The low-carbon development project includes four scenarios

The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russia has developed a draft national strategy for the low-carbon development of Russia until 2030. There are four development scenarios for different investment volumes and speed of energy transition – inertial, basic, intensive and aggressive. The Ministry plans to hold a competition to select a site for the circulation of carbon units by the end of this year.

According to Ilya Torosov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia, “Mosbirzh, St. Petersburg International Commodity Exchange and Sberbank have already shown interest in the project.”

He added that Russian forests are capable of absorbing up to 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. These figures were calculated using the new methodology of the Ministry of Natural Resources. According to previous calculations, the absorptive capacity of Russian forests is estimated at 590 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources expects that from 2023 it will already be 1.1 billion tons of CO₂ a year. And we have already incorporated this into our strategy,” stated Torosov.

The deputy minister clarified that the first climate projects suitable for circulation on the stock exchange should start working as early as 2022. “Carbon unit” is a verified result of the implementation of a climate project, expressed in the mass of greenhouse gases, equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide. The carbon trading system is just being formed in Russia. Plans to create a carbon trading market were announced in June by President Vladimir Putin during SPIEF 2021. It is worth noting that the law on limiting greenhouse gas emissions was signed by Vladimir Putin on July 2, 2021.