President of Russia
Vladimir Putin: Mr
Kozlov, there is hardly anything more important than the work your Ministry is
doing. Where shall we start?

Minister of Natural
Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov: Mr President, if I may. Climate change, which
we are witnessing, is already affecting many areas, and the situation is bound
to worsen in the future. Desertification is accelerating as we speak, water
regimes are changing, and heat waves are becoming more frequent. Last summer in Russia was among the five hottest summers in the past 45 years, and in September, temperature records were broken in the European part of the country.

Vladimir Putin: The shifting tree species
composition in the forests in the Northwestern and Urals districts – what is it
and why is it happening?

Alexander Kozlov: Mr President, the climate agenda
is changing, and so, where it used to be cold, it is now getting much warmer,
and different tree species start to grow. For example, fir trees used to be
found in the Northwestern District, but now they are more common in the northern part, where it is colder.

Vladimir Putin: Or pine trees.

Alexander Kozlov: Yes. They will be replaced by oak
and birch. In the North Caucasus District, forest productivity is an issue, as beech
and hornbeam are under threat there, while pine and oak are threatened in the Southern District. We need to take this into account.

This is very important for the forestry
(logging) sector and needs to be considered when it comes to harvesting,
because birch has different applications from, say, pine, which goes to sawmills, whereas birch is used to manufacture plywood. This definitely needs
to be considered.

This is the first year that we introduced
reporting on the implementation of forest adaptation plans. In response to your
instruction to the Ministry of Economic Development, they are collecting
adaptation plans across the country, for all types of industries, which
incorporate changes in the climate agenda. This concerns other industries,
including housing and utilities. There are other issues to be addressed such as permafrost, roads, and some enterprises.

We need to look at adaptation plans for forests
to see how the sectoral balance should be regulated based on the data we
receive and the changes we see.

Vladimir Putin: This is a forecast, right? Or are
these changes already visible?

Alexander Kozlov: They are visible. Wildfires, for example. We looked into this with the Emergencies Ministry and we found out that
wildfires are now occurring – this is especially evident in Yakutia – in places
where there have never been fires before. Fires break out in the north, and it
is clear that the climate is changing. This is obvious.

This can be traced in the pattern of fire
danger periods. We record all the data, thermal points, using satellite imaging
and enlisting Roscosmos’s help. This enables us to make certain predictions and work with them.

As for the fire danger period, Mr President,
your instruction has been fulfilled. During your visit to the Far East, the Governor
of Yakutia appealed to you asking for additional funding. The Ministry of Finance supported us, and additional funding was allocated to the Krasnoyarsk
and Trans-Baikal territories.

I would like to continue, if I may.

Vladimir Putin: Go on.

Alexander Kozlov: We continue working on this national project.
We have already received the necessary funding and will carry on as we always
do, ensuring consistency.

If I may, I would like to draw your attention
to three areas: household waste, the reduction of hazardous emissions, and the construction of purification facilities under the Ecology national project.

As of now, over a half of solid household waste
or 55 percent are recycled and 14 percent are disposed. The area of landfills
has been reduced by 17 percent. In other words, our regions did well in the period under review, building over 300 comprehensive household waste disposal
facilities. However, this is not enough, and we need to build another 400
facilities, which will cost nearly one trillion rubles of budgetary and extra-budgetary funds. Our proposal has been supported. We have received part
of the funding and have started implementing this project.

Vladimir Putin: How long will it take?

Alexander Kozlov: As per the relevant executive order, we must
complete it by 2030. There is a lot to be done; it is a challenging and expensive project. We are working together with our colleagues on this. It is
also important that we talk about the facilities that people do not see. People
only see waste container sites, the number of containers, a garbage truck
arriving on time, and the work of regional garbage collectors.

Acting on instructions from Mr Mishustin, we hold
weekly meetings with the regions at 10 am every Thursday. They are chaired by Dmitry Patrushev. We review the balance to see how the situation in each region
is developing.

I can tell you that we need 129,000 more waste
container sites. We look at the situation from the angle of the regions and municipalities. The important thing here is that we have reached an agreement
with the governors that they will brief us on the deadlines and methods of dealing with that shortage during their regional meetings. As for waste
containers, there are 2.4 million of them across the country, but we need
350,000 more. This implies hard work as well.

As for garbage trucks, we are now supporting
the effort and will lease out equipment to the regions. I believe that a very
good job has been done in the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson
regions. We have delivered 532 pieces of special equipment and 32,000
containers there. Accordingly, we will continue this work together with Mr
Khusnullin within the framework of the comprehensive work.

Clean Air is an important project,
if I may, with 41 cities participating in this experiment. You may recall that
it started with 12 industrial centres, 12 cities that participated, and 29
joined recently. What is very important is that the basis for each city is an aggregate calculation of emissions, a list of substances that affect human
health.

What did we run into during the process? We needed to calculate the baseline to compare future measurements
with. It was taken from the 2017 reports by Rusal, EVRAZ, and Magnitogorsk Iron
and Steel Works. What we saw, and what the enterprises saw too, was that this
baseline was downplayed. And now they are working together with Rosprirodnadzor
to sort out the figures, the balances, and how many harmful substances actually
were released into the atmosphere. Then, accordingly, we will draw up
comprehensive plans and have them approved by the Government.

Comprehensive plans for these 12
cities, 585 steps for each pollutant, have been drawn up. For the new cities,
we have started the same work: seven have been done and 22 more plans will be
finalised by July. That is, every Governor should see this plan in his regional
work, and work with that particular company to reduce the numbers.

I was in Norilsk. The head of Norilsk Nickel promised to reduce emissions in Norilsk under the Northern
Programme. I visited this production facility and saw that the construction was
technically completed. Our colleagues reported that they had spent 180 billion
in investment. But what we need is not money, but lower emissions.
Rosprirodnadzor did the verification to ensure that the equipment is
technologically efficient, but we will now measure the actual reduction in emissions.
This is our goal.

This applies not only to Norilsk,
but also to Cherepovets, where Severstal is doing a good job, and PhosAgro is
also involved in this work. Accordingly, the key word for us is to confirm
these verification reports, so that we are not misled by the fact that… 

To be continued.