Climate Change Hitting Different Russians Differently and that Must be Reflected in Analysis and Policy, Chernokulsky and Makarov Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 27 – Moscow and the West typically discuss the impact of climate change on Russia as a whole, but the country is so large and so diverse that such an approach is appropriate only for country-by-country comparisons and not for the elaboration of government policy, Aleksandr Chernokulsky and Igor Makarov say.

            The two HSE scholars, the first a climatologist and the second an economist, in a study comparing the way in which four major risks – heat waves, water stress, wildfires and permafrost melting – are affecting each of the country’s more than 80 regions. (The study is available at journal.econorus.org/pdf/NEA-61.pdf and is discussed at themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/26/how-will-russias-regions-bear-the-brunt-of-climate-crisis-a83865.)

            Treating Russia as a single whole may be justified at some global level, but it is a disaster analytically and in terms of policy because these differences are so great, Chernokulsky and Markarov says. Indeed, adopting a one-size-fits-all approach may end by exacerbating rather than ameliorating the problem.  

            Their article contains charges showing just how many of the four factors are critical in each federal subject and how serious the need is for carefully analytic approaches and policies that are based on a recognition of these differences.