Completely giving up hydrocarbons for renewables in 30-50 years unrealistic - Putin
MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) - Completely giving up hydrocarbons in favour of renewable energy sources within 30-50 years is unrealistic, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai Club.
"We're working on alternative types of energy sources ourselves. Just because we're one of the richest countries in terms of hydrocarbons, oil and gas, it doesn't mean at all that we shouldn't think about the future. We're thinking about solar energy, about hydrogen energy," Putin said.
"Moreover, we're also working in terms of the current situation. We have made a decision - in 2022 we must get our 300 main polluters, the 300 largest companies that are the main carbon emitters, to switch to the best available, latest technology that would ensure atmospheric emissions are minimized. And reduce emissions by 20% by 2024," Putin said.
"But we realize that we won't radically change the situation in the country as a whole with these 300 companies and 12 cities, and our strategy here is to reduce all anthropogenic emissions by half by 2030. We must go for this goal and persistently achieve it," Putin said.
"But I don't think it's realistic, if everyone wants to be competitive, to abandon hydrocarbons in the near future. I consider the near future to be several decades - 30, 40, 50 years in the future. It's just not realistic," Putin said.
"Therefore, when we hear about European innovations regarding hydrocarbons, I don't know on what basis such proposals, conclusions, decisions are made. On the basis of internal politics? And then this is followed by some kind of decisions on restrictions in the area of international trade and cooperation. I think that nothing good will come of this," Putin said.
"We need to strive for common efforts and endeavors to achieve common goals here, not restrictions. We worked things out within the context of the Kyoto agreement after all, we fulfilled everything. We're active participants of the Paris agreement and intend to do all this. We're not closing up, on the contrary, we believe that this is a problem," Putin said.
"I already talked about the problems of permafrost for humanity in my opening words. And for us? We have very many transport systems and pipeline transport, and oil and gas infrastructure located in this zone, whole cities are located there. This is a huge problem for us. We will make efforts in this direction. We will work ourselves and at the international level in the fight for environmental cleanness, for the reduction of anthropogenic emissions. But we can't do without hydrocarbons," Putin said.