COP26 summit: Vladimir Putin withdraws from climate conference

The Russian president’s absence from COP26 will make it difficult for world leaders to agree to any breakthrough initiative.

Vladimir Putin says he’ll attend COP26 by remote. Picture: AFP.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has withdrawn from attending the climate change conference COP26, adding to the difficulties of world leaders to agree to any breakthrough initiative in Glasgow.

This comes as a United Nations report released on Wednesday, the UN Environment Program (UNEP), found despite increased climate ambitions and net-zero commitments, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than what would be consistent with limiting global warming to the COP26 target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It said governments’ plans and projections would lead to about 240 per cent more coal, 57 per cent more oil and 71 per cent more gas produced in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to C1.5.

The report said Australia had rapidly increased both coal and gas production since 2010 and noted that Australia is now the world’s largest coal exporter and second largest LNG exporter.

It says that India and Russia are planning to increase coal production by 2030 compared to 2019.

Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the US are planning to increase oil and gas production over the same period.

The report said two coal producers, China and the US, were reducing production, but the decline was partially counteracted by projected increases in India, Russia, and Australia.

As for gas, the planned increase in production is led by Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and the US.

The report added that Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, and Mexico also foresee smaller increases while the UK, Norway, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan foresee small decreases.

Mr Putin has previously said he may not attend the COP26 because of Covid-19 restrictions and on Wednesday the Kremlin confirmed he would only attend meetings remotely, and not in person. But the Kremlin said they were still working out how Mr Putin could make an address to the conference and that climate change was still an important priority of the country’s foreign policy.

It is still unclear if Chinese president Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will turn up in Glasgow.

This means leaders of some of the world’s biggest economies impacting on global carbon emissions may be absent from in-person discussions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Mr Modi earlier this month underlining the importance of making concrete progress on climate change at the COP26 summit. Mr Johnson spoke about his hope for India – which leads the world in renewable technology – to commit to a more ambitious contribution and to achieving net zero emissions.

Russia has been a key player in the rapid spike of gas prices across Europe in recent months and the ongoing controversy over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea is a highly contentious point.

A Downing Street spokesman said over 120 world leaders had accepted the invitation to attend the conference, including Scott Morrison.

He declined to say whether Mr Johnson was disappointed at Mr Putin’s absence.

“The Prime Minister is looking forward to meeting all leaders who have confirmed their attendance, which I believe is over 120 so far. We obviously expect all countries to be represented at a senior level, given that we’re asking for meaningful pledges towards tackling this issue.”