‘Climate change doesn’t worry us’: The end of Russia’s Siberian oil era is still a long way off
Drive through the swamplands of Western Siberia, and you’ll pass one oil installation after the next. This is the largest petroleum basin on Earth and the heartland of Russia’s vast oil and gas reserves.
Pipelines cut through the swampy ground. Fuel tankers thunder past, carrying hydrocarbons for global delivery.
There is not much sense of a climate crisis here.
In the city centre, a monument is built in the shape of a fountain of oil
Surgut is Siberia’s Houston, the oil capital of the region if not the country. Surgutneftegaz (‘neft’ is Russian for oil) is the main employer in town. Salaries, like in Russia’s other oil and gas cities, are among the highest in the country. Working for big oil has its perks.
In the city centre, Surgutneftegaz has built a monument in the shape of a fountain of oil, the faces of the oil workers modelled on actual employees.
There we meet a group of young recruits out on a team-building exercise, pretending to be oil pumps, which they do to peals of laughter.
“Climate change doesn’t worry us a lot,” one says.
“We were born here, we got used to the cold. Any climate conditions for us are fine.”
It is a sentiment you’ll hear a lot, especially among Siberians. That warmer temperatures as a result of climate change might not be all bad. President Putin‘s promise of carbon neutrality by 2060 draws blank stares. These youngsters have not heard about it and don’t know what it means.
For some young Siberians, climate change is not seen as a worry
I ask one of the supervisors if he thinks Russia will make it by 2060.
“Not in our lifetime,” he replies.
Our local driver remembers flying into Surgut in Soviet times, when the night skies were so lit up by flares from the oil fields that you felt you were landing into a fire. There are fewer now, but we still pass plenty, blazing like beacons in the night.
Flaring is when associated petroleum gases (APG) which accumulate during oil extraction are burnt off rather than stored or re-processed. APG is mostly methane, with a few other pollutants mixed in. Burning it to produce carbon dioxide is more environmentally friendly than venting it, releasing it deliberately, but there is still a substantial “methane slip”.
Young recruits pretend to be an oil pump on a team-building exercise
Flare analytics firm Capterio believes the global average methane slip amounts to around 10%, with total CO2 equivalent emissions from flaring therefore at 1.2bn tonnes. The firm estimates that’s around one-and-a-half times as much as the aviation industry emits, or the equivalent of taking every single car in the EU off the roads.
Russia is by far the worst flaring culprit worldwide. At many of the facilities we pass belonging to state oil giant Rosneft, the flares are substantial.
At one plant on the Mamontovskoye oil field where we stop to film, flares emit around six to seven million cubic feet of CO2 equivalent per day.
“That’s a moderate-sized flare on a global scale, but it is still bigger than almost every flare in the United States,” Capterio’s chief executive Mark Davis says – and it is by no means the largest around Surgut.
Russia is by far the worst flaring culprit worldwide
Those are just the emissions we can see. Then there is the direct release of methane from leaking pipelines or other oil and gas infrastructure, or from venting.
Drone technology means methane leaks are easy to pick up, enabling companies to clean up their act if they’re prepared to make the investment. Satellite technology means you can even spot the leaks from space, meaning companies that don’t can be identified.
If the EU goes ahead with a carbon border adjustment mechanism that would impose a levy on companies for high-carbon supply chains, Russia’s fossil fuel exports to its largest customer base could face substantial costs. No wonder, in Russia, the EU’s so-called “carbon tax” is not popular.
Russia’s oil and gas industry is vast, but Vladimir Putin promises carbon neutrality by 2060
Rosneft has pledged zero flaring by 2030 as part of a sustainability strategy that includes better monitoring of methane emissions along its pipelines and improved processing of APG. These are admirable goals, and it may well reach them.
But what Igor Sechin says – as Rosneft’s chief executive and one of the most powerful men in the country – and what middle managers in remote oil fields actually do in terms of efficient carbon management might prove tricky to marry up.
It is telling that BP – which holds a 19.75% stake in Rosneft – is aiming to be net-zero across the carbon in its upstream oil and gas production by 2050, with the notable exclusion of Rosneft.
It is telling, too, that Russia, as one of the top five methane emitters, has not signed on to the Global Methane Pledge finalised at COP26 which requires signatories to slash their methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
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The US president has reprimanded Russia, and China, for not showing up in Glasgow. But President Putin has come a long way in a short time on climate change, his absence probably more to do with not wishing to be scolded on other geopolitical points of difference than because he’s not engaged with the issue.
In a video address to the G20, he claimed Russia was among the world’s decarbonisation leaders. He also listed the reduction of associated gas discharge from the oil industry as one of a number of steps being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
You don’t have to drive far through Surgut to find a pipeline like this one
But the flares we saw are one small measure of the distance Russia still has to travel. And the emissions from flaring, venting and leaking are just a fraction of what we burn from the consumption of fossil fuels.
Unless global habits change, Russia will continue to rely on oil, gas, and coal exports as countries muddle their way through the energy transition.
From Western Siberia, the end of the oil era looks like it’s still a long, long way off.
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World
‘They’re terrified of the possible results’: US considers cutting funds to notorious Israeli army unit
The drive into the village of Jiljiliya is not what you expect on the West Bank. Imposing mansions line the route, with grand gates and lavish decorations.
That’s because this is where Palestinian Americans return to build their dream homes after years of hard work in the land of opportunity.
Like Omar Assad who came back after 45 years in Milwaukee. But for him, retirement was neither long nor happy. It was cut brutally short one freezing night in January 2022.
The body of Omar Assad at his funeral
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He was returning from a game of cards when he was stopped at a makeshift checkpoint set up by the notorious Israeli army unit, Netzah Yehuda.
The IDF says he did not cooperate so the 78-year-old was detained with force.
Mraweh Mahmoud was with him.
“They took us down from the car and pushed me by the head,” he told Sky News. “The soldier was standing there and put an M16 in my head and said now I’ll shoot you.”
Mr Assad was tied up, gagged and blindfolded, Mr Mahmoud said, and forced to lie next to him. When the soldiers eventually left Mr Mahmoud realised Mr Assad was dead.
“I took his jacket off his head, I checked there’s no pulse, I shouted Omar, Omar,” he said.
Mraweh Mahmoud demonstrates how a Netzah Yehuda soldier pointed a gun at his head
Palestinian doctors say Mr Assad died in freezing temperatures of a stress-induced heart attack. An Israeli military report condemned the soldiers’ “moral failure and poor decision-making”.
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Netzah Yehuda has a fearsome reputation
No link between death and soldiers’ errors, military prosecutors say
Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Mr Assad’s death.
But now the unit the soldiers came from is expected to be singled out by the US government and cut off from American funding, in the first-ever such move against any part of the Israeli military.
Reports claim the US State Department will apply the so-called Leahy Law against the unit, which prohibits US assistance to foreign military units guilty of gross human rights violations when their government fails to take sufficient action.
Netzah Yehuda mixes soldiering with religion
Why has Netzah Yehuda become infamous?
The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up to help ultra-orthodox Jews serve in the army. It mixes religion and soldiering. But in its ranks are also elements of extremist settler groups.
It has become infamous, implicated in one case of alleged abuse of Palestinians after another, many of which its soldiers have filmed on their own phones. Its soldiers have been prosecuted for human rights violations and accused of unlawful killings, electrocution, torture and sexual assault.
Israel’s government has fought a rearguard action against the looming US action.
Netzah Yehuda has been linked to human rights abuses
Its prime minister called the prospect absurd and its defence minister Yoav Galant showed solidarity with the battalion’s soldiers this week saying “no one in the world can teach us about morals and values”.
But one organisation of ex-soldiers opposed to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories says the Israeli government knows this could be just the beginning of action against its military.
Ori Givati from the NGO Breaking the Silence
‘They’re terrified of the possible results’
Ori Givati from the NGO Breaking the Silence told Sky News: “They understand that this might open the Pandora’s box of what the occupation really is, and how it looks like to occupy millions with the military.
“And if that Pandora’s box will be opened and it is starting to open in recent months, I think they’re terrified of the possible results because they want to continue to occupy.”
Back in Jilijilya, Mr Assad’s family welcomes reports America will act against the soldiers they blame for his death but say that’s not enough – they want them brought to justice too.
Nazmia, Mr Assad’s widow, said: “God willing it will be good if they do this, but also punish them like what they did with him, arrest them and fire them from their positions.”
World
Israel-Hamas war: Hostage’s parents tell him ‘stay strong’ after video shows him alive but missing part of arm
The parents of an Israeli hostage have told him “we love you, stay strong, survive” after he appeared with part of his arm missing in a video released by Hamas.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the Nova musical festival when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.
The video shows him with his lower left arm missing; witnesses said it was blown off when he helped throw grenades out of a shelter where people were hiding.
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He reportedly used his shirt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding, but was captured.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (middle) was one of over 200 people kidnapped. Pic: Reuters
Clearly under duress in the undated video, the 23-year-old criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying they should be “ashamed” for not securing the hostages’ release.
He also claims Israeli bombings have killed “about 70 detainees like me” and that the rest are living in an “underground hell without water, food, or sun”.
Mr Goldberg-Polin, who wears a red shirt and sits against a plain white wall, finishes with an appeal to his parents, telling them “stay strong” and “I love you so much, and miss you so much”.
His parents responded to Wednesday’s video by filming their own emotional response.
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Jon Polin says hearing his son for the first time in more than 200 days is “overwhelming”.
“We are relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all the other hostages, and all of those suffering in this region,” he says.
Mr Polin calls for the countries involved in negotiations to “be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done to reunite all of us with our loved ones and end the suffering in this region”.
His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, stares resolutely into the camera and tells him: “Hersh, if you can hear his, we heard your voice today for the first time in 201 days… I am telling you – we are telling you – we love you, stay strong, survive.”
Rachel Goldberg holding photos of her son a few weeks after the October attack. Pic: Reuters
Friends and family continue to raise awareness of his captivity. Pic: Reuters
The 23-year-old was born in California but moved to Jerusalem with his family when he was younger.
He was among about 250 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped in the initial Hamas attack, which also killed around 1,200 people.
Some hostages were freed in a deal last year, but more than 100 are still unaccounted for and there is huge pressure in Israel for the government to bring them home.
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Baby saved from womb of dying mother
Israel’s aim to wipe out Hamas has so far killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authority.
Hundreds of thousands are also said to be on the brink of starvation and have been forced to flee the violence.
Fears are growing that a ground assault on the southern city of Rafah – where more than a million people are sheltering – is imminent after Mr Netanyahu said Israel was “moving ahead” with its plans.
Deep below Jerusalem, Israeli doctors are preparing for the worst.
Sky News has been given exclusive access to an underground hospital where they are expanding capacity in case the current conflict becomes much worse.
In a bunker below the Herzog Medical Centre, the number of beds has been increased to 350 – with 100 on the way.
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“Because it’s built to withstand both biological and chemical attacks,” Dr Yehezkel Caine told Sky News as we entered the complex, “we have an airlock which is built of two separate sets of blast doors”.
Dr Yehezkel Caine says there’s an unprecedented threat to Israel’s people
Beyond they have installed a whole new level of wards below the existing underground hospital, ripping out a logistics floor and installing more beds and equipment.
The bunkers would be activated should other hospitals closer to the front need evacuating.
They are planning for worst-case scenarios here like an all-out war with Hezbollah.
“The hospitals in the north will be overwhelmed with casualties and they themselves will come under fire, in which case they would have to evacuate their patients to the centre of the country, the same as we did in the first weeks of the war in the south,” said Dr Caine.
He and his staff know the 7 October attack last year by Hamas and Iran‘s missile and drone barrage earlier this month have changed everything for the people of Israel.
“For the civilian population since the war of independence we’ve never been in a situation where the threat to the civilian population has been as great,” he said.
Two sets of blast doors form an airlock against biological and chemical attacks
Above ground, the Herzog Medical Centre continues with its peacetime specialisms.
It has Israel’s largest ventilator unit, treating adults and children, but also excels in psycho-trauma treatment and geriatric rehabilitation.
Many of those suffering PTSD from the trauma in this conflict are treated here.
Read more from Sky News:
Parents of hostage in Hamas video tell him ‘stay strong’
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If Jerusalem itself is attacked, the hospital can evacuate even the most vulnerable to the bunkers below in just a few hours.
The bunkers can be entirely sealed off for 96 hours in what’s called a Noah’s Ark procedure.
The Herzog drills its staff regularly. Preparing for a reality it hopes will never come. But events on the northern border are looking ominous.
Israel has launched one of its biggest bombardments yet of Lebanon’s Hezbollah after multiple shelling of northern Israeli communities.
The lower-level war continues with the ever-present danger of escalation into something much bigger.
If it comes, doctors in Jerusalem’s biggest underground hospital say they’ll be ready.
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