Restoration of the Arctics’ polluted areas as an issue will be discussed within the Forum «RosPromEco-2013»

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Published on 21 June 2013

Round table «Restoration of the Arctics’ polluted areas» will be held within the Russian Industrial and Environmental Forum «RosPromEco-2013».

The Russian Federation is the only one country in the world, which holds large-scale economic activity in the Arctics under very high vulnerability of ecosystems. The ecological situation complicates started development of the hydrocarbon reserves in this region.

Currently in the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone there has been an increase of technogenic and anthropogenic load on the environment; in some adjoining the Russian Federation waters of the Arctic ocean, as well as in separate areas of the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone the probability of achievement of limiting values of the load increases; a high level of accumulated environmental damage associated, including, with the fact that after the collapse of the USSR in the Arctic were thrown many facilities, equipment and supplies of fuels and lubricants (by estimations of experts to 60 thousand tons of oil products are stored in precarious and dangerous conditions).
On the initiative of the Russian Government, the Council on study of productive forces (SOPS) prepared jointly with the Russian Geographical Society pilot projects on environmental renewal of the Arctic. In 2012, the Franz Josef Land (which has been a natural zone of federal importance since 1994) began the work on cleaning the territory of particularly polluted islands. 20 February 2013, President of the Russian Federation approved “Strategy of development of the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone and the national security until 2020”. The document says that in order to protect the environment and ensuring ecological safety in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation provides, including:
effective system development of production and consumption waste treatment in the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone, its maximum involvement in the economic turn-over, limitation of import on the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone of products and packaging, disposal of which is economically and technologically not ensured;

• liquidation of ecological damage caused by past economic, military and other activities in the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone, including the assessment of environmental damage caused and realization of the Arctic seas’ and territories’ clean-up activity from pollution;
• minimization of negative anthropogenic impact on the environment in the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone due to the current economic and other activities, including the development, documentation and realization of measures to reduce threats to the environment, caused by the expansion of economic activity in the Arctics, including the continental shelf (taking into account the necessity to increase responsibility of enterprises-users for natural resources and environmental pollution, promoting the development and introduction of new technologies, ensuring the reduction of negative environmental impact, reduce the risk of and mitigation of consequences within emergency technogenic situations);
• development and introduction of economic mechanisms to stimulate the reproduction and rational use of mineral and biological resources, energy and resource saving, utilization of petroleum gas in oil production areas».

On the round table Russian and foreign experts will discuss topical issues related to the realization of “Strategy of development of the Russian Federation’s Arctics’ zone and the national security until 2020” in terms of restoration of Arctics’ polluted areas.
According to the results of the round table recommendations will be made and be forwarded to the executive and legislative authorities of the Russian Federation.