ST. PETERSBURG, May 29. /TASS/. The climate change in the Arctic, related to the general warming, causes the annual coastline destruction by several meters, due to which Russian specialists have to move periodically research polar stations inland, the Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service's Northern Department's representative Roman Ershov told the POLAR 2023 scientific and business conference in St. Petersburg.
"As for our big network of Arctic stations, we regularly have to move them away from the coastline, because every year the destruction is between one and ten meters, - this is what we can witness," he said. "The active coastal erosion, which we have not seen earlier."
Nikolay Shabalin of the Moscow State University's Marine Research Center also noted that the coastline destruction in the Arctic and the general permafrost degradation pose new challenges to work of the entire scientific infrastructure in the region. Both existing facilities and those under construction may be at risk of damage, which will affect research in the Arctic, he added.
Ershov stressed that a large number of scientific facilities in the Arctic were built more than 30 years earlier, by the Soviet polar explorers, and therefore nowadays much attention should be paid to the large-scale upgrade of the Russian Arctic polar stations that are necessary to monitor and study the general situation in the region.
Threats and challenges
At the POLAR 2023 conference, specialists from the state-run Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service, from divisions of the Rosatom Corporation, from Novatek and leading universities highlighted a number of other most pressing threats to the development of the Arctic region in addition to the coastline destruction and consequent threats to the research infrastructures.
Nikolay Shabalin, the Marine Research Center's executive director, stressed the permafrost degradation would affect not only the research infrastructures, but also a huge number of residential and economic facilities, that were built in the Arctic decades ago. They were built for different climate conditions and have different specifications. Since the region's settlements have grown into cities, it is highly necessary to carry out risk and adaptation assessment of existing facilities in order to prevent possible accidents.
"The entire infrastructure in the permafrost area, which is two-thirds of the country, is now at risk due to climate change. We must respond promptly to problems and even foresee them. Thus we need a comprehensive monitoring system, which is being created already," Alexander Makarov, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute's director, told the conference.
Shabalin stressed that the risks for the Arctic come not only from global climate change processes, but also from specific problems related to the region's economic development. The fragile Arctic ecosystem with its diverse living world, facing environmental pollution, remains under threat. Ershov added that polar stations also cause certain harm to the Arctic ecosystem. Specialists will have to address the accumulated waste and the compensation for damage caused back in the Soviet times. According to him, that task would require ten plus years of active work.
Andrey Tenitsky, Advisor to Atomflot's director general, noted that one of the main threats to further safe and environmentally friendly development of the Arctic is caused by the fact that most cargo ships passing the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and other navigation lines in the Arctic Ocean seas are using heavy and environmentally harmful fuels.
This problem may worsen as NSR cargo traffic increases, given the plans the traffic would make 120 - 150 MTPA by 2030.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Nikolai Korchunov spoke about the risks, emerging in the 21st century, associated with the militarization of the Arctic and the politicization of cooperation in the region, that threaten the joint work of the Arctic countries on the preservation and development of the region.
About conference
The POLAR Scientific and Business Conference is a leading event, which brings together representatives of authorities, businesses and sciences focusing on the Arctic and Antarctic. The event is organized by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, St. Petersburg). About 500 participants took part in the event in 2023.