SIBUR closes first carbon offset sale

August 21, 2023. SIBUR has completed its first deal to sell carbon offsets produced as part of a climate project at ZapSibNeftekhim. The deal helped QIWI, a leading provider of new generation payment and financial services, fully offset its 2022 GHG emissions (Scope 1 and 2).

The sale and redemption of carbon units was carried out using the Green digital platform based on blockchain technology, which ensures a high level of data transparency, traceability and immutability throughout the climate project life cycle.

ZapSibNeftekhim’s climate project meets ISO 14064-2:2019 as confirmed by Verico SCE, Europe’s leading validation and verification body. The carbon units gained under the project are put on the distributed ledger and made available to buyers worldwide, enabling businesses and individuals to offset their carbon footprint.

Mikhail Karisalov, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of SIBUR: “The first carbon offset deal is a major step for both SIBUR and the market. Having worked our way from the implementation and international certification of our technological climate project to closing a blockchain sale with maximum transparency, we gained invaluable experience and are all set for taking this initiative further.”

Andrey Protopopov, CEO of QIWI: “QIWI is fully aware of the gravity and scale of global climate change, that is why carbon footprint management is among the priorities of its sustainable development strategy 2025. We are pleased to announce that, thanks to cooperation with SIBUR, we have managed to fully offset QIWI's direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. We believe it is important to support the development of voluntary carbon markets, which play an increasingly important role in the decarbonization of the global economy. QIWI plans to continue working on new environmental initiatives and projects based on breakthrough technologies.

Elizaveta Romanova, General Director of Green Digital Platform: “The Green digital platform is designed to structure climate projects in line with international standards and attract carbon finance. The platform features a Polkadot-based Carbon Register, which contains data on climate projects, as well as the issue, transfer and redemption of carbon units resulting from them. The use of a public blockchain increases project transparency and trustworthiness while also keeping the data immutable and accessible for all stakeholders.”

SIBUR’s climate goals are reflected in its 2025 Sustainable Development Strategy. To achieve them, the Company implements a wide range of decarbonisation measures, which are regularly updated. In 2022, SIBUR reduced specific GHG emissions in Gas Processing and Petrochemicals by 20% and 5% respectively, and increased the share of green energy in its energy mix sixfold vs 2021. We obtained international certification of the climate project at ZapSibNeftekhim confirming the reduction of GHG emissions totalling some 3 million tonnes of CO₂ eq. The climate project implemented at SIBUR-Khimprom in Perm is the Company’s first project to be included in the Russian Registry of Carbon Units. Moreover, SIBUR launched the Green Formula - NBS climate initiative in 2022 and has planted over 2 million trees as part of it.