Cooperation between Russia and Germany in the field of energy policy in the XX-XXI centuries

• Main Authors: Ekaterina Alekseevna Babintseva, Lyudmila Vasilievna Ponomarenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2021-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of World History
• Subjects: russia; germany; environmental cooperation; nord stream; nord stream-2; “eco” orientation; ecocentrism; nature conservation; baltic region; kurgalsky reserve
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/world-history/article/viewFile/26394/19362

The author devoted the paper to the peculiarities of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Germany in the field of maintaining a favourable environmental balance. The author notes that nature protection for a long time was not considered as a subject of interstate cooperation and did not fall into the focus of the agenda of important international summits. In connection with a number of historical reasons, at the beginning of the last century there was minimal state interest in organizing the protection of protected areas, conducting stabilization and supporting environmental measures, as well as ensuring the conservation and renewability of natural resources. The extensive path of economic development, the devastating military operations and the assessment of the natural environment as a resource basis for achieving primary state tasks contributed to the development of the global environmental crisis by the middle of the 20th century. The paper emphasizes that the starting point of international environmental cooperation and the adoption of a number of universal environmental acts were reports within the framework of the Club of Rome and further multilateral summits on climate and environmental issues dating back to the second half of the 20th century. The author assigns a special role within the framework of Russian-German environmental cooperation to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines. The author emphasizes that cooperation within the framework of the projects took place in the context of the Western sanctions on Russia. Using energy projects as an example, the author showed in action the environmental relationship in the process of fuel and energy dialogue between partner countries. Based on an analysis of the results achieved, the author concludes that the future environmental cooperation between Russia and Germany is promising.