Carbon Farming and Bioeconomy Development in Russia: Presentation of HSE University Carbon Test Site at G20

© HSE University

The G20 Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering (RIIG) on circular bioeconomy was recently held in Dibrugarh, India. Over a hundred scientists, representatives of government agencies, and members of international organisations from almost thirty countries (including Russia) took part. Alexey Ivanov, Academic Supervisor of the Centre for Technology Transfer at HSE University, spoke about the role of carbon farming in climate change mitigation and bioeconomy development and presented a project of the Pokrovsky carbon test site operated by HSE University.

Alexey Ivanov

Global greenhouse gas emissions are now reducing, but too slowly to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century and avoiding rapid warming and the catastrophic consequences of climate change. ‘The carbon balance is no longer in our favour and the mechanisms to reduce emissions and absorb them need to be more actively engaged. And if reduction is difficult because it is hard to slow down production and economic activity, all that is left to do is to increase the role of the sequestration industry, including the development of carbon farming,’ says Alexey Ivanov.

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia is involved in a pilot project to create carbon test sites in Russian provinces to develop and test carbon control technologies, Alexey Ivanov says. These are forest, marine and agricultural areas with specific ecosystems and equipped with technologies to control the absorption and emission of greenhouse gases. One such area is HSE University’s Pokrovsky carbon test site, which will be opened in the Moscow, Kaluga and Kirov regions with the participation of scientific and industrial partners.

‘The Pokrovsky test site will develop a whole package of technological solutions, including the creation of specialised crop species. These solutions will be in demand not only in Russia, but around the world,’ Alexey Ivanov believes.

To implement the carbon test site project, HSE University formed a consortium of partners from the industry and academia, including the RAS Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, the Federal Williams Research Centre of Forage Production and Agroecology, the Kaluzhsky carbon test site, and Uralchem United Chemical Company. Test site employees will select the best candidate plants that absorb carbon dioxide most efficiently, create digital remote biomass monitoring models, develop a concept of the carbon farming industry, the organisational and legal model of a carbon farm etc.

Carbon farming as a tool of climate policy can also be of great significance for the development of bioeconomy, above all as a source of biomass. ‘In bioeconomy, in which experts see a new industrial revolution, biomass has applications ranging from new materials to replacing animal proteins,’ explains Alexey Ivanov. ‘The transition away from carbon economy is inevitable. Many countries, such as the USA, those in the EU, and India, have already adopted national programmes for the development of bioeconomy. But Russia is not on that list yet.’

The development of bioeconomy requires not only ready-made technological solutions, but also economic incentives. Carbon farming is a necessary element of this puzzle. But financial incentives are needed to develop it by trading offsets on the carbon market. ‘And if we launch the market in the Eurasia and BRICS+ space, then we will have a chance to start fully developing bioeconomy in Russia,’ believes Alexey Ivanov.

Russia and neighbouring countries, such as Kazakhstan, have a unique resource in the form of abandoned agricultural land, of which there is an estimated 80 million ha in Russia and up to 10 million ha in Kazakhstan. They already absorb carbon on their own, and retargeting these lands into carbon farms, planted with crops specifically adapted to the tasks of absorbing greenhouse gases and cultivated using carbon farming methods, would multiply their sequestration potential. ‘We must use our weakness—abandoned land—to our own advantage: to turn it into an efficient sequestration industry and at the same time a source of resources for developing bioeconomy,’ says Alexey Ivanov. The potential of hayfields, pastures, and cultivated land must be taken into account, which is the focus of the Pokrovsky test site. For example, researchers from the Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute have found that arable and pasture land in Russia can sequester up to 2.4 gigatons of carbon, which is four times more than the annual emissions of the entire country.

Alexey Ivanov

© HSE University

‘Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking on the objectives of India’s G20 presidency, stressed that this moment is crucial for the world: there is a need to work together to solve problems and take far-reaching decisions. Many developing countries, mainly in the Global South, are the areas that are most affected by global warming caused by the developed world. Only international cooperation and solidarity can address the climate challenges that the planet faces. Russia and Kazakhstan, with their huge natural and climatic potential and millions of hectares of unused land, can lead the carbon agriculture movement in the world and become the key suppliers of projects that generate carbon units,’ Alexey Ivanov concludes.

Commenting on the goals of HSE University’s participation in the G20 carbon agenda, he said, ‘We are familiar with the work of the G20 innovation track: back in 2012–2013, during Russia’s G20 presidency, I served as the Russian Sherpa to the B20 Innovation Group. We do not overestimate the role of B20, but at the same time, we would not want to diminish it. The primary value of this international platform is the formation of ideas and planting the seeds for future solutions. It is very important that Russia, in partnership with Kazakhstan, introduces a premise on the role of abandoned agricultural land for the development of carbon agriculture and bioeconomy as a whole, thus laying a solid foundation for future large-scale projects. By building on the meanings and values already established by the G20, we will be able to implement the task of creating a carbon trading market, and then the work of the Pokrovsky test site will also be filled with specific economic meaning.’