The Russian Arctic’s Climate Emergency
The Russian Arctic’s Climate Emergency
The Russian Arctic has been getting warmer and wetter, according to the latest report from the world’s leading scientists.
They noted that Siberia is one of the regions that will see a negative impact from climate change on “winter tourism, energy production and infrastructure.” Income from winter tourism for Siberia may be the least of the region’s worries, but the potential fallout and long-term consequences for the energy industry globally are undeniable.
“In Russia, the temperature is increasing on average twice as fast as globally, and even faster in the Arctic,” said Sergey Gulev, a Russian climate scientist, who is one of the co-authors of the report, in an interview with Gazeta.
The report warned that the “surface warming in the Arctic will continue to be more pronounced than the global average warming over the 21st century.”
As it’s becoming clearer that the Arctic will be one of the world’s regions most impacted by changing temperatures, there will be an increasing need for the most innovative solutions to combat it.
Russia is expected to see a longer fire season and expansion of these fire-prone areas into tundra. The latest report noted that permafrost warming, loss of seasonal snow cover, and glacier melt will become more widespread in coming years.
Over the weekend, NASA released images (above) showing big swathes of the country covered in smoke, which traveled from Siberia’s fires to reach the North Pole for the first time in recorded history.
And permafrost thaw in Siberia already reached 11 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in 2020, as leading researchers warned of a “methane time bomb.” This region of Russia is releasing an increasing amount of methane, which is a greenhouse gas with even more damaging warming power than carbon dioxide.
This unprecedented climate emergency calls for a new generation of technologies and solutions, both from the government as well as the private sector.
The Russian state agencies have been facilitating development of the Arctic zone in recent years, but progress is slow. As the pace of ice melt is accelerating, the Russian government is looking to develop the Northern Sea Route and is introducing LNG-powered icebreakers.
Local governments and cities in the Arctic zone have sought to introduce incentives and attract entrepreneurs and farmers to the region.
If the latest climate warning is any indication, the scientific prognosis for regions like the Arctic is bleak. It will take both high-level initiatives as well as accelerated innovation on the ground to meet the fast-moving challenges of climate change.
NOTABLE DEALS
> Aviasales, Russia’s largest travel search platform, raised $43m from Moscow-based private equity firm Elbrus Capital and Riga-based iTech Capital. The company was founded in 2007 and accounts for 17% of overall air ticket sales in Russia, a market with still significant room for growth in online penetration.
Aviasales had previously raised $10m in 2014 from iTech Capital and was profitable until the pandemic struck.
> Novakid, an online English school for children aged 4-12, raised $35m in a Series B round led by US-based Owl Ventures and Goodwater Capital. Russian investors including Leta Capital and Xploration Capital also participated. Novakid was founded in 2017 by Maxim Azarov and Dmitry Malin, and reports 50,000 paying students, 80% of which are based in Europe and 15% in the MENA region. The company plans on using the funds to enter new markets in Asia and consolidate its position in existing geographies.
[Sources: RB, TechCrunch]
> Moscow-based proptech startup Manufaqtury raised 2bn rubles ($28m) from WS Capital. The company was founded in 2019 and offers a “built-to-suit” model whereby it funds and builds a custom office building, enters into a long-term lease agreement with the tenant and takes care of ongoing property management. It recently announced the signing of a deal to create the headquarters for the Samolet Group.
> Earth AI, a metal exploration startup, raised $5.5m from Moscow-based Gagarin Capital, a fund investing in early-stage AI startups globally. Earth AI was founded in 2016 by Roman Tesluk and joined Y Combinator in 2019 after a first round of funding from Gagarin Capital. It has developed technology for rare metal discovery (using machine learning) and drilling that it claims make it “50X more accurate and 50% cheaper than other mineral exploration companies.”
> Fibery, a startup that has developed a team collaboration app used by companies like Lemonade, raised $3m from investors including Altair Capital, an investor in Miro, amongst others. Fibery is based in Nikosia, Cyprus and is led by a founder from Belarus, Michael Dubakov.
“We got a ‘no’ from 50 funds and a ‘yes’ from just two during this seed round. For the round A, we hope to reverse these numbers,” the company says.
LATEST HEADLINES
SCIENCE
> Researchers from the Russian Quantum Center published a feasibility study of quantum sensor-based brain scanning technology, the first that claims to operate at room temperature. They published results in Human Brain Mapping journal.
[Source: Kommersant]
> Russian scientists develop desalinations technology using solar energy. Scientists from Russia’s Ural Federal University developed “hybrid technology to increase the efficiency of evaporation inside a solar distiller by means of a rotating hollow cylinder and a solar collector.”
[Source: Saurenergy.com]
> Kaliningrad’s local government will allocate funding to help commercialize scientific discoveries. The regional authorities plan to allocate up to 100m next year and up to 200m in 2023, with funding going to small businesses and to support scientists and early-stage startups launched at universities.
[Source: TASS]
SOCIAL MEDIA
> The Russian social media platform VKontakte is exhibiting signs of slowing growth and lower engagement rates across the country, according to an independent analysis of user data.
[Source: vc.ru]
> AT&T Alien Labs reported a new remote access trojan (RAT), known as FatalRAT, proliferating across forums and Telegram channels, detecting a “wide set of capabilities that can be executed remotely by an attacker.”
[Source: Cyware]
> The Games Fund, raised $17m from gaming companies Scopely and Com2U, vc.ru reports. Based in Moscow and LA, the fund was launched in April by former top managers from Mail.ru Group, Gem Capital and one of the developers from League of Legends. It aims to close fundraising at $50m in the fall.
[Source: vc.ru, VentureBeat]