Vladimir Putin: climate change is real – but it’s good Vladimir Putin has defended climate change deniers and hailed the economic potential of the melting Arctic. “Climate change brings in […]

Vladimir Putin has defended climate change deniers and hailed the economic potential of the melting Arctic.

“Climate change brings in more favorable conditions and improves the economic potential of this region,” he said, referring to Russia’s push for oil and mineral extraction as well as possible new northern shipping lanes as the ice recedes.

“Today, Russia’s GDP is the result of the economic activity of this region.”

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‘It will continue anyway’

In a television interview at the International Arctic Forum, held in frosty Arkhangelsk in the north-west of the country, Mr Putin also defended the appointment of a global warming sceptic to the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States.

He said that people like Scott Pruitt, the agency’s new head, “may not be at all silly” because, ultimately, “global warming will continue anyway, anyhow”, sounding a note of scepticism about whether emissions targets or scientific advances could help stop the planet heating up.

“It isn’t about preventing global warming. I agree with those people who believe it is impossible,” he said.

“It may be related to some global cycles or some greater outer space cycles. It’s about how to adjust ourselves to it. The local communities will get adjusted,”

Russia is well positioned to exploit new opportunities after the ice cap recedes, with a vast Arctic coastline and millions of square kilometres of frozen land which could provide new or easier economic prospects if they thaw.

Claiming the Arctic

In 2007, Russian scientists planted a Russian flag on the sea floor at the North Pole in a sign of the country’s expansive view of the north of the globe.

The country has been ramping up oil and gas extraction already, and also has high hopes for the Northern Sea Route, which could provide quicker shipping from Europe to eastern Asia and the west coast of America than current options.

But the thaw is not without its problems. Methane lakes and bubbles have popped up in melted tundra in the north of the country, while formerly frozen reindeer corpses released a form of dangerous anthrax last year.