alexander Novak told the Guardian that Russia did “not see that we will achieve a peak in [gas] production anytime soon” because the world’s appetite for gas would continue to grow in the decades ahead despite its growing number of climate targets.

Instead, during a crucial decade in the battle to keep a lid on rising global temperatures, Russia will pair a 50% growth in gas production with plans to become a global leader in producing clean-burning hydrogen and developing carbon capture technology.

China’s Chance to Save Antarctic Sea Life

The New York Times publishes an opinion piece by John Kerry discussing China’s Chance to Save Antarctic Sea Life. Twenty-four countries and the E.U. have agreed to create three marine parks, which would ban fishing and other industrial activity. But to become a reality, China must also agree.

Even as the United States and China confront deep disagreements, there is a global challenge that simply won’t wait for the resolution of our differences: climate change.

While some have decided that we are entering a new Cold War with China, we can still cooperate on critical mutual interests. After all, even at the height of 20th-century tensions, the Americans and the Soviets negotiated arms control agreements, which were in the interests of both countries.

Climate change, like nuclear proliferation, is a challenge of our own making — and one to which we hold the solution. We have an opportunity this month to make clear that great power rivalries aside, geopolitics must end at the water’s edge — at the icy bottom of our planet in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds the entire continent of Antarctica.

‘Sleeping giant’ Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find

The Guardian discusses the ‘Sleeping giant’ Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find. Exclusive: expedition discovers new source of greenhouse gas off East Siberian coast has been triggered.

Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal.

High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia, prompting concern among researchers that a new climate feedback loop may have been triggered that could accelerate the pace of global heating.

The slope sediments in the Arctic contain a huge quantity of frozen methane and other gases – known as hydrates. Methane has a warming effect 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide over 20 years. The United States Geological Survey has previously listed Arctic hydrate destabilisation as one of four most serious scenarios for abrupt climate change.

The international team onboard the Russian research ship R/V Akademik Keldysh said most of the bubbles were currently dissolving in the water but methane levels at the surface were four to eight times what would normally be expected and this was venting into the atmosphere.

‘No other choice’: Groups push to protect vast swaths of Antarctic seas

Mongabay discusses Groups push to protect vast swaths of Antarctic seas.

  • A coalition of conservation groups is advocating for the establishment of three new marine protected areas (MPAs) in East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea, which would encompass 4 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles) of the Southern Ocean, or 1% of the global ocean.
  • These proposals will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which is due to take place online because of the pandemic.
  • Conservationists anticipate that China and Russia may not support these MPA proposals due to fishing interests in the region, although they are optimistic that the MPAs will eventually be approved.

Indigenous wildfire knowledge to be key part of new Arctic Council project

RCInet discusses how Indigenous wildfire knowledge to be key part of new Arctic Council project.

With wildfires intensifying around the North, an Arctic Council project is underway to better coordinate response among circumpolar countries as well as better understand Indigenous wildfire management and how it might be integrated into northern fire fighting strategies.

“It’s important to collaborate because you can see what’s been happening the last 10 years as fires in the North become more and more dangerous,” said Edward Alexander, a firefighter and co-chair of Gwich’in Council International, one of the Arctic Council’s six Indigenous permanent participants, and the group leading the project.

“We have a real situation developing up here and it can’t just be Canada, the U.S. or Russia going at this problem on their own.”

Oil drillers move into Arctic waters badly affected by climate change

The Barents Observer discusses how oil drillers are moving into Arctic waters badly affected by climate change. Sea-ice is shrinking, permafrost melting and marine ecosystems undergoing dramatic change. Russian petroleum companies plan big drilling and massive field development in the shallow waters of the Ob Bay.

Oil reserves and natural gas in abundance. The Ob Bay and surrounding peninsulas of Yamal and Gydan is like a vast bubble of hydrocarbons waiting to be untapped.

This is now a top priority region for the Russian oil and gas industry. From before, Gazprom and Novatek have opened large projects like the Bovanenkovo and Yamal LNG in the Yamal Peninsula, and the same two companies are in the process of developing several more projects like the Kharasavey and Arctic LNG 2.

 

Advance of Russian oil could mean death to life in great Arctic bay

The Barents Observer discusses how the advance of Russian oil could mean death to life in great Arctic bay. The unprecedented development of petroleum resources in and around the shallow waters of the Ob Bay threatens a unique ecosystem.

The Arctic summer season is short and there is plenty of drilling,  digging and construction works to be done before ice again covers these far northern waters. The Gulf of Ob has over the last years become centerpiece in the Russian oil industry’s drive towards the North.

The extensive development of the area could have fatal consequences for marine life, and environmentalists now sound the alarm. They especially fear that ongoing dredging ultimately could eliminate rare local fish stocks.