In 2021, the Asia-Pacific region became the undisputed leader in issuing green bonds. <...> Russia (especially the regions of the Far East) is certainly interested in East Asian investments — Natalya Tretyak, First Vice President, Gazprombank.

Thirty-four countries have already committed themselves to achieving carbon neutrality… It is time to act now, while the whole world is ready to pay extra for it. Investors need to somehow mobilize and enter this market — Alexey Zhikharev, Director, Russia Renewable Energy Development Association; Partner, Power Sector Practice, Vygon Consulting.

Russia will remain in the overall climate dialogue... Both China and India, before developing a full system, were just experimenting in certain territories and provinces, so testing is also a very correct approach — Marina Slutskaya, Sustainability Director, DOM.RF Bank.

Despite all the difficulties and pressures that we face in the current geopolitical environment, all our goals for climate education have not lost their relevance. For us, this is primarily the environmental well-being of the population and adaptation to new systemic risks in terms of environmental safety and sustainable development. <...> A year ago, Russia defined its vector of low-carbon development by adopting an appropriate strategy; all goals are set, and there are no plans to abandon these goals. <…> We have set ourselves the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030, 80% by 2050, and to become carbon neutral by 2060. One of the key mechanisms for achieving the set goals is the implementation of climate projects. <…> Today we know about five projects that plan to issue carbon units… The potential of these five projects is more than a million carbon units per year. It is important that companies continue to show interest in the implementation of climate projects despite external pressure... We continue to participate in negotiations on the international rules for the carbon market under the Paris Agreement. <...> We continue to defend our approaches, so that the mechanisms of the Paris Agreement are of a universal cross-border nature and allow the use of national infrastructure in international transactions. This is probably the main guarantee of attracting foreign investment — Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Russia has every chance of becoming one of the largest suppliers of carbon credits in the world. The development of the market of carbon units is in the focus of interests not only of the state, but also of business. In order to do this, within a year, a regulatory and technological infrastructure was formed for the implementation of climate projects and the production of carbon units... All regulations have been adopted, all elements of the system, on which the quality of produced carbon units depends, have been formed. <...> The register of carbon units began to function on 1 September, an operator was identified, flexible pricing [is introduced. — Ed.], which is determined by the size and type of the project — Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

We see this experiment [to create Russia's first carbon trading system, as part of which the region will conduct an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals, set emission quotas and introduce extensive carbon reporting in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. – Ed.] as a structural change in the economy in the region and, first of all, a move towards energy efficiency and an increase in productivity. <...> We plan to conduct the first transactions selling carbon credits this year — Vyacheslav Alenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Sakhalin Region.

Of course, Russian investors will gradually pay more and more attention to the ESG factor. But it must be admitted that at this stage this is not what excites the minds of Russian investors. <...> For Russian companies, attracting Asian investments for their climate projects is possible only by entering these Asian markets. Because the participation of non-residents from friendly countries in trading on the Moscow Exchange is currently insignificant — Victor Drozdov, Member of the Board, Polyus.

Today, we do not have positive mechanisms for the work of Asian investors in the local market, because the necessary exchange instruments have not yet been created. <...> Probably, the only way to get foreign investment at the moment, is to issue on the relevant Asian markets — Natalya Tretyak, First Vice President, Gazprombank.

Renewable energy is one of the main areas that form the reduction of carbon emissions, but so far, unfortunately, not in Russia. <...> The prospects in the near future are very serious... definitely, these are the technologies of the future — Alexey Zhikharev, Director, Russia Renewable Energy Development Association; Partner, Power Sector Practice, Vygon Consulting.

We are thinking about monetizing [the market for carbon credits. – Ed.] as a competitive advantage of our products, but we see a number of problems here. <…> Firstly, it is a lack of trust. Secondly, [too complicated. – Ed.] methodology. <….> It [the methodology of work with carbon units. – Ed.] is a scientific process, very complex, requiring formulas, their verification and the further adoption of general rules that are mutually applicable in various jurisdictions — Aleksey Kozlov, Member of the Management Board, Managing Director, SIBUR.

The climate agenda and the carbon footprint are now one of the most controversial topics in the world, especially when innovations in this part are dictated to us by the [EU], while more recently [the European countries. – Ed.] have started using energy sources with extremely high carbon dioxide emissions again. But we in Russia must remain committed to a green economy and carbon neutrality — Dmitry Pristanskov, State Secretary – Vice-President, Norilsk Nickel.

Of course, there will be no investments in this area without mutual recognition of standards for cross-border movement of carbon units. <...> First of all, we will focus on ensuring mutual recognition with friendly countries such as China, India. It is necessary in order to jointly implement climate projects, attract investment both in our economy and in the economy of friendly countries. It is important to ensure mutual recognition and standardization now as a basis for further implementation of joint projects. We will probably rely on intergovernmental agreements, since we realize that it will be quite difficult to implement this as part of B2B relations. <...> In general, we are open to all foreign partners, we have no closed standards, no closed discussions, we continue the policy of openness and are always ready for negotiations and moving along the climate track. This is important not only from the point of view of ensuring the ecological well-being of the population, security, it also becomes an element of competition. The competition is not local, it is global — Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Russia… has enormous prospects, the market is still completely unoccupied, and investors are 100% welcome. Prospects are good, despite geopolitical changes — Alexey Zhikharev, Director, Russia Renewable Energy Development Association; Partner, Power Sector Practice, Vygon Consulting.

[There are plans on Sakhalin for – Ed.] a complete gasification of the region, transfer of all coal-fired boilers to gas… including with the participation of our Asian partners. <...> We have the task of transferring transport to ecological types of fuel – gas, electricity. <...> There are projects for the construction of wind farms, we are planning to build a solar station. <...> There are areas with forest climate projects. <...> Communication with the whole world will be resumed through the climate agenda, because it is the most understandable, environmentally correct, supported by the population of all countries and governments. This trend is here to stay — Vyacheslav Alenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Sakhalin Region.

For ourselves, in the climate strategy, we considered not only climate risks, but also climate opportunities... that the energy transition brings. This includes an increase in production efficiency, and a decrease in resource intensity, access to capital — Victor Drozdov, Member of the Board, Polyus.

We set out to create a carbon-neutral enterprise. <…> The [Climatic. – Ed.] strategy allows us to make products more environmentally friendly, and this is not only our humanistic priority, this is a competitive advantage in the global market — Aleksey Kozlov, Member of the Management Board, Managing Director, SIBUR.

We are building our strategy to be as committed as possible to a green economy…with the potential to have the lowest possible carbon footprint. We achieved this by releasing the first batch of carbon-neutral nickel in the history of the company in June last year – 5 million tons. <...> The total amount of greenhouse gases from the company's production activities is about 10.3 million tons per year, we have plans to reduce this amount by another 25% by 2028, so it will be up to 8.7 million tons per year — Dmitry Pristanskov, State Secretary – Vice-President, Norilsk Nickel.