Regional Initiatives

The Energy Industry Expo 2011 Forum held in Yekaterinburg witnessed the concept of distributed energy system in the Sverdlovsk region. Representatives of regional authorities and of environmental organizations are sure that distributed network and renewable energy shall replace the excessively centralized energy system in the Urals.

Governor of Krasnoyarsk region has commissioned to find the funds for a wide-scale implementation of energy saving street lighting technologies in the region. Changing street light bulbs to LED lighting will reduce energy costs by 30% with a 6-year long payback time. Krasnoyarsk expects to receive 500 mln rubles from the federal budget to support energy saving measures.

Russian NGOs, members of the Russian Socio-Ecological Union, oppose placing a new major research nuclear reactor in the Volga region. The NGOs prepared the Report with evidence of the project risks and presented it at public hearings on August 26 in Dmitrovgrad.

Authorities in several Russian cities declare their intention to give "green light" to cyclists. Representatives of environmental organizations are sure that such initiatives of municipal authorities will reduce air pollution in the Russian cities and emissions of greenhouse gases.

Ural Centre for Energy Efficiency and Environment presented The Concept and Main Directions of Sverdlovsk Region’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy until 2020. To reach the target – 75 % of emission 1990 to 2020, the region should reduce its carbon fuel consumption by 852 thousand tons.

Energy saving is the resource as big as Russia, according to Scientific director of the Ural Institute for Energy Saving Nikolai Danilov (Ekaterinburg). This entirely reflects the views of environmental NGOs, who believe that the purposeful introduction of energy efficiency projects will allow to abandon construction of hazardous energy projects.

Tomsk region has a plans to electrify more than 20 settlements to 2020 with wind-solar decentralized energy sources. It will cost 91,9 mln rub which will be paid back in 3-4 years. Heads of the region's districts have shown interest in the developments by Tomsk's scientists, and region's authorities are now holding consultations concerning providing the financing of the pilot project.

April 6 to 8, 2011 a media tour was held in Murmansk region in order to introduce journalists and NGO activists to local examples of low-carbon solutions, among them: the energy efficient block in the town of Apatity, a wind power turbine in Murmansk and the use of geothermal heat pumps for buildings. The tour concluded with a press conference in the Murmansk press center of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper where the tour’s organizers – Olga Senova of RSEU Climate Secretariat and Friends of the Baltic NGO, Elena Kruglikova of Kola Environmental Center and Vitaly Servetnik of Nature and Youth held their speeches.

A public report entitled Low-carbon future: Ural perspectives was presented in Yekaterinburg. It provides the analysis of the situation in Sverdlovsk region and evaluates opportunities and examples of low-carbon solutions in the region. The low-carbon way would prompt economic growth along with emissions reduction in different spheres of the economy.

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District numbers 10 projects on GHG emissions reduction. These projects will secure total CO2 emissions reduction of about 18 million tons by 2012 and are likely to bring about 125 million Euro of investments to the regional economy. Will they be implemented within the Joint Implementation mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol?