MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. The ecology damage level in the Murmansk Region has shrunk over recent two years, Governor Andrei Chibis said on Monday.
"We have a big industrial sector. <…> It is most important to have old industrial facilities, which do not answer modern requirements, upgraded," he said during a presentation of the Clean Arctic project at the Public Chamber. "Over only two recent years we have cut greatly the ecology damage, when jointly with Nornickel we shut down the smelting shop, which had caused ecology damage since the 1930s."
While implementing a special investment contract in the region, investments in the metallurgical sector have been more than 30 billion rubles ($409 million) and contaminating emissions in Monchegorsk have shrunk by about 34%, the governor said, adding upgrade of industrial facilities in the region is underway.
"Another task we face is to cut the dependence on mazut, which is very contaminating," the governor added. "The Murmansk Region is its biggest consumer for heat and electricity generating plants."
In April 2020, the Russian Science Foundation (RPF) reported that scientists had found increased levels of heavy metal in small lakes in Murmansk. They explained the pollution by emissions from enterprises that had accumulated over previous 10-20 years. A few months later, a group of scientists from the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the course of a comprehensive study found high concentrations of vanadium and nickel in the Murmansk lakes’ bottom sediments.
The smelting house, which employed 660 people in the Murmansk Region, was shut down in late 2020.
About "green" economy
Many Western countries have been using ESG financing (environmental, social, governance) - a special approach to financing that includes environmental care, social development and corporate governance. This approach has become popular among Russian companies. Russia has been working on "green" financing, where a project funding is offered on the condition a business improves the environment, mitigates the climate change effects and uses resources most efficiently.