The attitude of Russia towards climate change is extremely important for the success of climate change control policies worldwide, as Russia, with its cold climate and vast resources of carbon fuels, is one of the world’s biggest polluters. Moreover, Russia frequently comes across as not being very interested in containing environmental pollution. This book explores how issues to do with climate change are handled by the Russian media. It discusses how the state and economic elites have influenced Russia’s environmental communication, with the state’s control of the media strengthening since Putin came to power, and with control being exercised in some cases by ignoring or silencing the key issues. However, the book also shows how, recently, elites and the state in Russia have begun to realise that it is in the state’s best interest to pursue more climate-oriented policies. The book concludes by examining how the communication of climate change issues in Russia could be improved and by assessing the extent to which a recent change in state climate policy could mean that media coverage of climate change in Russia will keep increasing.

This book explores the development of climate change discourses in Russia. It contributes to the study of climate change as a cultural idea by developing the extensive Anglophone literature on environmental science, politics and policy pertaining to climate change in the West to consider how Russian discourses of climate change have developed. Drawing on contributors specialising in numerous periods, regions, disciplines and topics of study, the central thread of this book is the shared attempt to understand how environmental issues, particularly climate change, have been understood, investigated and conceptualised in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The chapters aim to complement work on the history of the discursive political construction of climate change in the West by examining a highly contrasting (but intimately related) cultural context. Russia remains one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters with one of the most carbon-intensive economies. As the world begins to suffer the extreme consequences of anthropogenic climate change, finding adequate solutions to global environmental problems necessitates the participation of all countries. Russia is a central actor in this global process and it, therefore, becomes increasingly important to understand climate change discourse in this region. Insights gained in this area may also be illuminating for examining environmental discourses in other resource rich regions of the world with alternative economic and political experiences to that of the West (e.g. China, Middle East). This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Russian environmental policy and politics, climate change discourses, environmental communication and environment and sustainability in general.

Russia remains among the top-5 greenhouse gas emitters in the world and thus an important player in the field of international climate politics. To gain a deeper understanding of how Russian climate politics is formed, the changing and somewhat unexpected role scientists and scientific knowledge play in shaping Russian policymaking is explored.

Drawing together key frameworks and disciplines that illuminate the importance of communication around climate change, this Research Handbook offers a vital knowledge base to address the urgency of conveying climate issues to a variety of audiences.

The Russian Federation is already experiencing the impacts of climate change in the form of milder winters, melting permafrost, changing precipitation patterns, the spread of disease, and increased incidence of drought, flooding, and other extreme weather events. Many of these observed climate impacts are having concrete, negative effects on Russians' quality of life. By 2030, Russia will start to feel the impacts of climate change in relation to both water and food supply. This book identifies and summarises the latest research related to the impact of climate change on Russia.