The diploma was presented by the university’s rector, Viktor Sadovnichiy, at a ceremony in the university’s Fundamental Library, with members of the Academic Council in attendance, along with professors and students.

    At the close of the ceremony, Chung delivered a lecture on the effects of carbon neutrality on economic growth. The idea of carbon neutrality has passed along a path of 30 years, from the U.N. Declaration on Sustainable Development at the Rio de Janeiro conference in 1992 to the presentation of the European Green Deal in 2019. Chung said that the world will have to devote considerable efforts in order to achieve its practical implementation.

    This is due, in part, to increasingly frequent climate anomalies, like April snowfalls in southern France (2021), forest fires in Australia and the outbreak of anthrax in Russia’s north. Chung believes that it will be hard to prevent these anomalies without decisions that make carbon neutrality the driver of the economy.

    “It’s a great honor to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the prestigious Moscow State University. I think it was in recognition of my initiative to promote a win-win synergy between climate action and economic growth through a Green Growth paradigm,” Chung said.

    “I think it is also a sign that MSU is seriously interested in taking a leading role in grasping the opportunities arising from carbon neutrality and Net Zero and contributing to the future industrial competitiveness of Russia in the coming carbon neutral future through scientific research.”

    Rector Viktor Sadovnichiy affirmed the university’s interest in the carbon neutral problematic.

    “Moscow State University pays considerable attention to the task of lowering CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and increasing the absorption capacity of the biosphere,” he said. “This is a key theme in the creation at the university of an International Scientific and Educational School called “The future of the planet and global environmental change.”

    “To launch this, we have a major project to create a Moscow State University carbon testing ground in Moscow region developing technologies for intensive CO2 absorption from the atmosphere.”