This study reveals the special role of finance related to the climate and energy transition, the effectiveness of which is evaluated by ESG criteria. The authors define the concept of "sustainable finance" as economic relations within the framework of purposeful formation of capital flows in accordance with ESG principles from public, corporate and private sources and their channeling to achieve the goals of sustainable development, energy transition and adaptation to climate change. It is established that the sustainable development policy implies a comprehensive achievement of goals and solving problems related to the energy transition and overcoming the consequences of climate change, without considering one without the other. The article reveals a connection between the strengthening of climate-related risk management and acceleration of energy consumption, which led to an increase in investor demand for reliable, comprehensive and comparable information. It also reveals significant contradictions between the global players of the global economy regarding the timing and forms of ensuring technological sovereignty and the special role of sustainable finance in achieving it, as well as the importance for Russia to follow global trends in the climate and energy transition. As a special segment of sustainable finance, the field of venture climate finance is developing quite rapidly, but this process is hampered by the lack of adequate information among venture investors about ESG in hightech startup companies and the specter of "black swans" in the financial markets.

The article analyzes the investment activity of sustainable institutional investors after the global financial and economic crisis of 2008. The relevance of the study is conditioned, firstly, by the leading positions of institutional investors in the global financial market and in the system of international finance; secondly, by the special role of mutual funds and ETFs in the global market of sustainable finance; thirdly, by the noticeable dynamics of investments by these market participants in recent years, which increasingly turns into divestments. The purpose of the study is to identify current trends in sustainable investment by global institutional investors and formulate their further actions in the short term. To do this, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: to clarify, taking into account the latest statistical data, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other force majeure factors on the size and dynamics of the flow of funds of sustainable institutional investors in the leading countries of the world, and to assess the impact on investment prospects of current political and financial factors. In the course of the study, a significant amount of scientific research was analyzed, which served as a basis for identifying the institutional investors’ approaches to sustainable finance. It is concluded that the prospects for global sustainable investing are favorable due to the continued stimulation of environmental change at the supranational level, both in developed and leading developing countries. The financial success of sustainable investment will also contribute to this.

The goal of the article is to develop an innovative forecasting approach based on the Random Forest and fuzzy logic models for predicting crypto-asset prices (IFSs, PFSs, q-ROFSs). The baseline forecast horizon is 90 days (additional horizons are 30, 60, 120 and 150 days), which allows to estimate the significance of the chosen features and the impact of time on the forecast accuracy. The paper proposes an optimal data selection approach for the Random Forest and fuzzy logic models to improve the prediction of the daily closing price of Bitcoin, using online social network activity, trading parameters, technical indicators, and data on other cryptocurrencies. This paper utilizes a tree-based machine learning prediction and a fuzzy logic model for Bitcoin. The article attempts to prove that automated Bitcoin forecasting using machine learning algorithms is very effective for the cryptocurrency market. Nevertheless, the latter is characterized by high volatility, significant rate hikes of the most liquid cryptocurrencies (mainly Bitcoin). Therefore, investments in cryptocurrencies, especially long-term ones, involve significant risks. This defines the paper’s significance for investors and regulators. As shown by simulation studies of data selection approaches generalizing the accuracy performance of the Random Forest and fuzzy logic models to real preferences of forecasting, even under significant noise measurements, the proposed selection approach leads to fast convergence of estimates. The accuracy of the model’s results exceed 85.21 on a 90-day time horizon.

The article discusses issues related to the implementation of environmental insurance. Its purpose is to consider a number of problems, the solution of which can contribute to increasing its role in the compensation of losses caused by environmental pollution. To this end, it is proposed to expand the circle of legal entities obliged to provide financial guarantees of compensation for such losses and to use environmental insurance as one of the mechanisms of such guarantees. The effectiveness of guarantees provided by concluding insurance contracts can be ensured by regulating its conditions in a separate regulatory act. In turn, the preparation of the latter requires consideration of some aspects related to the mechanism of conducting environmental insurance. The article, in particular, characterizes the types of environmental pollution and, on this basis, draws conclusions about the possibility, expediency and specificity of insurance in relation to each of them. The insured event in environmental insurance contracts, according to the author, should be the consequences of accidental, sudden and unintentional pollution, i.e., those caused by an accident, disaster or other emergency events of man-made or natural nature. Another problem considered in the article is related to the range of losses that should be included in the scope of insurers’ liability under the insurance contracts concluded in order to provide financial guarantees of compensation for damage caused by environmental pollution. According to the author it should include losses caused by the insured to other legal entities and individuals in the form of damage to natural objects and associated with the implementation of measures aimed at reducing the damage caused by the insured event. A significant place in the article is given to the peculiarities of assessment of damage to be compensated by insurance companies. First of all, it concerns how to calculate the losses caused by damage directly to the natural environment. The results obtained in this part of the article include, in particular, the conclusion that when choosing a method of assessment of such damage one should mainly take into account the amount of costs for environmental restoration.

The article highlights the experience of civic participation in state and municipal management and financial aspects of civic self-organization in different countries of the world. The main forms of cofinancing projects by the population or collecting interest-free loans through civil mutual assistance are determined. Russian practices of financial participation of citizens in the implementation of projects of common interest are identified: co-financing of initiative budgeting projects, practices of self-taxation of citizens, co-financing of projects in the implementation of certain state programs and national projects, as well as co-financing of projects on crowdfunding platforms. Based on the analysis and review of scientific literature, the conclusion was made about the need to define and describe a new phenomenon in the field of public finance — "civil finance", which refers to financial resources and relations between citizens themselves and between citizens and state institutions in the process of implementing management decisions that affect the interests of urban and rural residents.

Increasing competition in all sectors of the economy, caused by the accelerated introduction of new technological advances in manufacturing processes, the creation of innovative products and the use of new business models, generates increased uncertainty in the development prospects of each market organization. The natural reaction of many commercial structures is to deepen specialization and competencies in their core activities. The purpose of the study is to identify the circumstances affecting interaction between a company and a bank in the new conditions. The article for the first time examines these relationships from the point of view of the need for each party to improve its own business, which objectively requires closer cooperation between them. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that strengthening collaboration between a firm and a bank in the field of credit and payment operations and management of related risks is based on pursuit of each party’s own goals and increases the value of each of them. Forms of cooperation between a company and a bank can be different, but the most effective for each organization seems to be a partnership form of relationship, allowing the participants of cooperation to receive the greatest benefits and, at the same time, to strengthen and reinforce their positions in the core activities of each party.

The article considers the conceptual approaches to the taxation of natural resource use. The purpose of the article is to identify the governmental tax risks in the implementation of various scenarios of mining rent withdrawal and to substantiate the methodology of resource taxation in extraction and processing of solid minerals, based on the principle of tax justice. The authors reveal the factors of tax risks for the state in exercising its sovereign right to the mining rent. The article formulates the requirements to the tax system, the observance of which will allow to consider the factors of the state tax risks. Advantages and disadvantages of certain fiscal payments for extraction of mineral raw materials are determined. It is shown that the resource tax should be based on the present value, calculated as the net present value of the investor for the entire lifetime of the project. The authors propose a mining rent taxation mechanism, which would increase budget revenues while maintaining the incentives for mining companies to invest in exploration. The main forks in the design of such a rent income tax are shown

State regulation of the anthropogenic impact on nature, including the policy of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, makes it necessary to support those enterprises that are willing to invest in climate projects. The relevance of incentives in this field is confirmed by the task set by the Arctic Council chaired by Russia at the Research and Training Conference on Climate Change and Permafrost Thawing 2023, namely to find reasonable, practical solutions for adapting the global economy to such changes. In the area of taxation, there is a solution prepared by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development willing to provide a package of tax benefits for investors. According to the draft, they should be exempted from paying VAT and income tax. At the same time, the variety of previously introduced preferential ‘investment’ tax regimes calls into question the rationality of new tax incentives due to the assumption of their redundancy. The fact is that they have similarities in the basic idea of support aimed at the growth of regional investment activity. For this reason, the purpose of the article is to answer the following questions: Is it really worthwhile to expand the number of tax regimes once again? Is it possible to use existing incentives instead of introducing new ones? To achieve the purpose, we rely on the results of comprehensive, comparative analysis of the developed incentives and the current tax preferential regimes on the example of the Sakhalin region. It stands out among other regions of Russia by its carbon-neutral pilot project and the greater number of preferences already enjoyed by investors, so we can provide representative and practically significant results. The hypothesis of the study is based on the concept of complementarity, meaning that the newly developed tax incentives will contribute to the complexity of the Russian tax system but will not cross the scope of the other mentioned tax regimes. The results show that climate projects have their own specifics in terms of objectives as well as areas of investment that require special approaches in tax policy, since investors create a useful economic effect in the form of reducing greenhouse gas emissions rather than producing goods, and no taxable profit is generated until the investor profitably sells carbon units in the market.

After thirty years of continuous evolution, following the conceptual reform in 2004–2007 and subsequent easing, the Russian system of FX controls has come to a point where many administrative barriers have already been removed, the residents’ duties to repatriate proceeds from export of goods, except for FX proceeds from raw materials, are being cancelled, and bureaucratic procedures have been streamlined. At this point, the question is raised of what other steps in the field of liberalization of FX controls can be taken in the first place to achieve the ever more urgent goal of developing nonresource exports. The article analyzes the purposes of regulation, describes the evolution of the system, examines experts’ opinions regarding the course of reforms, and concludes with a view of the rational prospects for reforming the system. The central problem is the continuation and expansion of the automatic exchange of financial information between the tax authorities of Russia and foreign countries, which, in particular, would help limit fiscal risks when eliminating the remaining residents’ repatriation duties.

Studies show that correlations of ESG ratings provided by various rating agencies are fairly weak. The challenge related to disparities in ESG ratings often referred to as “divergence” of ESG ratings is widely discussed in academic and professional community. This divergence may lead to investment decisions made based on misleading information and thus, distort the re-orientation of capital flows into sustainable business. For this reason, there is a growing legislative and regulatory focus on ESG related issues, including the activities of ESG rating providers. The purpose of this article is to conduct a preliminary assessment of the approaches of foreign regulators in addressing the issue of divergence of ESG ratings through an in-depth exploration of this phenomenon and its sources. A careful study of the underlying factors of ESG rating disparities allows us to consider the identified foreign regulatory trends in the context of their focus on eliminating these factors. The methodology of the article is based on the review of the available academic literature and empirical research, study of ESG rating methodologies and analysis of adopted or proposed foreign regulatory requirements. A number of regulatory trends has been identified, which together shape the premise for the development of the regulatory framework of ESG ratings in the future. These trends include a strong focus on corporate ESG reporting and increasing transparency of ESG rating methodologies. However, elimination of the main sources of divergence are not among the tasks of the foreign regulators.