Carbon markets, particularly emission trading schemes (ETS) and carbon offset projects, are significant mechanisms in climate change mitigation. However, there are still a number of unresolved issues regarding their attractiveness and efficient functioning. Blockchain, as the core of “3D’s concept” (including decentralization, decarbonization and digitalization), could be considered as a candidate solution for carbon markets’ improvement. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the role of blockchain in ETS and carbon offset projects, its key features, implementation challenges and proposed applications, by analyzing and discussing the content of relevant studies, and grouping the results into domains. This study’s findings show that blockchain has great potential to be adopted in carbon markets. However, there is no data on blockchain use cases in energy efficiency, chemical processes and industrial manufacturing, waste disposal, and agriculture. Blockchain-based household and transportation carbon offset projects are linked to renewables through energy trading. Renewables and forestry are the most appropriate domains for blockchain adoption, considering various criteria of quality for carbon offset projects. Blockchain is currently immature in carbon markets because of its own drawbacks and challenges. This study also highlights research gaps and offers research directions to inspire researchers for conducting related investigations.

Prolific illegal timber trade between Russia and China cannot be stemmed by present certification schemes and Russian governmental strategies. Blockchain could present a new technological opportunity, simultaneously addressing illegal logging, regulating timber trade and meeting the needs of environmentally-sensitive markets. SWOT analysis of blockchain applicability in Russian-Chinese timber trade is presented. Decentralisation based on smart contracts could ensure timber supply chain transparency through each log cryptographic encryption. However, it is considered complicated as cryptocurrency (on which trade depends) is beyond the legislative sphere of both countries and energy demands are enormous. Beyond cryptocurrency prohibition, huge businesses and governments cannot accept blockchain for international trade because of transparency and cost risks. Digitalisation through blockchain implementation could provide a highly transparent, non-editable system to handle decentralised big data characteristic of the forestry economy, realise Industry 4.0 and develop the "China-Mongolia-Russia" economic corridor. Fundamentally, a workable Russian-Chinese Government-Science-Business model must be cultivated for effective blockchain implementation.

Forest carbon sinks in Russia are an integral part of the national “Low-carbon development strategy”. However, the influence of natural disasters and various land use policies in economic regions (ERs) raises the issue of forest carbon sink efficiency (FCSE). This study adopted a DEA-SBM model that considers undesirable outputs to measure FCSE, and the Malmquist index (MI) approach to analyze total factor productivity (TFP) of forest carbon sinks, using panel data from 2009 to 2021. The results show that the average FCSE was 0.788, with an improvement rate of 21.2%. Scale efficiency is the main factor constraining FCSE in Russia. In twelve ERs, forest carbon sinks are efficient only in the Kaliningrad and West Siberian ERs. In general, forest carbon sinks in Russia are inefficient mainly due to forest fires and other natural disturbances (82.33%); excessive logging activities (38.64%); and lack of carbon absorption capacity (31.70%). The average score of their TFP is 0.970, indicating a decline of 3% over the study period. This is primarily attributed to the decline of 1.6% in technological change. The productivity of forest carbon sinks remained static only in the Kaliningrad ER, while other economic regions performed deterioration trends. Therefore, Russia should enhance the efficiency of forest carbon sinks.

Forest carbon sinks in Russia constitute a fundamental component of the national "Low-Carbon Development Strategy" (LCDS), which, under the target scenario, aims to increase their net absorption capacity to 1200 million tons CO ₂ -eq./year by 2050. However, some researchers have regarded this figure as significantly overestimated, suggesting 980 million tons CO ₂ -eq./year as a more realistic upper limit. To evaluate the validity of this assumption, the GM(1,1) model was employed to forecast Russia's forest carbon sequestration potential through 2050. The model demonstrates high predictive accuracy despite data constraints. The prediction results indicate that by 2050, Russia's total forest carbon stock is projected to reach approximately 141.89 billion tons. Nevertheless, the annual forest carbon sink volume in Russia is projected to reach only 983.44 million tons CO ₂ , aligning with the assumption that the official estimate may be overstated (by 18.05%). Therefore, Russia's LCDS regarding forest carbon sequestration potential should be reconsidered and revised accordingly.