China and other countries of Southeast Asia have barbaric attitude towards the environment, which provoked a "strange" winter and other adverse climatic phenomena in Russia, said Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

"Floods, fires, which this year began earlier than usual in Siberia, incomprehensible winter a second year in a row, drought, which is likely to lead to serious crop failure in the European part of Russia - all these unpleasant surprises are a consequence of the barbaric attitude to the environment, which is demonstrated by many Asian countries - China, Korea, Indonesia. India and South Africa are following them," Deripaska wrote in his Telegram channel, as quoted by finanz.ru.

“China continues not only to actively develop coal power generation at home (annually burning more than 4 billion tons of coal and emitting more than 13 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere), but also to sponsor the construction of coal plants in developing countries under the auspices of the new Silk Road program. Although in 2015, China, like Russia, signed and ratified the Paris climate agreement,” the businessman reminds.

While Beijing has regularly declared its commitment to combating pollution and climate change in the international arena, so far these have been only empty assurances, Deripaska laments, adding that the countries must be held accountable for environmental damage.

"It is therefore appropriate to investigate not only the causes of the Wuhan virus, but a UN-approved commission which would investigate the systematic violation of the commitments to protect the environment," he urges.

It is not only about China, but also about India and other countries of Southeast Asia, emphasizes the billionaire.

"As a result of the work of this commission, the countries responsible for harming the environment on a global scale should be punished by sanctions and embargo," Deripaska urges, adding, "We no longer have time to preserve our ecosystem."

  Deripaska, Russia, China

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