Approaches to Implementing Ecosystem Climate Projects in Russia

Russia is developing a national legal and regulatory framework for implementing the Paris Agreement. In Russian strategic documents, there is an inconsistency in measures and quantitative indicators to reduce emissions and increase absorption of greenhouse gases, and the main stake on forest and other ecosystems through the implementation of climate projects raises questions. The objective of this work is to determine the purpose and place of climate projects within the framework of the national low-carbon policy, as well as to analyze the possibilities and limitations of their implementation in Russia. The main criteria for climate projects are the principle of additionality, conservatism in determining the baseline, and minimization of risks (leakage, volatility, termination of project financing, reversions). Ecosystem projects are high-risk compared to projects in the industrial sectors of the economy, while the climate component of project activity arises only with long-term preservation of the result. The goal of climate projects in Russia should be to develop mitigation technologies based on sustainable management of natural ecosystems: the results should be characterized by multiple benefits in the field of ecosystem services of the territory, biodiversity and adaptation to climate change, which increases their attractiveness when implementing the policy of sustainable development of companies and the state. Given their additional nature, the projects will not be able to provide a significant quantitative contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but may provide a tool to achieve these goals. At the initial stage of the formation of the Russian carbon market, only reliable and transparent projects should be allowed to be implemented (reforestation and afforestation with mixed species; improved forest management of managed forests; management of previously unmanaged forests; restoration of wetlands/grass ecosystems; conservation of soil carbon of agricultural lands; biochar application to soils). Projects such as the preservation of forests from logging and the creation of monoculture plantations require the development of a separate regulatory framework to prevent falsification and minimize the threat to local natural ecosystems.