WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Pershing spoke amid preparations for a summit on climate change this November in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. Russia was invited, but did not participate in a meeting last week to prepare for the event, Pershing explained.
"If Russia’s market to Europe, which is where a lot of its [natural] gas goes, dries up, fundamental change in the dynamics of Russian supply and Russian development might move them a different direction," Pershing said on Tuesday.
If the rest of the world restructures its economies with renewable energy sources, the future Russian leadership, whether it’s President Vladimir Putin or someone else is going to have to manage this, Pershing added.
At the Paris conference, Russia declined to join other nations in agreeing to reduce carbon emissions and instead offered a modest pledge to slow growth of the pollutant that is blamed for global warming.
