OREANDA-NEWS Anatoly Chubais, the Special Representative of the President of Russia for Relations with international organizations on sustainable development, called for the introduction of a fee for harmful emissions in the country as soon as possible. This is necessary to reduce the amount of the new carbon tax that the countries of the European Union plan to levy.

According to Chubais' calculations, the Russian budget and business may lose up to 1.5 trillion rubles due to the carbon tax. That's how much the EU will have to pay, even at a minimum price of $10 per ton of emissions, the politician noted. In his opinion, this can be avoided only by making a "fundamental decision" on the introduction of Russian fees in 2022 and implementing it in 2023.

"What we will not pay to our budget, we will pay to the budget of the European Union. The logic that first let's deal with the Sakhalin experiment, and then we will decide what to do, will lead to a serious amount of payment to the budget of the European Union," Chubais said at a meeting in the government, RBC reported.

In December 2021, the government supported a bill to conduct an experiment to limit greenhouse gas emissions in certain regions. The pilot program will be launched in the Sakhalin region.

Chubais also recalled that the European Parliament proposed to shift the start date of the carbon tax from 2026 to 2025 and remove benefits for European manufacturers to provide free emission quotas by the end of 2028 instead of 2035. According to the official, quotas will be canceled by 2030.