Though Russia is warming 2.5 times as fast as the rest of the planet, some of its scientists, RAS members and public figures regularly voice denials of climate science, sowing confusion among the populace.

In May, the RAS’s Eurasian economic integration council said that Earth’s warming is primarily due to the “outflow of potassium isotope from the Earth’ depths” and linked local climate catastrophes to the “increasing emission of natural hydrogen, which creates ozone holes.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in contrast, states that human release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have “unequivocally” led to global warming.

Present in Russian public discourse for decades, climate deniers often have backgrounds in natural sciences, engineering, paleoclimatology, or the fossil fuel industry, experts say.