The State Duma Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection held an extended meeting, at which the minister of natural resources and ecology Alexander Kozlov reported on the results of his department's work.
"We have recently reviewed the results of the work the ministry has done on the implementation of the national project "Ecology". Unfortunately, not all projects [within it] achieved the goals set by the president," Dmitry Kobylkin, chairman of the environmental committee, wrote on his Telegram channel.
In particular, the committee has issued a recommendation to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation to assess the income of gold miners who develop both ore and placer deposits, and calculate the amount of damages caused by this activity.
"It is necessary to assess whether the state receives income from gold mining, or everything is limited to creating environmental problems or even disasters, which we are seeing in the Trans-Baikal Territory," Kobylkin said.
Meanwhile, in his report, Kozlov noted a number of projects implemented in industrial cities to reduce environmental damage.
"The main polluters for 12 cities are industrial enterprises, often city-forming ones... If there is no enterprise, there will be no city," he noted. "Therefore, all the project's efforts are directed specifically at the environmental modernization of production facilities."
As an example, the minister cited Norilsk, where the Norilsk Nickel company has conducted an overhaul of the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant and is implementing the Sulfur Program, designed to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 43% per year. The company's investments in these initiatives have reached 180 billion rubles.
Kozlov has also reported on the Clean Air project being implemented in 41 cities and 12 industrial centers. According to him, the consolidated calculation of emissions is based on a value determined back in 2017.
"[Over the years] some enterprises, I will list them - RUSAL, EVRAZ, MMK - began to adjust their data upwards," the minister explained. "That is, they admitted that the base values were underestimated."
This problem, according to Kozlov, is being solved by the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) through updated quotas, which make it possible to correctly determine the volume of emissions.
Theodor Lisovoy, Managing Editor, Rough&Polished
