ON APPROVAL OF TEMPORARY REGULATIONS ON THE PROCEDURE FOR IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE OF GREENHOUSE GASES RESOLUTION OF THE CABINET OF MINISTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN DD MARCH 7, 2024 y. RCM № 117.

Exhaust gases – one of the groups of gases controlled by the Paris Agreement – carbonate anhydride (CO2), methane (CN4), nitrogen oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbon (NFC5), perfluorocarbon (PFC5) and sulfur fluoride (SF6);

carbon units (carbon offset, carbon credit) – a sales certificate representing a reduction in emissions of one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) or an equivalent amount of another greenhouse gas;

Voluntary market for carbon units – a market in which business entities voluntarily buy or sell carbon units;

Voluntary market for carbon unit’s project – projects aimed at the development of carbon units based on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and sale on the voluntary market for carbon units;

Interdepartmental Council – Interdepartmental Council for coordination of measures on transition to green economy in the Republic of Uzbekistan, established by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan № PP-436 dated December 2, 2022;

National Authority (hereinafter – National Authority) – Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

Working body (hereinafter – the Working Body) – the project office of the “Center for Green Economy Projects” under the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

Initiator of the project of the voluntary market of carbon units (hereinafter – the project initiator) – state bodies and organizations, private organizations, foreign resident organizations, international financial organizations, submitted an initiative proposal for the implementation of the project of the voluntary market of carbon units (hereinafter – the project initiator) in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

Organization supporting the development of verified carbon units (hereinafter – Service Organization) – a legal entity that provides support on the basis of a contract and is the initiator of the project of the voluntary market of carbon units in the organization of development, marketing and sale of verified carbon units;

Validation – assessment by the Validator of compliance of the project of the voluntary market of carbon units according to the criteria of international standards of carbon units based on the provisions of the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards of carbon units, which includes compliance with the project and technical documentation with the established requirements;

Validation Report – a report prepared by the Validator on the completion of validation conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards for carbon units;

Validator – an organization appointed by mutual agreement of the Project initiator and the Service Provider and accredited in accordance with the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards of carbon units;

verification – periodic verification and approval by the verifier of the actually achieved result on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of project implementation during each project monitoring period in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards of carbon units;

Verifier’s report – a report prepared by the verifier on the completion of verification conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards of carbon units;

Verifier – an organization appointed by mutual agreement of the project initiator and service provider and accredited in accordance with the Paris Agreement and (or) international standards of carbon units;

state-private partnership – cooperation based on pooling the resources of a partner on behalf of the state and the private sector in order to implement a legally formalized public-private partnership project for a certain period of time;

state partner – the Republic of Uzbekistan and (or) executive authorities of the Republic, local executive bodies, as well as other legal entities authorized by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan or their associations;

Private partner – a legal entity or an association of legal entities registered in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan or a foreign state, which has concluded an agreement on public-private partnership with a public partner;

National registry of carbon units – a registry in which verified carbon units are recorded, transactions related to them are recorded and maintained by the National Authority.

All investment projects implemented in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan – projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Type 1 projects and aimed at the production of verified carbon units according to Chapter 4 of the Regulation;

projects implemented on the terms of public-private partnership or with the participation of state organizations and enterprises (customer)-projects aimed at the production of verified carbon units based on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions utilized by the state as a result of type 2 projects are implemented in accordance with Chapter 5 of the Regulations.

CHAPTER 2: REQUIREMENTS FOR VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKET PROJECTS

Renewable energy projects: providing energy to national or regional grids from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, waste and biomass energy, as well as the expansion of renewable energy sources connected to small grid or off-grid sources;

Energy efficiency projects: introduction of technologies and solutions that reduce energy consumption without compromising the volume and quality of services or products;

Green and low-carbon industry development projects: attracting innovative technologies that reduce resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and low-waste technologies to the industrial sector, as well as effective green investments;

Reforestation projects: planting and stable cultivation of trees, improving and expanding the exploitation of all forest systems, Agro-forestry or pastures;

Waste management and recycling: waste management related to the creation of sustainable methods of producing energy or useful products (composting, biogas, etc.);

Water, sanitation, hygiene and green buildings: projects aimed at climate change mitigation and/or adaptation.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKET PROJECTS

Gold Standard;

Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard;

“Clean Development Mechanism” standard;

“ISO 14064 Standards” set of indicators for greenhouse gas emissions quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification programs.

CHAPTER 4. PROCEDURE FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTS OF THE VOLUNTARY MARKET OF CARBON UNITS

Projects second category submitted by the national authority as a proactive proposal shall be implemented in accordance with the procedure stipulated in Chapter 5 of the Regulation.

Information provided in the sample form in the second annex of this Regulation is prepared according to the draft proposal for a voluntary market of carbon units;

Conclusion of the project expertise conducted by the “Center for Complex Expertise of Projects and Import Contracts” in accordance with the established procedure.

The following cases shall be grounds for rejection of the application:

That the project concept does not meet the requirements of this Regulation;

Based on the requirements of this Regulation, incomplete or incorrect information in the project concept;

That the project does not comply with the methodologies of the standards mentioned in Chapter 3 of this Regulation.

In case of negative conclusion of the national body, within twenty working days the national body shall send the project initiator for processing, indicating the reasons for rejection.

In this case, at the stage of selecting the winner of the tender, the number of criteria that are included for payments specified in the third paragraph of paragraph 25 of this Regulation is used.

The project initiator shall pay no later than, ten working days:

Signs the project implementation agreement with the National Authority;

Pay 20 times the basic calculation amount for afforestation projects and 40 times the basic calculation amount for non-afforestation projects.

Upon completion of the verification, the project initiator shall notify the National Authority in writing of the results of the verification within five working days.

Payment of opportunity cost of 5% of the sales volume of verified carbon units at the national contribution level (NDC);

At least 50 percent of the remaining funds after deducting the amount of investments made from the sales volume of verified carbon units (including in the form of technology).

90 % of payment to the State Budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

10 % to the Center for Green Economy Projects (Working Body).

CHAPTER 5. PROCEDURE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTS BASED ON THE INITIATIVE PROPOSAL OF THE NATIONAL AUTHORITY

When implementing projects of this category, the Working Body acts as the initiator of the project.

Involvement of a service organization is carried out in accordance with the procedure stipulated by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On additional measures to improve the procedure for organizing a tender and conducting electronic online auctions” No. 18 dated January 12, 2022.

That at least 50 percent of the sales of verified carbon units resulting from the verification of the project should be sent to the National Authority;

The application of the methodologies of the International Carbon Units Standards in the development and implementation of the projects presented in Chapter 3 of these Regulations,

If the proposal is submitted from foreign companies, the involvement of local companies to work on the project.

CHAPTER 6. FINAL RULES

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