Deputy PM: Russia will have to react to planned EU carbon duties

MOSCOW, Jun 23 (PRIME) – Russia should react to the planned E.U. carbon duties that will hurt Russia’s key exporters and trigger economic restructuring within the integrational mechanisms like the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said on Wednesday.

“The climate agenda bears serious challenges for the economies of our countries. This is not just about global warming, though it covers that too. The developed states have decided not just to abandon carbon energy sources, but also the goods that leave a significant carbon footprint as well,” he said during a session of the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper chamber.

“The new restriction measures will cover the major items of Russian exports, it will make a large-scale restructuring of the economy necessary. The EAEU will have to develop and approve a common economic policy in this sphere. We will have to use a collective negotiation resource to cooperate with the largest economies like the E.U., the U.S., and China.”

The Russian government put forward these issues for discussion in the EAEU and in the union’s regulatory body Eurasian Economic Council, he said.

He also said that members of the EAEU – Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan – increased the role of the Russian ruble in mutual settlements, and the share of ruble in the settlement structure increased to 72.5% in 2019.

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