Five Russian regions, in addition to the Sakhalin Oblast, are interested in using Gazprombank’s Electronic Trading Platform (ETP GPB) to organize trading in carbon units, that is, quotas for greenhouse gas emissions. This was announced to Vedomosti by the first vice-president of Gazprombank Roman Panov.
“The regions are considering the possibility of implementing an experiment (to organize trade in carbon units. -“ Vedomosti ”). Our experience of interaction with Sakhalin shows a high demand for such a tool as over-the-counter trade, and the regions, as part of the development of proposals for the creation of such a system, turn to us in terms of using our electronic trading platform as an OTC accounting system for carbon quotas. These are about five regions, ”Panov said on the sidelines of the conference“ Industrial ecology: new realities and standards of the future ”organized by the Vedomosti newspaper.
The first vice-president of Gazprombank clarified that these five regions are located “throughout the country” and have a different balance of industry and the absorbing capacity of ecosystems.
“We are ready to consider our participation in partnership with any region that is interested in the implementation of such initiatives,” he added.
In September 2021, ETP GPB and the Sakhalin Region signed an agreement on cooperation in the development and implementation of digital tools and services as part of an experiment to achieve carbon neutrality in the Sakhalin Region.
As previously reported by Vedomosti, in mid-April this year, the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said that carbon regulation in Russia will start working in 2022. Its basic principles will be enshrined in the Law on Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
It is assumed that large enterprises will be obliged to submit annual reports on greenhouse gas emissions to regulatory authorities: first, those whose annual emissions are more than 150,000 tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent, and after 2024 – more than 50,000 tons. by the state, one enterprise will be able to resell emission quotas to another, if necessary.
Greener factories (emitting few CO2 emissions) will be able to earn on allowances, selling them to those enterprises whose emissions are significantly higher than the established limits. Another way out of the situation for polluting enterprises that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases will be to pay the government for excess emissions in the form of a carbon tax. This is the approach that is used today in Europe (in particular, in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, it exceeds $ 50 per 1 ton of CO2-equivalent).
Panov explained that the bank is currently participating in an experiment that is being conducted by the Sakhalin Oblast. According to him, the exchange principle of trading in quotas today has very strict legal requirements and its application does not yet have a regulatory framework, therefore, at the first stage, it is planned to use an over-the-counter mechanism – Gazprombank’s Electronic Trading Platform.
The first pilot region to introduce and trade carbon credits will be the Sakhalin Oblast. The roadmap for conducting a corresponding experiment in the region was approved in January 2021 by Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko. Its goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, i.e., to reduce to zero the difference between greenhouse gas emissions and their absorption, taking into account the capabilities of the region’s ecosystem. In April, representatives of the regional authorities of the Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad regions announced their readiness to start trading in emission quotas.
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