About

Home

Contact

Environment

Russian Carbon Fund launches the all new Carbon Registry

June 14, 2016   |   Moscow, Russian Federation

The event was organised by the Russian Carbon Fund, the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), ECOCOM and social enterprise Green Russia, and saw leading figures from the sustainable business world and authorities on Russian climate policy lay the foundation for the first high quality carbon market institution in the Russian Federation.

 

The main aims of the conference were to promote economic approaches to the management and development of low-carbon strategies based on direct and explicit inclusion of environmental costs into regular everyday transactions, and to enhance the environmental integrity and competitiveness of the Russian economy on a global scale.

 

The main highlight of the event was the official unveiling of the IPCI-based Carbon Registry by the CEO of the Russian Carbon Fund, Mr Alexey Shadrin.

 

As one of the key elements of the IPCI, the Carbon Registry acts as a tool for the creation and management of carbon units. It will allow participants to record projects undertaken and to issue, track, transfer and retire mitigation outcomes (including carbon credits).

 

To ensure the highest standards of best practice and to add functional value to the carbon reduction  projects, the Carbon Registry is applying strict IPCI requirements in order to confirm the eligibility of the GHG emissions reductions. Applicable standards and methodologies will include the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), ISO 14064 Series Standards, the Gold Standard, and the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), to keep in line with the high standards that the IPCI aspires to.

 

In accordance with the eligibility criteria and the procedures as set out by the IPCI, projects proponents listed on the Carbon Registry must justify that the mitigation outcomes/units and carbon emission reductions are not only actual and absolute, but are verified by an independent entity. They must be irreversible, quantitatively measurable process patterns, be either permanent or long term, secure or insured, additional, target-oriented, and not required by compulsory regulations units of anthropogenic GHG emission reductions or removals by sinks.

 

Eligible projects must be based on absolute emission limits, reduction targets and binding quantitative commitments, and must comply with the following basic requirements:

 

1. Be able to cover established set sources of existing installations and activities.
2. Be able to provide for limitation and reduction relative to de-facto emissions of the established set sources.
3. Be able to relate to certain commitments and a specific accounting period. The baseline year being 2013 or later.
4. Be based on a robust and independently audited monitoring, reporting and verification system (MRV).
5. Must not be registered under any other compulsory regulations or commitments except for the IPCI's programmes and mechanisms of limitation and reduction of GHG emissions.
6. Should provide sufficient security for the pledges and commitments in order to guarantee efficiency
7. Must adhere to the IPCI requirements, offsetting of emissions from the new sources in full by absolute reductions of emissions from the existing sources.

 

A number of project developers and GHG emission source owners have already confirmed their intention to register their projects and projects outcomes with the Carbon Registry. According to Sergey Sitnikov, partner of Moscow-based Causa Privata Law Firm, the establishment of the Carbon Registry in Russia will breathe new life into the fledgling Russian carbon market, whilst giving a chance for Russian climate projects to attract additional financing from the private and public sectors, and motivate the regulator to make further steps towards the future development of measures for carbon regulation in Russia.

 

As for the Integrated Program for Climate Initiatives (IPCI), it is designed to develop a distributed network of mitigation contributors based on common principles, rules and criteria, as well as provide an accounting platform which can achieve absolute emission reduction targets in compliance with quantitative emission limitation commitments. The goal of the Integrated Program for Climate Initiatives is to integrate corporate and regional mitigation initiatives within Russia and the EAEU, in the first instance.

 

The IPCI will ensure overall mitigation in GHG emissions in whole and through individual and joint activities of stakeholders in accordance with international agreements, principles, rules, and modalities adopted in pursuit of UNFCCC obligations.

 

Chairman of the Council for Russian Carbon Fund and Deputy CEO for ECOCOM Anton Galenovich commented that, "The initiative is aimed at the harmonisation of the emissions reduction projects implementation and accounting rules and development of international cooperation in this field. There are two projects ready for registration, and talks with a number of others are on the way.”

 

Russia's flag carrier and largest airline, Aeroflot, along with the Moscow Municipal Government, gas supplier Gazprom Neft-MNPZ, and the world's largest thermal generation company, Mosenergo, are all said to be amongst those already in talks with the group.

 

In his closing speech, CEO of the Russian Carbon Fund, Alexey Shadrin, said, "We believe that the launch of the IPCI and the Carbon Registry, which are based on the internationally recognised guidelines, will enhance the development of the Russian pilot carbon market and simplify access to the international carbon markets for Russian organisations and project developers (and we are very pleased that the first projects have already applied to the Registry). This will lead to the attraction of climate finance and allow hedging of project and transactional risks. The Carbon Registry welcomes cooperation with the best market practitioners worldwide to, inter alia, ensure harmonisation of various carbon approaches and policies, and kindly invites them to join the Registry Council for mutual cooperation in order to achieve this goal."