Possibilities for e implementation and potential impact of the ESG policy in the resource economy of the Far-Eastern federal district

Abstract

The ESG-policy (policy in the field of environmental, social and corporate governance) as an instrument for implementing the concept of sustainable development has been studied. The international and Russian practice of applying ESG principles in the corporate sector is considered. The institutional field of state regulation of the ESG policy in the Russian Federation is analyzed with an emphasis on its environmental component. Possibilities of using the taxonomy of sustainable development projects of two types (green and adaptive) as an instrument of the ESG policy to attract concessional financing and to form economic incentives for transition to the advanced environmental standards are shown. Examples of implementation of ESG approaches at the corporate level in the natural resource sector of the Russian Far East are considered. Promising for implementation for the forest-rich Russian Far East are forest-climate projects (measures for reforestation and afforestation, conservation of especially valuable forests, increasing the degree of beneficial use of forest resources) related to green taxonomy. The potential for reformatting promising investment projects in the resource sector of the Far-Eastern federal district into sustainable development projects is shown on the example of the formation of a metallurgical cluster. The possibility of transferring the principles of the ESG policy from the corporate level to the level of macro-regional regulation in the Far-Eastern federal district is considered. This will expand the structure of investment sources for the implementation of the state policy of accelerated development of the macro-region through green financial instruments for resource projects that have the potential to move into the taxonomy of sustainable development projects.