Translated material
On the issue of Baikal
The state may reintroduce mandatory environmental assessments
In Russia, a mandatory state environmental assessment may again appear, around the abolition of which, since January 2007, many copies were broken. Yesterday, President Dmitry Medvedev gave the government a month to think about it. “If we jointly believe that the loss of environmental impact assessment has led to dire consequences, then no matter what they say about bribes and bureaucracy, we need to revive it, there is no problem. I instruct the government to prepare a report on this matter within a month. This must be an objective report, taking into account the positions of business and local authorities,” said the head of state in Vnukovo, Moscow Region, at a meeting of the State Council Presidium dedicated to issues of state regulation of environmental protection.The government’s attitude to this serious problem, “ecological nihilism,” as the president called it, outraged Dmitry Medvedev. “No matter what they say, this is not a business problem, not a problem of lobbying, which exist in any country. This is the problem of the attitude of government officials to the environment. Therefore, I would like the government to speak directly on this topic, including all respected leaders responsible for making these decisions,” Mr. Medvedev said harshly. “Let them themselves, the relevant bosses, take the trouble and say: we don’t want this kind of pilot projects that are aimed at eliminating the accumulated environmental damage. Let them tell our people about this directly. And if they don’t say so, then let them allocate some money. I mean all the ministries and leadership of the Russian government,” he noted.
However, the bulk of the money for environmental restoration should still come from the violators themselves. A working group of the State Council under the leadership of Kalmykia President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov proposes to create a unified state fund for environmental protection, which will be financed from fines for damage to the environment and contributions from large monopolies for the restoration of flora and fauna. What exactly this money will be used for was not discussed at the meeting. But one of the priority tasks should be the development of alternative energy.
According to Mr. Ilyumzhinov, the European Union has adopted a law that obliges the share of electricity production from renewable sources to be increased to 20% by 2020. In Russia it is proposed to introduce a norm of 10%. In order to financially stimulate the new energy program, it is proposed to oblige state-owned companies to purchase “green” energy, as well as to pay extra to sellers for each kilowatt-hour sold from the state budget.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told the audience about his favorite project in the field of alternative energy - electricity from manure. “At the Munich Zoo there is a sign: “Take care of the elephants! They provide energy for the entire zoo.” This is a truly serious thing,” he noted. Currently, the volumes of environmentally friendly energy produced in Russia do not exceed 5 MW per year. “I won’t even comment on this figure,” Mr. Medvedev said bitterly in response.
Although, of course, it is not only government members who disdain the environment. “This is our mental problem,” the president believes. But it will be solved primarily through improving legislation, and not through changing mentality. “We need a unified state policy. It is obvious that trying to solve environmental problems through isolated actions, through non-systemic solutions will lead to nothing, because we will do something in one place, and in another, unfortunately, everything will fall down. The fact that such an approach is ineffective is fully evidenced by the current state of affairs, including (and perhaps this is what I would specifically like to draw the attention of all government leaders and regional leaders present here) to unresolved problems, unfulfilled instructions, unfulfilled tasks.” , said Dmitry Medvedev.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Yuri Trutnev admitted: “In relation to the accumulated environmental damage of past years, government regulatory measures are ineffective. It just needs some general cleaning. For the first time, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources carried out an inventory of the most dangerous pollution sites. 194 environmental hot spots have been identified. Six pilot projects have been identified to test technologies for eliminating accumulated damage. We were ready to start this work in 2009, but, unfortunately, during the ensuing crisis, funding was never opened.”
Pilot projects are former military bases and polar stations on the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the former Phosphorus OJSC (chemicals, Samara region), the former Angarsk Metallurgical Plant (Irkutsk region), the liquidated chlorine production (Usolye-Sibirskoye) , former OJSC Komsomolsk Sulfuric Acid Plant (Khabarovsk Territory), a tungsten-molybdenum plant in Buryatia and the Kurgan region, where pesticides prohibited for use are stored.
It is necessary to introduce environmental monitoring throughout Russia, strengthen responsibility for environmental crimes, and differentiate the responsibility of neighboring regions. “If you compare us with other countries, we haven’t got a horse yet,” the president admitted. However, things are also not going well for states that are much more developed in this regard. “The Americans, I’m sure, also thought that everything was fine with them, that they had everything financed, that they had good legislation, but now it’s not clear what will happen. What will happen to the Gulf of Mexico (see page 4) , what will happen to the flora and fauna of the sea, and it is not even clear what will happen to this company (BP - Ed. ), because it is not known what will happen. Environmental responsibility by its nature is such that it can ruin anyone - not just a large company, it can bring a country to its knees,” Mr. Medvedev noted.
In addition to general environmental problems, such a special topic as the preservation of Lake Baikal was also discussed. Governor of the Kirov Region Nikita Belykh noted at the end of the discussion that this topic was not even raised at the meeting. “Today this topic was not mentioned in any of the speeches. This problem is not discussed, and this worsens relations between society and the authorities. There is a crisis of trust between society, government, business - this applies not only to corruption schemes, this also applies to environmental legislation, when there is no clear intelligible position, there is no normal, clear dialogue with society,” he said. But Dmitry Medvedev objected to him. “I don’t know why anyone here has the feeling that Baikal or any other topic is excluded from public discussion. Who said that? - he asked rhetorically, making his closing remarks. The fact that this topic is being discussed can be understood by at least typing “Baikal” in any search engine. “So they are discussing all this. And the government is discussing. The government has its own view on this topic, but this is the government’s view, it has both pros and cons. But this topic is not excluded from public discussion, it is not closed at all. Moreover, if you think it is right to raise it, raise it, involve environmental organizations in the discussion. Who said it was taboo? Please. Only, of course, without hysterics and campaigning,” the president concluded. As you know, Vladimir Putin signed a government decree that resumed the work of Oleg Deripaska’s Baikal pulp and paper mill, which caused mass protest rallies in the Irkutsk region.
As a result, by 2011 the Ministry of Natural Resources should develop three federal programs with total funding of 2 trillion rubles. One of them, worth 70.7 billion, is entirely dedicated to the protection of Lake Baikal and the development of its natural territory. The other two are “Ecological Safety of Russia” (estimated amount of funding – 1.863 trillion) and “National Program of Measures for the Improvement and Rehabilitation of the Baltic Sea Ecosystem” (financing – 145.8 billion rubles).