Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev attends the G-20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in Rome.
Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev gave a speech at the second meeting of the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in Rome. He focused on resetting economic growth to enhance social and environmental sustainability.
Mr Kosachev recalled that in 2020, Russia presented its first voluntary national review of the progress achieved by our country in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda).
“Russia is constantly working to reduce inequality. It is tackling this problem by carrying out several projects: the national Demography project for granting financial support to families on the birth of children, the national programme Digital Economy of the Russian Federation aimed at eliminating digital inequality, the National Action Strategy for Women by ensuring equal rights and opportunities for men and women, and the Decade of Childhood to ensure the wellbeing of families with children,” Mr Kosachev said.
“Support was distributed to families that are bringing up a total of 28 million children. Payments were established for the medical and social workers that took part in countering the pandemic. In all, almost 600,000 specialists received payment benefits. Support for businesses, including tax breaks and cuts in insurance premiums, saved jobs for millions of people,” the Deputy Speaker said.
“Our country considers a healthy population one of its main priorities. We are working to create a sustainable system for countering new challenges, a kind of a sanitary shield under the Healthcare project. However, in today’s globalisation, such measures would be more effective if neighbouring states took similar measures. So, the tasks of overcoming mistrust in vaccination and artificial barriers in the way of international registration of vaccines, using a combination of vaccines and creating a system for post-covid rehabilitation require a comprehensive discussion,” Mr Kosachev said with confidence.
In his opinion, global climate change has motivated new goals for the 2030 agenda. These include transition to eco-friendly energy sources and reduction of the carbon footprint in all production processes. Developing a green, low-carbon economy has become a loadstar for a new technological restructuring of the global economy.
“In drafting its economic strategies for the mid- and long-term, Russia fully considers environmental priorities and UN-approved sustainable development goals. In the past year, our country prepared or is about to approve dozens of documents on environmental reorientation of the Russian economy. These include the goals and main directions for the sustainable and green development of the Russian Federation, the federal law on reducing greenhouse emissions, and a strategy for long-term socioeconomic development with low greenhouse emissions to 2050. Taking into account its climate roadmap, Russia is restructuring the work of its government bodies and businesses, adjusting sectoral development plans and improving state support mechanisms for low-carbon projects,” the Deputy Speaker said.
“During green transformation we need to consider the interests, opportunities and geographical realities of each country. Every important peculiarity must be taken into account: not only emissions but also the absorption of harmful gases by various countries, development of emissions-free nuclear and hydro power engineering and climate specifics, to name a few. The international community’s transition to a low-carbon economy must not trigger new global inequality or development gaps and become an excuse for discriminatory restrictions in the global economy,” Mr Kosachev emphasised.
“We are against any attempts to politicise or force a green agenda on countries. We believe support for global efforts to protect the environment must not impede the development of states that are not ready to make an abrupt transition to a green track, especially during the acute economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which requires substantial investment,” Mr Kosachev summed up.