MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. The Russian Federation's Arctic regions for the second time in a row improved their positions in the National Environmental Rating. In the coming year, the rating indicators will be reset for a fresh rating, the Green Patrol public organization's press service told TASS.

"Among the Arctic regions, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Arkhangelsk Region and the Karelia Region have improved their positions. These regions had large-scale environmental actions, educational lectures, scientific research and new energy infrastructure facilities. An important event happened in the Arkhangelsk Region in early September - a new inter-village gas pipeline was put into operation. An equally important event was in October, where scientists identified peculiarities of Franz Josef Land's Atlantic walruses distribution and separated them into a cluster," the release quoted Anastasia Vaterina, head of the Green Patrol's department of environmental initiatives, as saying.

The rating's top ten lines are taken by the Tambov, Belgorod, Altai, Kursk, Moscow, Chuvashia (one line up), Chechnya, Chukotka, Kaluga, Nenets Autonomous Regions. The regions lagging behind are: Sevastopol, Yakutia, the Jewish Autonomous Region (two lines down), Irkutsk, the Maritime Region, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Trans-Baikal, Chelyabinsk, and the Sverdlovsk Regions (one line down). The rating has not assessed the new regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson - due to a lack of sufficient data.

"We believe the launched Sulfur Program in Norilsk is a key environmental event of the past autumn. This country's ecology upgrade has not seen such a large-scale, expensive and effective project. At the Nadezhda Plant only the Norilsk Nickel Company plans to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 400,000 tons, and in the near future - up to a million tons of this gas will be converted into inert gypsum," Green Patrol's leader Andrey Nagibin said.

New methods

The future winter rating will use new approaches. Until now, the rating has been calculated automatically based on data on the season's events. The assessment also took into account indicators for previous 15 years. Experts say nowadays it would be incorrect to rely on data of the kind - in most regions, the environmental situations in the early 2000s and presently are radically different. The experts point to the example of the Moscow Region, where quite a lot has been done, but earlier negative experience does not let the region improve the low rating. Over recent months, a number of regions have shown apparent success in waste treatment, but only the Yamalo-Nenets Region has been able to improve significantly its rating.

"I support this rating update," said Roman Pukalov, the organization's director of environmental programs. "The Ecology national project's implementation has improved the life quality for dozens of millions of people over recent years. Private companies have increased significantly investments in environmental upgrade of their assets. We are aware of closed large accumulated-damage facilities in the Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Buryatia Regions, of the Sulfur Program that the Norilsk Nickel Company continues in the Krasnoyarsk Region, of the construction of the Biosphere largest treatment complex at the Omsk Refinery, and of the ongoing Clean Air federal project. Such major projects should be reflected in the National Environmental Rating."

The National Environmental Rating functions since 2008 for various seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn. It is based on information materials and releases, as well as on events in the ecology and environmental protection. The sources are the media, the government's agencies, public organizations, businesses and individuals.