Russia loses an area equal in size to Andorra each and every year thanks to climate change

IMAGE: Flickr / US Geological Survey

Dmitry Drozdov, Head of the Institute on the Cryosphere of the Earth of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has said that due to melting of the permafrost area and the eroding of the northern seas’ coasts, Russia is losing 468 km2 every year, which is equal in size to the territory of European nation Andorra.

"Every year due to melting of the permafrost along coasts of northern seas we are losing a territory, comparable with the territory of Andorra," he said. "The shores in the south also change due to eroding, but the process is much quicker in the north."

He went on to discuss Russia permafrost border, "This border, where our scientists are monitoring it, for the past 40 years has moved 30 kilometres to the north, which is quite a lot. The melting would mean further rise of temperatures, thus, for example, if the climate norm is exceeded by 1-2 degrees, the warm fertile land in Russia’s southern Stavropol or Krasnodar will have a shortage of water, and agriculture would have to move northwards to the level of Voronezh. Most favourable territories will thus move 200-300 kilometres to the north."

Such changes could have quite an impact for life in Russia, but after COP21, if there was ever a time in which Russia could rise up to meet such challenges: that time would surely be now.