For 22 years, I was the Heritage Foundation’s leading Russia/Eurasia and international energy expert. Energy transition in Russia. Since the beginning of the 2000s, Russia has managed to increase energy exports dramatically: from 2000 to 2005, exports grew by an unprecedented 56% [Globally rising renewables targets and the transition towards a decarbonization paradigm are regarded in Russia as a significant threat to hydrocarbon export revenues, and thus to Russian economic security [Domestic oil and gas demand does not provide any meaningful offset to this decline. The firm’s interventions span international security, economics, law, politics, terrorism, and crime and corruption. These key areas are as follows:Factors related to Russia’s cold climate, vast distances, overlarge raw material structure, poor economic organization, and significant technological backwardness have resulted in its high-energy-intensity GDP—1.5 times the world average and that of the USA, and twice that of the leading European countries [Obviously, for such an energy-intensive economy, issues such as energy efficiency and conservation are key concerns for energy transition: according to IEA analyses, 30% of Russian primary energy consumption and enormous amounts of hydrocarbons (180 bcm of gas, 600 kb/d of oil and oil products, and more than 50 Mtce of coal per annum) could be saved if efficiency measures comparable to OECD targets were applied [The Russian energy balance is strongly dominated by fossil fuels, with natural gas providing 53% of total primary energy demand, and coal and oil-based liquid fuels each accounting for 18%. 208 “On the Strategy of Economic Security of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2030″ (Russian). Executive summary. International Energy Agency (IEA): Status of power system transformation—advanced power plant flexibility. Moscow (2018)International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): Renewable energy prospects for the Russian Federation (REmap working paper). Despite the country’s massive potential in wind and solar resources and the virtually limitless land available for development, the availability of oil, gas, and coal is suppressing the development of clean energy.

Its participation in international environmental cooperation has always been determined primarily by external policy objectives. According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) data, GHG emissions in 1998 compared to 1990 fell by 40.6%, excluding land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), and by 50.9% including LULUCF. A new global energy reality is emerging. This is certainly the case with river or tidal power plants. The centralized model has been the basis of the energy strategy for decades, while distributed energy resources (DER), including microgrids on renewables, are developing slowly and only in remote and isolated areas. Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, Energy Centre, Novaya Ul. I advise law firms and corporations, and once helped to get a famous Russian oligarch out of Putin’s jail. The same with oil and gas.We have now entered the era of the renewable energy resource, whereby zero-emission electricity is generated via near unlimited inputs (solar radiation, wind, tides, hydrogen, and eventually, deuterium). Coal 2018: analysis and forecasts to 2023. Russia, ranking fourth in the world in primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, adheres to the strategy of “business as usual” and relies on fossil fuels. World Bank Group: Modest growth ahead. ERI RAS: Global and Russian energy outlook up to 2040.