Russian govt approves procedure for reserving carbon units when implementing projects with risk of greenhouse gas release

MOSCOW. Aug 12 (Interfax) - The Russian government has approved the procedure for conducting operations with carbon units on the reservation account in the carbon units register, with the corresponding resolution published on the official portal of legal information.

The document assumes that when carbon units (CUs) from climate projects with a risk of greenhouse gas release (for example, related to CO2 capture and storage) are issued into circulation, part of the CUs will be credited to a special reservation account. Units blocked in this way cannot be alienated, pledged or encumbered, and are not subject to seizure. Write-off of units from the reservation account is carried out only to the withdrawal from circulation account after receiving a verified report on project implementation.

The resolution comes into force on March 1, 2027, and the rules approved by it are valid until March 1, 2033.

The reservation account will serve as an insurance mechanism in case of repeated greenhouse gas emissions that could negate the results of an implemented climate project, the Economic Development Ministry previously said.

The reservation account is unified for the entire carbon units register.

It was previously reported that the Economic Development Ministry was fine-tuning the Russian system for issuing carbon units and bringing it into line with international practices in terms of implementing climate projects. The need for this is due, among other things, to the course towards Russia's participation in the CORSIA carbon offset and reduction system for international aviation.

The operator of the Russian carbon units register is JSC Kontur. At present, around 37.66 million carbon units and more than 535,200 compliance units are in circulation. More than 246,000 CUs and almost 13,200 compliance units have been credited for carbon footprint offset. More than 120 million CUs are planned for issuance from already registered climate projects.