Ministry of Economic Development proposes to introduce fines for violations in the field of climate regulation

Business believes that sanctions should be softened before the formation of reporting practices.

The Ministry of Economic Development has developed a system of penalties for the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions - the so-called regulated organizations, which will fall under the new climate legislation. Vedomosti has amendments to the Administrative Code, prepared by the ministry. The ministry proposes to fine businesses for failure to submit or violation of the procedure for filing reports on greenhouse gas emissions, for distorting information in documents. According to a study by ANO Center for Environmental Investments, industrial and agricultural production are among the main sources of emissions.

It is assumed that the system of penalties will be two-stage, i.e., for a repeated violation, the amount of penalties is doubled. According to the draft amendments, officials will pay from 50,000 to 75,000 rubles for the first violation, individual entrepreneurs - from 100,000 to 250,000 rubles, legal entities - from 100,000 to 500,000 rubles. The maximum fine for a repeated violation will be 150,000 rubles. for officials, 500,000 rubles. - for individual entrepreneurs and 1 million rubles. - for legal entities.

In early July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to limit greenhouse gas emissions and introduce carbon reporting for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. According to the law, a step-by-step model for regulating CO2 emissions is being introduced in Russia; it will affect regulated organizations whose activities are accompanied by greenhouse gas emissions. The collection and compilation of reports will be carried out by an authority authorized by the government.

According to the draft law of the Ministry of Economics, it is assumed that the system of penalties will be in effect from the moment when organizations begin to submit reports: for emitters of CO2 emissions with a mass of more than 150,000 tons - from 2023, for emitters of CO2 emissions with a mass of more than 50,000 tons - from 2025 ...

A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade confirmed to Vedomosti that the ministry has prepared such a bill and plans to bring it up for public discussion. “Administrative punishment should stimulate business to take a more responsible approach to the implementation of the law. Since, first of all, large business entities fall under his requirements, the amount of the fine should not be "invisible" for them, - he explained. According to him, a similar practice is already provided for in the code for other areas of legislation. For example, for distortion of information about accounts in foreign banks, for inaccurate information in applications for foreign investments, the fine is up to 1 million rubles.

And the stick and the carrot

In the context of both global and national climate regulation, there is nothing unusual in the government's plans to provide for a system of disciplinary measures to comply with it - this is normal practice, says RAS Academician Boris Porfiryev. At the same time, it is impossible to leave companies "face to face" with fundamentally new legislation and requirements - you need to at least make sure that the enterprises are really equipped with the necessary devices for accounting for emissions.

“It is not yet certain that all enterprises are now equipped with the necessary instruments that register emissions, or that they are 100% correctly monitored, which takes this into account,” he notes. In addition, for many enterprises, the emission accounting system is new, "incomprehensible", especially for medium-sized businesses, so an interim period should be set before the introduction of fines, he believes.

Requirements for reporting are presented primarily to large, well-known, including export-oriented companies with a name, said Irina Zolotova, director of the Center for Industry Research and Consulting of the Financial University. Such enterprises are obviously interested in creating a reputation for themselves as "green", the expert is sure. “The presence of fines for them would be extremely undesirable, this could result in not only reputational, but also economic losses,” Zolotova continued. According to her, the introduction of a system of disciplinary measures should not cause concern for business, because companies themselves are interested in the most clean compliance with climate regulation, including in connection with the expected introduction of a cross-border carbon tax (CAR) of the EU.

Porfiryev believes that along with punishment, an economic "carrot" is also needed - an incentive system should be developed for companies. “I would recall the US experience in combating pollutants from which the current emissions trading system is copied. They tried to strangle everything with fines, and they did it badly: enterprises in every possible way avoided, someone paid fines, there were litigations. Later, a special quota system was created, which became a kind of compromise, ”he recalled.

Business costs for the formation and maintenance of relevant carbon reporting can be many times higher than the established fines, Zolotova emphasizes.

According to her, the proposed mechanism will lead to more reputational risks than economic ones, therefore, as an alternative to fines, one can introduce, for example, a register of unscrupulous respondents.

Business position

In relation to relatively small companies, the proposed system of fines seems excessively tough, believes Alexander Varvarin, vice president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The business has no experience in preparing such reports, so such a punishment may be excessive, he explained. In addition, from his point of view, it is wrong to equate the violation of the procedure for submitting reports to the article of the Administrative Code on falsification of documents, stamps, seals or forms. The system of sanctions should be much softer - at least a warning should precede fines, Varvarin summed up.

The proposed system of fines in such a harsh form is premature, says a Rusal spokesman. “Disclosure of such information is for us a real opportunity to attract investments in climate projects to modernize production. But so far the government has not determined an authorized body, where the largest enterprises, which include Rusal's enterprises, will have to submit annual reports on emissions - it is too early to introduce fines at the stage of forming a practice, ”Vedomosti's source fears.

A Severstal representative noted that the company regularly discloses data on greenhouse gas emissions. “The data has been audited and calculated according to international methodology. Violations are excluded. In general, we take the topic of reducing CO2 emissions very seriously, ”the source added.

The representative of Inter RAO said that the company publishes data on greenhouse gas emissions in annual reports, and since 2018 these data are annually certified by an international auditor. Since joining the UN Global Compact, Inter RAO has significantly increased the level of transparency of disclosed information in the field of climate impact, the source added.

Representatives of Metalloinvest, Norilsk Nickel, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Aeroflot, Mechel, Rostec did not respond to a request from Vedomosti.

Combating climate change

In 2019, Russia officially joined the Paris Climate Agreement, which provides for a halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from the 1990 level, and by the end of the century - reaching zero emissions.

In July, the European Commission presented an ambitious program to combat climate change, including the introduction of CAR on imported goods. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the measure will affect Russian supplies to the EU of iron and steel, aluminum, pipes, electricity and cement in the amount of $ 7.6 billion. changes were made compared to the published version.

“The methodology for accounting for emissions should not be copied from Western models, otherwise we risk adopting the accounting system that creates unreasonable competitive advantages for Western countries. We must not forget that the West has been dealing with these issues for many years and green projects are receiving significant subsidies from the state, - said Dmitry Polokhin, an expert at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "It is also necessary to take into account such features as the absorptive capacity of Russian forests, new projects for the storage and capture of carbon."

Source: https://yandex.ru/turbo/vedomosti.ru