Climate Change Denial Is Good For Russia

Abandoning Climate Change Fight Benefits Russia

Noah Smith, December 20, 2016 (Hartford Courant)

“President-elect Donald Trump…has vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement designed to limit fossil fuel use, and presented himself as a champion of the coal industry. U.S. national policy seems set for an epic shift away from alternative energy and carbon reduction…U.S. states and cities will continue efforts to curb carbon, and the steady improvements in solar and battery technology are unlikely to grind to a halt…[Oil, coal, natural gas, and coal interests around the world would win from this shift but the biggest winner probably would be the petro-state of Russia.]…

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Without oil and gas, Russia's economy would be a shambles, and sharp declines in energy prices in the 1990s and again in the past three years sent its economy into deep recessions…In the short run, more U.S. oil drilling and gas exports hurt Russia, because they help hold down global fossil fuel prices. But in the long run, the much bigger danger to Russia comes from a permanent shift away from fossil fuels. Solar technology has been getting steadily cheaper. If solar electricity could be easily stored for night use and transportation, it would displace oil, gas and coal. The price of those commodities would crash and never recover, leaving Russia's economy a wreck…The main technological barrier to the end of the fossil fuel age now is battery technology…” click here for more

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