In 1983, Mr. Yulkin graduated from the Economic Faculty of the Moscow State University named after M. Lomonosov with diploma in "Economic Cybernetics"; in 1992-1993, he took a 2-year training course of project analysis at the World Bank Institute in Washington, DC (USA).
Until 1993, he worked in his specialty at various economic institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1993 - head of the department of economics, finance and accounting of the NIPEC Corporation, in 1994-2007 – founder and CEO of MCF Financial and Consulting Company LLC. In 1999, Mr. Yulkin initiated the foundation of the non-commercial Environmental Investment Center in Arkhangelsk and has remained its leader until March 2021 when Arkhangelsk regional administration decided to close the center. In 2007-2008, Mr. Yulkin worked in the Russian branch of Camco International, a carbon asset management company listed on the alternative investment market (AIM) of London Stock Exchange, at first as Director for carbon carbon projects, and later – as Director for policy and strategy. In 2009, he took a position of Managing Director at CCGS LLC, a Russian-Dutch consulting company established in 2008 to help Russian industries design and implement GHG emission reduction projects and to sell carbon credits in the international market. In 2019, Mr. Yulkin launched his own consulting company CarbonLab LLC which focuses on climate change mitigation and adaptation matters. In 2021, he took over CCGS LLC and merged it with CarbonLab.
In 1998-1999, Mr. Yulkin participated as a task leader in charge of carbon projects methodology and pipeline development in the Russian Strategy Study on Climate Change, supported by the World Bank and other international donors. In 2022, together with colleagues, he developed and patented the computer program "CarbonLab - Greenhouse Gases" as a tool for creating digital corporate systems for GHG accounting, reporting and managing. In the same year, with this program, the CarbonLab company took 2nd place in the climate leadership competition organized by the Moscow government. In 2023, the company repeated its success with a new intelligent product - a smart system for comprehensive assessment of companies climate sustainability called "CarbonLab - Climate Ranking".
Since 2017, M. Yulkin has been teaching the course "Modern Climate Policy" for 4th year undergraduate students at MGIMO, since 2021 he has been giving lectures, conducting seminars and master classes on the climate agenda as part of master’s and additional professional education programs at MGIMO, Moscow State University, HSE, ITMO, Skoltech, cooperates with Tyumen and Far Eastern universities, conducts educational courses and trainings for corporate clients and government agencies.
In 2018, Mr. Yulkin wrote a book "Low Carbon Development: from Theory to Practice" which happened to be the first publication in the Russian language where the concept and consequences of the world’s transition to low carbon development were explored. Mr. Yulkin co-authored the book "Shale Revolution and the Global Energy Transition" (2019) and the first manual on renewable energy in Russia "Development of Renewable Energy in Russia: Technologies and Economics" (2020). He is also well known domestically and abroad for his numerous articles and interviews on climate change and GHG regulation in the Russian and international media.
In 2009-2018 Mr. Yulkin was the Head of the Working Group on Climate Change and GHG Management at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, in 2014-2018 – deputy Chairman, Head of the Expert (Advisory) Council of the Interregional Working Group for Russian Barents (Euro-Arctic) Region Climate Strategy Development. So far he serves as a member of numerous task forces on climate change, including the Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development under the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation (since 2013), the Working Group on the implementation of a pilot project aimed at GHG emissions reduction in the city of Moscow (since 2016), Commission on Climate Change Economics and Sustainable Development of the International Chamber of Commerce (since 2018), the Working Subgroup on GHG Regulation and Carbon Trading at the Bank of Russia (since 2021), the Working group (project office) on the implementation of the carbon neutrality and GHG regulation experiment in the Sakhalin region (since 2022).