The Russian government will begin to take care of the environment in a new way, according to the press service of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko (available to “Lenta.ru”). For this, an experiment on trading greenhouse gas emissions quotas will be organized in the Sakhalin Region.
The Ministry of Economic Development and the Government of the Sakhalin Region have developed a roadmap for the new project, approved by Abramchenko. According to it, the region will create a “carbon units” trading system. It is expected to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 – a state in which emissions are offset by carbon-negative projects such as planting new trees.
The trading system is planned to be integrated into international analogs, as well as extended to other regions – if the Sakhalin experiment is recognized as successful. The start date is not indicated. In July, a corresponding bill should be submitted to the State Duma, which will establish a special regime for regulating greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
At the moment, the largest system in the world is the greenhouse emissions trading system that exists in the European Union. The volume of transactions on it is estimated at 51.4 billion euros per year.
The Paris Climate Agreement, signed in 2015 and ratified by Russia in 2019, involves a number of measures aimed at combating climate change. There are no specific goals and commitments for each country. In particular, the EU intends to make its own economy carbon neutral by 2050. For this, importers from third countries, which do not have their own regulation at the state level, will be obliged to pay a special tax, the size and structure of which has not yet been determined.