Irina Gayda, Director of the Energy Center at Moscow State University Skolkovo: Carbon neutrality means that the company has reduced to zero emissions of carbon dioxide and its analogues in the course of its production activities or compensated for these emissions through carbon-negative projects.

Many developed countries have signed the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep the global average temperature rise within 1.5 - 2 °C.

Joe Biden in the United States promised to invest trillions of dollars in decarbonizing the economy, and Xi Jinping in China set a goal to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions in the country to zero by 2060.

The European Commission has announced plans to introduce a carbon-neutral space in Europe by 2050, for which an investment fund is being created. The EU plans to introduce a cross-border carbon tax on exported products in 2028, which will be levied on the difference between actual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the production of goods and the EU reference volume, which will cost Russian exporters (gas, nickel and copper) from 33 to 50 billion. the euro in 2025-2030.

This spring, the Government of the Russian Federation should approve the strategy for the long-term development of Russia with low greenhouse gas emissions until 2050, prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. Russia declares its readiness to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 67% of the 1990 level, and the index of industrial activity in the Russian Federation is 48% lower than in 1990.

Inflows into global funds, whose investment strategy is linked to the principles of environmental friendliness, social responsibility and quality of corporate governance (ESG), amounted to almost $350 billion last year compared to $165 billion in 2019, according to Morningstar. The impetus for the green part of these investments was a radical shift in consumer behavior. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, companies, governments and households spent more than $500 billion on renewable energy and electric vehicles in 2020.

In December 2020, a group of 30 asset managers with more than $9 trillion under management launched the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Its mission is to help clients achieve a carbon—neutral balance of their portfolios by 2050.

The main regulatory methods are cap and trade (limit on emissions and trading quotas in excess of the limit) and carbon tax, carbon credit trading, greenwashing, ESG, why American liquefied natural gas (LNG) has a carbon footprint three times greater than Russian natural gas when China switches to gas.