Greening finance in Russia for a post-COVID future

Alexey Miroshnichenko of VEB.RF outlines the development of a Russian Green Finance Standard designed to mobilize private capital for the state's "Ecology" national project. The standard aims to create a sustainable finance market in Russia by offering incentives such as coupon subsidies and tax breaks, while aligning with international CBI and ICMA criteria to attract foreign investors. Key priorities include waste management, air pollution reduction, and the restoration of ecosystems like Lake Baikal and the Volga.

• The Russian government's "Ecology" national project (2018-2024) aims to liquidate 191 illegal garbage dumps, reprocess 60% of solid communal waste (up from 3%), reduce air pollution in major urban centers by 20%, and restore the ecosystems of the Volga and Lake Baikal.
• The "Ecology" project requires over 4 trillion Rubles (approximately 50 billion Euros), with the government providing 800 billion Rubles and the remainder to be sourced from domestic and foreign private markets.
• VEB.RF is developing a national green finance standard based on international ICMA and CBI criteria to make sustainable bonds attractive. The standard will exclude new coal projects and include carbon emission thresholds for sectors including energy production, transport, forestry, and waste management.
• To stimulate the currently underdeveloped green bond market—which had only five registered issues totaling approximately 80 million Euro as of November 2019—the government plans to introduce coupon subsidies, tax breaks, and verification process subsidies.
• VEB.RF has invested $1.7 billion in four waste-to-energy plants in the Moscow region using Hitachi Zosen Inova technology, which are expected to process 2.8 million tons of garbage annually (35% of the region's waste) by the end of 2022.

APA

Miroshnichenko, A. (2020). Greening finance in Russia for a post-COVID future. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/greening-finance-in-russia-for-a-post-covid-future

Chicago

Miroshnichenko, Alexey. Greening finance in Russia for a post-COVID future. Green Economy Coalition, 2020. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/greening-finance-in-russia-for-a-post-covid-future.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Miroshnichenko |first1=Alexey |title=Greening finance in Russia for a post-COVID future |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=14 April 2020 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/greening-finance-in-russia-for-a-post-covid-future |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{miroshnichenko2020greening, author = {Miroshnichenko, Alexey}, title = {{Greening finance in Russia for a post-COVID future}}, publisher = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/greening-finance-in-russia-for-a-post-covid-future}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }