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(almost $7,000), Korotkova detailed. Authorities have launched a criminal case and intend to prosecute the owners of the coin minting facility.
2021 will be a record year for investment in start-ups in Ukrine . According to mind.ua, in the first three quarters of 2021, start-ups worldwide have already managed to attract about $454bn, while in 2020, the global venture industry reached the level of $332bn. Ukrainian start-ups had 54 public transactions on the market earning a record $2.35bn. Among the startup’s raised investments are: GtiLab with $801mn investments, Revolut with $800mn, Grammarly with $200mn, FireFly Aerospace with $200mn, People.ai with $100mn, and many others.
9.1.10 Utilities & Renewables sector news
President Vladimir Putin proposed considering stricter measures for the owners of companies that pollute the environment, including restrictions on the payment of dividends and turnover fines, in order to motivate companies to implement programmes to reduce emissions, during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko.
The previous suggestion was fines of RUB100,000 and RUB500,000 for the first and second violations. Now, these measures are considered insufficient, and it has been proposed introducing personal responsibility for the owners of the companies.
This relates to the government’s Clean Air programme which is aimed at reducing emissions 22% by 2024 in the twelve most polluted cities (Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk, Lipetsk, Magnitogorsk, Mednogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Novokuznetsk, Norilsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Cherepovets and Chita). The project has a total budget of RUB500bn. The key polluting companies are Norilsk Nickel, UC Rusal, InterRAO and MMK. They have all announced plans for environmental improvements in their respective cities by 2024. Emissions have already been reduced more than 5% in the twelve cities of the programme.
The Clean Air programme is part of the National Programme on Ecology, and was one of the first steps towards improving the environment in the country (for more details, see our Russian Utilities ESG Almanac, vol. 2 – Decarbonising Russian Power, of 19 November). Environmental standards are becoming stricter, with a climate pack under active development in Russia, the approval of both the law on emissions (and mandatory GHG emissions standards for large emitters which have to report from 2022-23) and the Sakhalin experiment (which is key for the future of the national carbon trading system, that we expect from 2025), the presentation of the low-carbon strategy and the commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060. We believe this will inevitably put pressure on the cash flows of different sectors in Russia (decarbonisation capex, potential fines, potential payments for
94 RUSSIA Country Report January 2022 www.intellinews.com