Sibur postponing decisions on some projects due to possible EU carbon tax
SVOBODNY, Amur Region. Aug 19 (Interfax) - Russian petrochemical company Sibur is postponing decisions on some projects due to the possible introduction of a carbon tax in the European Union, Sibur CEO Dmitry Konov told reporters.
"At this point, concepts are being discussed and, as I understand, Russia's position is that they directly contradict the WTO, which is true. And before introducing this tax Europe must understand how it correlates with the concept of the WTO. We're assessing and factoring in various risks for the company, including a transborder carbon tax. And because of this we're not internally sanctioning some projects that use technology with higher CO2," Konov said.
Asked whether Sibur has an estimate for how a carbon tax could hit the company in monetary terms, Konov said: "At this point it's not clear that it might hit, it's difficult to make some sort of estimates."
"A carbon tax of $10 and 130 euros are different things. I also suspect that there might be different conditions for different countries, depending on the method of calculation of the carbon footprint between countries. If, nominally speaking, one correctly counts Russian forests, which for some reason absorb three times less CO2 than, nominally, American forests, the balance within Russia will be different. Accordingly, for Russia there will be different transborder carbon duties. This is why it's fairly early to count the costs from the imposition of the duties," Konov said.
The European Commission is considering introducing a carbon levy on imports that would create a competitive advantage for foreign companies with low greenhouse gas emissions. The EU's ambassador to Russia, Markus Ederer told Interfax that the legislative process for the mechanism of transborder carbon regulation should be completed by the end of 2022.
