Pleistocene Park at COP28: A Showcase of Climate Natural-Based Solutions and Key Meetings with African Delegations

The only Russian project at the COP28 exhibition is the Pleistocene Park pavilion. It is a rapidly developing climate project, a nature-based solution (NBS) for conserving permafrost, located in Siberia – but it is attracting interest from all over the world.

The reason behind all this interest is more than just due to the exotic character of a bright project in the Russian Arctic. This project shows the importance and potential of the NBS – because through these solutions, humanity can prevent ecosystem emissions or improve carbon dioxide absorption. It's an essential tool in the global fight against climate change.

The Pleistocene Park exhibition was brought to Dubai by Andrey Melnichenko, a billionaire from Russia and the chairman of the Committee for Climate Policy and Carbon Regulation of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists. He says the NBS projects simply need a market that would create powerful incentives for their implementations worldwide.

Andrey Melnichenko's schedule at COP28 is tight. During these days, he had several visits by dignitaries from the African states – including Mr. Mohamed Nasheed, the Secretary General of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, an association of countries affected disproportionately by climate change. In 2010, Mr. Mohamed Nasheed was awarded the United Nations' Champions of the Earth Award for being "an articulate voice for the vulnerable and the poor facing the challenges of global warming and also a politician who is showcasing to the rest of the world how a transition to climate neutrality can be achieved and how all nations, no matter how big or how small, can contribute." The support of the 58 countries participating in the Forum definitely means new horizons for the NBS – these are solutions that they have been waiting for so long.

The other guests at Pleistocene Park pavilion included Mr. Azali Assoumani, the Chairperson of the African Union and the President of the Comoros; Mr. Gayo Asherbiri, the acting President of Pan African Parliament; Hon. Soipan Tuya, Kenyan Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry; Olivier Mondonge Bogado, deputy chief of staff of the DRC President. They represent African nations covering great territories and having serious potential for the NBS.

Andrey Melnichenko emphasizes that the NBS is not an attempt to replace the global efforts to combat climate change by cutting down anthropogenic emissions. It is an attempt to find, with the help of science, the best possible solutions that really work – to ultimately reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in all the most readily available and effective ways that currently exist. Since the molecules of greenhouse gases are the same, regardless of the source: human activity or natural ecosystem.

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