Russia is one of the major players in the Paris climate talks leaning to an all-out effort to clamp down on human endeavors contributing to climate change. Interestingly, one of Russia's proposal is to use nanotechnology in lowering worldwide greenhouse gases emissions.
Russia's President Vladimir V. Putin is known for being a skeptic when it comes to climate change claims. It seems like he had a change of heart when he admitted last week that gas emission contributes to global warming, formation of hurricanes, droughts, floods and other anomalies. He claims that Russia is taking the lead in addressing global warming problems.
Russia is the fifth largest gas polluter in the world, with China being the number one. This should be interesting as to how the country will implement its climate change policies without affecting its economic stability.
Russia proposes a "New Approach" when it comes to dealing with climate change. The proposal focuses on efforts to reduce emissions involving five materials: steel, cement, aluminum, plastic and paper. The proposal is not on the reduction of the production of these materials but rather making these materials lighter, stronger and more efficient. With this approach, nanotechnology is put into the spotlight as the primary technology in making this proposal possible in real-world applications.
Rusnano is a company that is dedicated to nanotechnology. They received $10B of funding from the Russian government. They are pegged to be the frontrunner in research and application of nanotechnology in the production of the mentioned materials.
"Carbon nanotubes have been shown to toughen aluminum, make plastics conductive, extend the life of lithium-ion batteries," Anatoly B. Chubais, Rusnano founder, said. "So all that is true. Tangentially, that can then lower CO2 emissions, I suppose."
There are not much details yet in how the company will take action on the proposal. Many scientists including James M. Tour of Rice University are confused with the science behind the proposal.
