This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors’ experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University’s usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice.

I Agree

News

Explore our expert insights and analysis in leading energy and climate news stories.

Announcements

Energy Explained

Get the latest as our experts share their insights on global energy policy.

Featured

Podcasts

Hear in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society.

Featured

Events

Find out more about our upcoming and past events.

Featured
June 25, 2026 • 11:30 am - 12:30 pm est

The Cost of Power: Rising Electricity Prices, AI, and the Grid

This event will take place in-person in Washington DC, at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2168 (Gold Room). Advance registration is required. Announcing New Columbia University Publications...

Event • Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2168 (Gold Room)
Washington, D.C.
The Cost of Power: Rising Electricity Prices, AI, and the Grid

About Us

We are the premier hub and policy institution for global energy thought leadership. Energy impacts every element of our lives, and our trusted fact-based research informs the decisions that affect all of us.

Russia

Fact Sheet by Gautam Jain, Preetha Jenarthan, Victoria Prado + 1 more • June 17, 2026

This Country Framework is part of the Regulatory Frameworks for Project-Based Carbon Credit Markets. To learn more click here.

Overview

Russia’s project-based carbon credit market (PCCM) has taken shape as a state-anchored but operationally flexible voluntary crediting system under Federal Law No. 296. The legal framework establishes the institutional architecture for carbon credit issuance—defining climate projects and assigning responsibilities for methodology approval, validation, verification, and registry administration—while leaving many market functions to develop through practice and guidance rather than prescriptive regulation. Carbon units are issued following verified project results and recorded in a centralized national registry, which serves as the backbone of the system. This structure provides clarity and legal certainty on the supply side, even as the framework remains intentionally open-ended with respect to eligible activities and methodological evolution.1

Alongside the voluntary market, Russia is piloting a regional emissions regulation system in Sakhalin, which—although outside the scope of a national emissions trading system—plays an important signaling role for market design. The Sakhalin system allows regulated entities to use carbon units generated under Law 296 to meet regional quota obligations, and, crucially, both systems rely on the same carbon unit registry for issuance, tracking, and offsetting. This shared infrastructure links voluntary supply with limited compliance demand and demonstrates how the registry is intended to function as a unifying platform across different policy instruments.2 In parallel, market-side activity is emerging organically, with private infrastructure such as the Saint Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) developing auction and over-the-counter (OTC) trading formats for carbon units, suggesting growing transactional confidence despite the absence of detailed statutory trading rules.3

Where the framework is least developedis on the demand side. While current rules allow carbon units to be used voluntarily for corporate climate objectives, there is little formal guidance on claims, mitigation hierarchy, scope coverage, or disclosure practices. As participation broadens and secondary trading grows, clearer expectations around how credits may be used and communicated, and how they relate to broader decarbonization pathways, would strengthen market credibility. Looking ahead, publicly stated policy discussions point toward methodology expansion, continued registry and market infrastructure development, and gradual international engagement, including dialogue on Article 6, though no operational authorization or accounting framework has yet been disclosed.4 The near-term opportunity for supporting the growth of the domestic PCCM lies in consolidating the existing institutional base while progressively adding demand-side guardrails and international interoperability as the market matures.

I. Supply-Side Regulations

Russia’s voluntary carbon market under Law 296 establishes a nationally governed, project-based crediting framework focused on the issuance of carbon units resulting from verified climate projects. Supply-side regulation is centered on methodology approval by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, procedural management by the Ministry of Economic Development, and mandatory third-party validation and verification by bodies accredited through RusAccreditation. Carbon units are issued only following verification of a climate project implementation report and are recorded in a centralized carbon units registry operated by a government-authorized entity. While core , reporting, and verification (MRV) and registry controls are disclosed, the framework does not explicitly codify additionality tests, permanence safeguards, uncertainty management, or conservative crediting rules, nor does it reference international voluntary carbon standards.

A. Regulatory Framework

  • Market Classification: Nationally governed voluntary carbon market.
  • Regulatory Status: Law 296 introduces elements of a national voluntary offset market resulting from the voluntary implementation of carbon projects. The law details basic requirements for the generation of credits.5
  • Key Authorities:6
  • Government of the Russian Federation: Establishes the main directions and regulatory framework for the voluntary crediting mechanism.
  • Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation: Carries out operational management of the voluntary crediting mechanism, including approving detailed rules and procedures and setting criteria for climate projects.
  • Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation: Approves methodologies, including those for the quantitative measurement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  • Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources: Reviews and verifies certain GHG information submitted by participants in the voluntary crediting mechanism and takes enforcement actions in cases of non-compliance with applicable legislation.
  • Federal Accreditation Service (RusAccreditation): Accredits validation and verification bodies.
  • Validation bodies: Independent expert organizationsaccredited by RusAccreditation perform validation required to qualify projects as a climate project.
  • Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor): Acts as the environmental compliance and enforcement body, with authority derived from broader environmental law, not from a carbon market–specific penalty regime.
  • Sanctions: In the case of project eligibility refusal, the respective entity that submitted the application may resubmit a revised application within 20 days of its receipt of notice.7 The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources will “take measures” in response to detected violations,8 although there is no disclosure of what the penalties are.

B. Credit Generation Standards

  • Eligible Activities: The law does not specify a list of eligible activities for credit generation. A methodology developed by Gazprombank (GPB) and Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (IGCE) has been said to encompass renewable energy and sustainable forest management activities.9
  • Methodology Framework: No specific methodology is detailed in the law. GPB has signed a deal with IGCE to develop methodologies for Russian carbon credits. Not much detail has been disclosed. Methodologies have been said to encompass renewable energy and sustainable forest management activities.10 Quantification of emission reductions or removals must follow methodologies approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation.11 No international standards are referenced.
  • MRV Requirements: Project developers must prepare a climate project implementation report, which includes information on achieved emission reduction or removals, and the data used to quantify those results. The form and submission procedure of the report are established by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.12 Verification of project results is mandatory prior to issuing carbon units. Verification must be conducted by validation and verification bodies accredited under the national accreditation system, overseen by RusAccreditation.13
  • Registry System: Verified reports, together with a positive verification opinion, must be submitted to the Carbon Units Registry operator, JSC Kontur, which was appointed by the government in 2022. The registry records the climate project, verification status, and issued carbon units.14 Accounting for carbon units and transactions is carried out in the “carbon units registry.”15 The operator maintains the registry at its own expense and charges fees to users. The government sets maximum fees, and the operator sets tariffs within those limits and publishes them on the registry website. Opening an account is capped (not more than RUB 18,000, roughly equivalent to US240),16 and transaction participants must sign an agreement with the registry operator before opening an account.17

C. Integrity Principles

  • Additionality Tests: The regulatory framework does not disclose explicit additionality tests or criteria. Climate projects are validated against approved methodologies and criteria, but the existence or structure of additionality assessments is not specified in the publicly available documentation.
  • Permanence Safeguards: The framework does not disclose permanence requirements or reversal risk management measures (e.g., buffer pools, liability rules, or long-term monitoring). Carbon units are issued based on verified project results for a defined reporting period, with no explicit safeguards addressing durability of emission reductions or removals.
  • Quantification Standards: The framework requires use of approved national methodologies and third-party verification of quantified results.18 However, it does not disclose explicit requirements for conservative assumptions or for the treatment and discounting of uncertainty.
  • Double-Counting Prevention: Carbon units are issued, transferred, and offset exclusively through a centralized national carbon units registry operated by a government-authorized entity, providing transactional controls against double issuance and double use.19 The framework does not address double counting directly, nor discloses additional audit mechanisms or provisions addressing international double claiming or corresponding adjustments.

D. Sustainable Development

  • Co-Benefits: The framework does not disclose mandatory or encouraged requirements for UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) alignment or the identification, monitoring, or verification of co-benefits. Climate projects are assessed solely on their greenhouse gas mitigation outcomes.
  • Net-Zero Compatibility: Russia’s official climate strategy includes a goal to achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2060 and an intermediate aim to reduce emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, largely relying on enhanced carbon sinks in forests and land use sectors rather than on the reduction of fossil fuel emissions. Partly because it’s not very large and is voluntary in nature, Russia’s carbon market itself is not a central mechanism that can drive near-term decarbonization and does not officially constitute a part of the country’s net-zero strategy.20

II. Demand-Side Regulations

At the national level, Russia’s voluntary carbon market framework imposes no demand-side regulations governing how carbon units may be used or claimed by buyers. Carbon units may be held, transferred, or voluntarily used for corporate climate objectives, but the documents disclose no binding or guiding rules on mitigation hierarchy, scope-based offsetting restrictions, claims substantiation, accounting treatment, or alignment with frameworks such as the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) or Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). There are also no explicit anti-greenwashing provisions, disclosure mandates for retirement or claims, or penalties tied to misuse of credits. As a result, demand-side integrity relies primarily on voluntary corporate practices rather than regulatory oversight.

A. Use Authorization Framework

  • Applications Allowed: Voluntary claims may be used by corporations for “achieving corporate climate targets and other purposes” and may be used for offsetting.21 There is no mention of nationally determined contribution (NDC) accounting, Article 6 authorization, or corresponding adjustments in the context of carbon unit use.
  • Regulatory Status: The framework describes issuance, verification, and registry operations, but does not set buyer-side claim rules.
  • Oversight Bodies: While regulators exist for the mechanism (e.g., Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Rosprirodnadzor, RusAccreditation), their roles are described mainly for system governance, methodologies, and checks, not demand-side claims oversight.
  • Standards Integration: No VCMI, ICVCM, or other standard integration requirements are referenced.
  • Enforcement Mechanisms: The documents do not describe penalties for misleading corporate claims using carbon units.

B. Corporate Use Requirements

  • Mitigation Hierarchy: There are no “reduce-first” or mitigation hierarchy requirements.
  • Scope Coverage: No restrictions by scope are mentioned.
  • Quality Standards: No quality standards have been specified. The framework does not reference ICVCM, VCMI, or other recognized integrity frameworks; quality assurance relies on nationally approved methodologies and accredited verification.
  • Accounting Treatment: There is no demand-side requirement for how carbon units in inventories must be accounted for.

C. Transparency and Assurance

  • Public Reporting: No demand-side requirements for public reporting have been specified.
  • Third-Party Verification: There are no demand-side requirements for third-party verification.
  • Science-Based Targets: No SBTi requirements for the demand side have been mentioned.
  • Policy Advocacy: There is no requirement for users to align advocacy with Paris Agreement goals.

D. Market Integrity Protection

  • Anti-Greenwashing: No explicit anti-greenwashing provisions tied to carbon unit use or marketing claims are described.
  • Co-Benefits Delivery: No safeguards or co-benefits requirements are set out; projects are defined in terms of GHG mitigation outcomes.22

III. Market-Side Regulations

Market infrastructure for Russian carbon units consists of a government-authorized national registry supporting issuance, ownership transfer, and retirement, alongside emerging private trading platforms, notably SPIMEX, which has launched OTC and auction-based trading for voluntary carbon units. Law 296 itself does not prescribe exchange trading, clearing, price discovery, or market conduct rules; instead, secondary market activity is developing through private initiatives layered on top of the registry system. Public disclosures on data standards, application programming interface (API) interoperability, know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money-laundering (AML) requirements, clearing arrangements, accounting treatment under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Financial Reporting Standards, and market-specific anti-manipulation safeguards are limited or absent, indicating that market oversight remains largely indirect and supply-side focused.

A. Infrastructure Framework

  • Market Structure: There is no designated government-led marketplace. Carbon units are accounted for in the carbon unit registry, operated by a legal entity authorized by the government.23 SPIMEX has established an OTC trading segment for trading carbon credits and has run pilot transactions and auctions.24
  • Registry Operations: The registry accounts for carbon units and transactions and is used for opening accounts and recording operations.25 There is no disclosure regarding registry operation and fees, nor regarding API access or technical interfaces.
  • Data Standards: The Ministry of Economic Development sets the form of the climate project implementation report and the submission procedure.26 No disclosure of interoperability requirements across registries or common data schemas has been specified.

B. Trading and Participation

  • Eligibility Rules: The registry operator charges fees, and participants must sign an agreement before opening an account (registry participation conditions).27 SPIMEX notes it can commence registration of buyers and sellers for its carbon credits segment, but does not (in the cited excerpt) describe AML/KYC controls.28
  • Trading Mechanisms: SPIMEX describes a registered trading segment for OTC trading for carbon credits registered in the national Russian registry. It has also publicly referenced conducting a pilot auction transaction as part of the OTC platform. No information on the auction format or rules has been disclosed.29
  • Settlement Systems: of trading and the clearing organization.30 Central counterparty, including whether trades are cleared through a central counterparty or settled directly between buyers and sellers, is not disclosed.
  • Price Discovery: SPIMEX describes “a one-sided single-stage ascending-price auction with submission of open bids,” which is an auction in which there is a single seller and multiple buyers who actively and openly increase their bids until only one buyer remains.31
  • Oversight Authority:
  • : Carbon credits are disclosed as “commodities or proprietary rights.” 32 Credits under Law 296 are called carbon units and are defined as “a verified result of climate project implementation expressed in the mass of greenhouse gases equivalent to 1 COâ‚‚.”33

C. Market Integrity Safeguards

  • Anti-Manipulation and Fraud Prevention: There is no disclosure of regulatory provisions to prevent market misconduct and manipulation.
  • Transparency and Reporting Requirements: No requirements for public market-data disclosure are mentioned. SPIMEX indicates it provides “exchange information” and indices under its own framework, but that is not the same as a legal carbon market transparency regime.34

D. Financial and Cross-Border Integration

  • Financial Regulation Integration: No disclosure on securities law integration and regulatory harmonization has been specified.
  • Cross-Border Trading Framework: There is no disclosure on international transfer capabilities and Article 6 implementation.

E. Regulatory Advancement Road Map

  • Infrastructure Plans: SPIMEX has created an OTC segment and has conducted pilot auctions and transactions, indicating infrastructure rollout.35
  • International Cooperation: .
  • Regulatory Evolution: .
  • Enforcement Enhancement: There is no disclosure on market conduct nor on penalty frameworks.

References

  1. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 11–15, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  2. Ibid., 16–20. ↩
  3. SPIMEX, Carbon Credits Trading—A New OTC Trading Segment Set by SPIMEX, April 7, 2023, https://spimex.global/upload/iblock/ead/89toiqft5kb2ecqmsyyu2af0h1fwdrnp.pdf. ↩
  4. Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations and CSR, Report: Asean-Russia Expert Consultations on Carbon Markets, 10–11, 2025, https://www.csr.ru/upload/iblock/447/09h03112m4xbrse1el17wi4hhmm0gk19.pdf. ↩
  5. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 11, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  6. Ibid. ↩
  7. Ibid., 14. ↩
  8. Ibid., 12. ↩
  9. Green.Earth, “Russia’s Carbon Credit Methodologies to Cut Emissions,” March 20, 2023, https://www.green.earth/news/russias-carbon-credit-methodologies-to-cut-emissions. ↩
  10. Ibid. ↩
  11. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 12, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  12. Ibid., 15. ↩
  13. Ibid., 11. ↩
  14. Ibid., 12. ↩
  15. Ibid. ↩
  16. The foreign exchange rate used was 1 RUB, equal to USD 0.013. ↩
  17. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 13, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  18. Ibid., 12. ↩
  19. Ibid. ↩
  20. Climate Action Tracker, “Russian Federation,” accessed April 6, 2026, https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/russian-federation/net-zero-targets/; Tatiana Nevzorova, “Carbon Market for Climate Projects in Russia: An Overview of Nature-Based and Technological Carbon Offsets,” Gases 4, no. 3, 153–173, July 8, 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/gases4030009. ↩
  21. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 11–12, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  22. Ibid., 11. ↩
  23. Ibid., 12. ↩
  24. SPIMEX, “The First Auction for the Sale of Carbon Units Took Place at SPIMEX,” December 10, 2024, https://spimex.global/about/news/1710/. ↩
  25. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 15, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  26. SPIMEX, “The First Auction for the Sale of Carbon Units Took Place at SPIMEX,” December 10, 2024, https://spimex.global/about/news/1710/. ↩
  27. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 13, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  28. SPIMEX, Carbon Credits Trading—A New OTC Trading Segment Set by SPIMEX, April 7, 2023, https://spimex.global/upload/iblock/ead/89toiqft5kb2ecqmsyyu2af0h1fwdrnp.pdf. ↩
  29. Ibid. ↩
  30. Ibid. ↩
  31. Ibid. ↩
  32. Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations and CSR, Report: Asean-Russia Expert Consultations on Carbon Markets, 11, 2025, https://www.csr.ru/upload/iblock/447/09h03112m4xbrse1el17wi4hhmm0gk19.pdf. ↩
  33. Natalia Stapran, Brief on Climate Policies: The Russian Federation, International and Comparative Law Research Center, 12, August 7, 2023, https://iclrc.ru/en/publications/68. ↩
  34. SPIMEX, Carbon Credits Trading—A New OTC Trading Segment Set by SPIMEX, April 7, 2023, https://spimex.global/upload/iblock/ead/89toiqft5kb2ecqmsyyu2af0h1fwdrnp.pdf. ↩
  35. Ibid. ↩
Our Work

Relevant
Publications

See All Work

Full report

Russia

Fact Sheet by Gautam Jain, Preetha Jenarthan, Victoria Prado + 1 more • June 17, 2026

Table of Contents
Back to Top

Sign Up Today

Get the latest news and research on energy & climate policy.