According to a report from Kommersant on Monday (August 23), Igor Sechin, head of the oil giant Rosneft, told the Kremlin that a carbon border tax like the European Union’s impact on the Russian economy The damage may be greater than sanctions.
European Commission The plan to impose a carbon dioxide tariff has been outlined Polluted goods after 2026 will force some importers to pay the carbon cost of carbon-intensive products such as steel at the border.
Moscow stated that the tax may affect Russian goods worth 7.6 billion U.S. dollars (6.47 billion euros), including iron ore, aluminum, pipelines, electricity and cement, and may eventually expand the scope of the tax to affect oil, natural gas and coal exports.
According to Kommersant News, Sechin told President Vladimir Putin that the possibility of EU taxation and similar taxes elsewhere could cause “greater damage to the economy than the illegal restrictions imposed on Russia and Russian companies.”
This is a reference for many years of foreign sanctions against Russia. The West began to impose sanctions on Russia in 2014 to punish Moscow for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula.
Kommersant said that Sechin is a close ally of Putin and he made the above remarks in a letter to Putin on June 30.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report, and Rosneft, an oil producer led by Sechin since 2012, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kommersant reported that Sechin proposed in the letter that Putin should seek to include Russia on the list of countries exempted from carbon taxes because its ecosystem has the ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
According to reports, he proposed to make Russia’s vast forests’ carbon absorption capacity gain international recognition and support carbon storage projects.
Kommersant said that he also proposed to develop a system that would allow the carbon units calculated by Russia to be recognized abroad.
