Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's video address at the final meeting of the International Inter-party Conference, New Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development, October 7, 2022
7 October 2022 07:30
2069-06-10-2022
Esteemed Mr Medvedev,
Colleagues,
I am happy to welcome you to the International Inter-party Conference on Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development. I am pleased to note that this United Russia-organised conference at hospitable Sakhalin has brought together numerous associates and partners from different parts of the world.
Russia firmly adheres to the expansion of mutually respectful and beneficial cooperation in the interests of strengthening environmental security based on the principles of international law. We believe that this approach alone is capable of ensuring sustainable development in harmony with nature and helps find new points of contact with our foreign partners, including in the Asia-Pacific region. The development of relations with the countries in this region is one of our unquestionable foreign policy priorities.
Environmental issues have firmly been on the agenda of Eurasia's leading multilateral associations. They discuss a broad range of topics, including general climate-related challenges, reducing the human impact on the environment, and the risks of man-made disasters.
Collaboration in this area has a prominent place in the activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Following the recent SCO summit in Samarkand, the participants approved a joint statement on responding to climate change. The document formalised the common striving of the SCO member states to contribute to the modernisation of industrial infrastructure with a view to reducing greenhouse emissions and confirmed their commitment to expanding cooperation in resource-saving, energy-efficient and low-carbon technology and in developing an education system to train new climate experts.
Our colleagues from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) show great interest in promoting cooperation with Russia on environmental issues. A comprehensive plan of action on implementing strategic partnership in 2021-2025, approved by the leaders of Russia and the association of ten nations last year is a solid foundation for its further expansion.
Nature protection activities play a substantial part in Russia-ASEAN joint projects that encompass, among other things, sewage treatment efforts and the protection of the Greater Mekong's ecosystem. We willingly share our advanced experience and technology with our partners. A number of events in the current Russia-ASEAN Year of Scientific and Technical Cooperation are also devoted to environmental protection.
Being closely intertwined with energy diplomacy, interaction on these issues is on the agenda of East Asia Summits (EAS). Currently, Russia is taking part in developing another five-year action plan within the EAS framework, which emphasises these issues.
Colleagues,
The expansion of honest, equitable cooperation in this area is being impeded by the climatisation and environmentalisation of international negotiations in various sectors - trade, finance, energy, transport, industry and agriculture. Discussions on these issues are moving far beyond the UN and its specialised agencies.
Advanced countries are increasingly prone to abusing environmental slogans to promote their selfish, self-serving interests, including economic interests. Obviously, the West is trying to shift the blame to other countries, including Russia, for inevitable setbacks in its own policy on reducing greenhouse emissions and for an impending failure of global efforts to reach carbon neutrality by the middle of this century.
The West has long tried to erode the mandate of relevant international legal documents on climate change, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). They persistently push through issues that are basically irrelevant to climate change in these mechanisms. This concerns peace and security, migration, human rights and gender equality. They also spread extremely alarmist rhetoric everywhere that is multiplied by the leading Western media and NGOs. The West tries to impose questionable concepts like "environmental rights" and "climate justice" on others. The obsession of some Western political and public forces with climate crisis ideology has developed painful quasi-religious dependence in some of their representatives.
Against this backdrop, it is important to promote a unifying environmental agenda internationally. It should rest on a reasonable balance between environmental aspects and socio-economic development and be based exclusively on scientifically substantiated decisions.
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