MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Unattended scrap metal, which still remains in the Russian Arctic zone, may be melted for further export, and the carbon tax on this steel will be lower, Alexander Vorotnikov of the Arctic Development Project Office (Pora) told TASS.

Back in 2020, the European Commission considered a trans-border carbon tax on goods imported into the EU from countries, which do not have obligatory payments for greenhouse gas emissions. The new tax’s mechanism may be ready in the second half of 2021, and the requirement is expected to be introduced in 2023.

"We know about the modern processing — the so-called "white metallurgy" - steel made of scrap metal. <…> When we make steel right from scrap metal, we skip all the earlier stages: ore mining, black metal production - we do not spend money on them. <…> We could use renewable energy, and, thus, the carbon trace will be much less. When we export this steel, the carbon tax again will be much lower," the expert said.

Scrap metal’s processing will, in addition, mean cleaning the Arctic territory, which is a priority of the national strategy for the development of the Russian Arctic zone, approved by the president.

Earlier, Nenets Region’s Governor Yuri Bezrodnyi said the region’s Arctic territory has 2,500 objects of gained damage, including abandoned watercraft, lighthouses, and buildings. Yakutia’s Governor Aisen Nikolayev said within next five years the region planned to clean Arctic coastal areas from 100,000 tonnes of scrap metal.