Legal Framework for Green Finance in the EU and Russia

Abstract

The climate agenda has recently taken on new significance with global climate change threatening all of humanity. The regulation of green finance instruments needs to be improved in order to attract more money to fight global warming. To ensure investor confidence in green instruments, a common standard for them must be created. The European Union and Russia have been forming a regulatory framework aiming to create national standards for green bonds. The present article analyses the European Commission’s proposed package of measures to help improve the flow of money toward financing the transition to a sustainable economy. The author explores the problems of developing legal regulation of sustainable finance in Russia, especially with regard to the creation of a national taxonomy of green projects and national verification of sustainable financial instruments. The comparative legal study of the EU and Russian draft laws on green finance has demonstrated similar approaches to establishing regulatory rules. The article describes the prospects for green finance in the context of digitalization. Based on a study of best practices (Green Assets Wallet, green bonds, etc.), it is concluded that digital solutions for sustainable finance are currently still not well-developed. In the future, however, their use will significantly increase investor trust in green instruments and reduce costs, in particular through digitalization of the verification process.

Keywords

• green finance
• taxonomy for sustainable activities
• verification of sustainable financial instruments
• digital technologies
• distributed ledger technologies