Page 96 - RusRPTJan22

Carbon units circulation. Minister for Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov noted that the ministry expected climate projects to start being implemented in Russia and carbon units to begin circulating from the end of 1H22. A few large companies have already expressed interest in climate projects, while two entities have been granted the status of verifiers (overall, ten entities have expressed an interest in being verifiers). The law on emissions has been approved, and regional carbon trading experiments are to be approved by the Duma, while the register for GHG emissions is being drawn up.
ESG disclosure. The Bank of has Russia approved recommendations for boards of directors on integrating ESG factors into the corporate governance system and is now discussing changes to the listing rules with the Moscow Exchange. These imply that companies from the first and second levels of the quotation list have to disclose non-financial information on a mandatory basis, and those from the third on a voluntary basis. 85% of companies from the first and second quotation lists already disclose such statements.
Green bilateral contracts. The JV of Fortum and RDIF has started to supply wind energy in the Rostov region to the warehouse and production facilities of Raven Russia via Mosenergosbyt. The electricity is to be supplied from the 100MW Sulinskaya wind farm.
Renewable appetite. Norilsk Nickel's CEO has announced the company's plans to build 3GW of renewable capacity by 2028, which could reduce GHG emissions. The company expects to reach carbon neutrality earlier than Russia’s 2060 target.
The Russian broadsheets published a number of news items about decarbonisation in Russia on Tuesday 7 December:
· Carbon trading. The government commission has approved the legislation related to the carbon trading experiment in select regions. The pilot project is to be held in Sakhalin and is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2025 (in 2021, 12.3mnt CO2e was emitted while 11.1mnt CO2e was absorbed). This is to be achieved through carbon trading, moving 145 boilers from coal to gas (Gazprom expects gasification in Russia to allow it to reduce CO2 emissions by 23mnt by the end of 2024), increasing the share of transport operating on gas and electricity to 50%, raising the share of renewables and starting hydrogen production in the region. The Bashkortostan, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk and Kaliningrad regions are looking to join the experiment.
· HPP and GAES construction. President Vladimir Putin mandated the government to prepare the plan for constructing HPP in Russia (so as to maintain the low-carbon energy balance), to assess building 5GW of hydro-accumulating capacity and to define the locations.
96 RUSSIA Country Report January 2022 www.intellinews.com