Renewable energy sources: Regulations in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The problem of a legal regulation in the sphere of renewable energy sources is a very actual challenge in Russian Federation. According to the Energy Strategy of Russia, until 2030 an implementation of the alternative energy in all spheres of life aims to be widely applied. Unfortunately, nowadays only 0.5% of energy obtained from renewable energy sources is applied. Paradoxically, in Russia there are no real political legal outcomes from the mentioned strategy, which demonstrate its direct implementation. At the same time, according to the official website of the Russian Energy Ministry, Russia has got one of the most promising potentials of energy produced by renewable energy sources. The content of this abstract will include an analysis of the existed political situation, socioeconomic obstacles, and also current legislative basis regarding aspects of the renewable energy sources' development in Russian Federation. From 1997 in Russia, there has been an active process of a relevant bill draft's creation, which could regulate questions in the mentioned area. However, during 16 years all acts regarding this area were collating indirectly the renewable energy sources. Hence, the Federal Law "On Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency" (November, 2009) offered only framework principles of the renewable energy sources regulation. Therefore, in order to realize comprehensively all the clauses of the mentioned Act, certain legal statutes need to be adopted, which have not been done yet. The existed Russian regulation consists of purely declarative framework norms and a common necessity of renewable energy sources' development. It is worth emphasizing that there is so-called oil lobby which occupies a certain niche in the national legislative authority. Indeed, depending on a level of a political influence of a certain oil corporation, its economic power and point of view impacts on a law making and adaptation of legal acts regarding the energy in Government of Russian Federation. Nevertheless, The Energy Committee of the Russian State Duma intends at the moment to continue its work to develop a law making of a separate act, dedicated to renewable energy sources. This law have been passed in the end of 2014. As of today, there are several politicolegal reasons why this law is still missing: (1) a direct dependency of the Russia economy from the oil and gas industry, which predetermine a development of internal and external affairs; (2) a lack of state and regional financial support towards the Regions of Russian Federation, which aim to use "a clean" energy; (3) a dependency of the Russian Parliament from oil companies. Thus, an adaptation of the offered law is only possible after the mentioned factors have been eliminated.