The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation plans to launch a national system of circulation and accounting of carbon units in the first half of 2022. This was announced at the International Congress on Sustainable Finance: Ecumene 2021 by the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov.

According to him, now the task is to implement the law on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which was adopted in summer. ‘This involves the formation of a system of climate finance projects, in particular the turnover of carbon units, as well as the launch of a system of carbon reporting. Also, by the end of the year we have to make changes in the law so that the reporting is verified at a high enough level so that there are no accidental organizations’ said the Minister, stressing that further plans to integrate our system of carbon units turnover in international standards and regulations.

Reshetnikov also spoke about the recently adopted taxonomy of green and transitional projects. According to him, the green agenda and low-carbon development agenda will require serious investment, so the main question was what investments are considered green, that is to introduce the very taxonomy, which the government approved last week.

‘This document was developed in close cooperation with companies. We based it on Western and European standards for green financing, according to which all renewable energy projects, housing construction using energy-saving technologies, electric transport and many other areas belong to green projects. The principal solution, which differs from foreign standards in this area, was the nuclear power projects, as Russia is a leader in this field. The taxonomy also provides for a class of transitional projects, which involves the implementation of the best available technologies in the carbon sphere’ Reshetnikov said.

He noted that now there is a need for independent evaluation of projects, verifiers, so the government approved the criteria for obtaining the status of such verifiers. He also said that the government is now discussing additional support for green credits, bonds and other types of financing of green projects.

Elena Borisenko, Deputy Chairwoman of the Management Board at Gazprombank JSC, who moderated the session, noted that the Russian Government is actively working to adapt the country to the global energy transition and to improve the mechanisms and systems already in place as part of sustainable development.

The Ecumene 2021 Congress was held in Moscow with the support of the UN and Gazprombank. Speakers included government officials, heads of major Russian, foreign and international companies and public organizations.

International Congress on Sustainable Finance: ECUMENE 2021 is supported by the United Nations. The general partner of the event is Gazprombank JSC. The speakers were representatives of the authorities, heads of the largest Russian, foreign and international companies and public organizations.

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