the Introduction of the EU cross-border carbon tax threatens to undermine not only Russian exports to European States, but also the entire national economy. According to calculations of the auditors, KPMG, as a result of application of the tax innovations in the Old world, our country will suffer the most significant losses of all the participants of the world market. Because the main category is supplied from Russia abroad the goods are hydrocarbons and metals, whose production causes the greatest harm to the environment. However, experts believe that the introduction of a new duty, the Europeans mostly care about the environment, and create protectionist barriers for foreign suppliers producing similar but much cheaper products.
cross-border carbon tax is a new tax, which is going to charge EU exporters, counting the volume of carbon dioxide emissions into the environment. Most painful for the Russian economy will be his introduction already with the 2022. First and foremost, the new tax will deal a blow to producers of hydrocarbons and metals industries whose products take the main place in the Russian export. The annual fiscal burden on these industries will increase by $8-9 billion, and total in the period from 2022 to 2030 the Europeans are going to gather with our producers more than $50 billion.
However, to date, there are more loyal to applications of climate tax in the European Union. So, in the case of the introduction of the duty of 2025,and the total amount of charges Russian suppliers will be reduced to $33 billion, and if the tax decision is made to use with 2028, the fiscal burden and does fall to $6 billion the mechanism of its collection is still not clear — most likely it will be included in the import duty on goods coming into the EU, so to avoid it happens only due to smuggling.
Strengthening of requirements to exporters from the EU for several years loomed on the horizon. The basis for the hydrocarbon tax was the Paris climate agreement, which should provide and control measures to reduce carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere. The document was adopted at the end of 2015 to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Speaking at the UN conference on climate in Paris, where Russia among other participants put their signature under the agreement, President Vladimir Putin stated that the Kyoto Protocol, our country has fulfilled its commitments by reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to a level comparable with the total annual volume of pollution of the world atmosphere, thus significantly slowed down global warming. According to him, during 1991-2012 years, thanks to Russia, in the got about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, given that the total annual emissions of all countries was 46 billion tons. Apparently, that was not enough, so the EU considered it my duty to tighten the obligations of the exporters.
“Our country has adopted a strategy of long-term development with low greenhouse gas emissions until 2050, — explains head of analytical Department AMarkets Artem Deev, but compared to the actions of the EU, the Russian plan to reduce the harmful emissions are more conservative. It is obvious that the introduction of new technologies to reduce emissions, we need additional funding and new restrictions by the EU threaten the economy of our country.” According to experts, the introduction of the hydrocarbon tax means that will significantly increase the cost of production of the main Russian export goods — oil and gas. As a result, Europe will try to shift to other suppliers, guarantee the export of more ecologically clean raw materials. It is possible that this is the same natural gas, but the last special processing technology and emit less harmful substances.
“Care about the environment — only the front side of the coin, says investment strategist UK “Arikapital” Sergey Suverov. European officials do not hide that the new tax will be another protectionist measure that would give a competitive advantage to local producers. No wonder at the end of last year, the U.S. began a process of withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, and Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that his country will continue to explore, to reform and develop their economy. In a similar way should go and Russia.”
