Mitrofanova I.V. Decarbonization of the Economy – the General Trend of Development of Russia and Its Regions in the 21st Century

Inna V. Mitrofanova
Federal Research Centre the Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation

Abstract. Today the issue of Russia’s low-carbon development and the necessity in cutting down Greenhouse emissions, first of all, carbon dioxide (СO2) is very acute. Over the recent years a lot of documents and regulatory legal acts have appeared in Russia, one way or another related to the decarbonization of the economy, including “National Climate Change Adaptation Plan”, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, “Strategy for the Long-Term Development of Russia with Low Greenhouse Gas Emissions up to 2050”, draft Federal Law “On State Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals”, “The Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy in Russia up to 2050”. Russia needs a network of carbon landfills, its own non-discriminatory system for measuring the balance of greenhouse gases, this is the most important factor of national security today. In the near future, the system of calculations will be worked out on the territory of seven regions: the Chechen Republic, the Krasnodar Krai, Kaliningrad, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk and Tyumen Regions. Since 2020, a pilot project of a carbon landfill has been implemented in Kaluga Region, on lands located within the borders of the Ugra National Park. To finance these projects, it is necessary to attract funds from national projects, first of all, the NP “Clean Air”. Carbon farms are a complex of technologies that enable the absorption of greenhouse gases, and so far for Russia it is mainly forest rather than agricultural technologies. There are about 11 million square kilometers of forests in Russia, and this is a unique reservoir for absorbing CO2, so the 21st century is the century of Russia, which has every chance to become the most important player in the sequestration industry. It is fundamentally important for Russia to become a world leader and gain a high rate of carbon farms development throughout the country. However, there is an acute shortage of qualified personnel for this type of activity in the country, so one of the strategic tasks for Russian universities today is to train specialists for the new sequestration industry in the conditions of a new and inevitable reality – total decarbonization of the economy.

Key words: Paris Climate Agreement, climate risks, industrial greenhouse gas emissions, climate regulation, decarbonization, carbon landfill, carbon farm, carbon hub, sequestration industry.

Citation. Mitrofanova I.V., 2021. Decarbonization of the Economy – the General Trend of Development of Russia and Its Regions in the 21st Century. Regionalnaya ekonomika. Yug Rossii [Regional Economy. South of Russia], vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 4-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/re.volsu.2021.4.1

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