Environment to Remain Key Priority of Russia's Domestic Policy – Putin

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The environment will remain one of the key priorities of the Russia, which plans to fulfill the commitments of Paris Agreement on climate change, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"Environment has been and of course will be a key element of our work as part of our domestic policy … Russia, as it is known, took on rigorous commitments [Paris Agreement on climate change] and I have no doubt that we will fulfill them," Putin said during the annual press conference.

Climate change has become a priority for many countries. On November 4, the Paris Agreement on climate change came into force. The deal, ratified by 111 countries, aims to limit global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level, with parties to the deal agreeing to cut their emissions in accordance with the proposed plan.

Moreover, Russia’s foreign competitors sometimes use environmental organizations to slow down the growth of certain sectors of the country’s infrastructure, including the area of power production, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"The environmental organizations are sometimes used by our competitors to 'play down' the growing sectors of Russia’s infrastructure, [power] generation," Putin said during his annual press conference, after one of the journalists said certain environmental organizations were sometimes opposing the development of infrastructure, built by Russia's Rosatom nuclear energy corporation.

Putin added that Rosatom’s technologies fully complied with the highest modern safety requirements.