Speech at the Meeting of the Security Council to discuss Russia's Environmental Security.Part 1
January 30, 2008
The Kremlin, Moscow
Начало заседания Совета Безопасности по вопросу обеспечения экологической безопасности России.
30 января 2008 года
Москва, Кремль
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good day dear colleagues!
The topic on today's agenda is of truly national importance. We will talk about the country's environmental security, practical tasks ahead of us, and the solutions we must find during our joint work to the problems that face us. We will talk about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life of Russian citizens. The quality of the environment directly influences the nation's health and demographic potential, and reflects our respect for the future of our country, for current and future generations.
Environmental problems face all economically developed countries. These problems were classified as the global challenges of our time at the G8 summit in 2006. We have paid detailed attention to these issues more than once in the State Council of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation and in the Security Council. We have adopted an Environmental Policy and the federal law "On Environmental Protection".
The main goal of this phase is to, first and foremost, ensure that decisions that have already been taken are consistently implemented. Secondly, to create an effective system of environmental security in Russia, one that can effectively cope with existing technological and man-made pollution and effectively respond to new problems and challenges in this field.
The economic recovery of our industry, transport and infrastructure sectors constantly increases the pressure on natural ecological systems. According to experts, the rate of growth of toxic waste is at 15-16 per cent per annum, significantly more than GDP growth.
Furthermore, a number of major investment projects have started to be implemented in the regions. They cover large extent of Russian territory, lands that were formerly wild. They include the construction of the North Stream pipeline, the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline, extraction in the shelf zone of the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea and the Okhotsk Sea, and the development of the Polar Urals. Of course the negative effects of intensive economic activities in these areas should be minimized. We also need to revive the environment that has been contaminated as a result of past economic activity and accidents, in particular in the Krasnoyarsk Region, as well as in Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and several other regions.
We need to pay particular attention to the purity of our sources of drinking water. Environmentalists believe that in some regions between 35 and 60 per cent of drinking water does not meet health standards. That is a very dangerous figure.
We have been unable to stop the contamination of a number of river basins in the European part of Russia, in Siberia, and the highest rate of contamination occurs near the largest Russian cities and major towns.
We need to address problems concerning waste and emissions into the atmosphere, including in connection with the growth of industry and transport, more effectively. It is estimated that between 1999 to 2006 emissions from factories and other stationary facilities grew by more than 10 per cent, and those from vehicles by more than 30 per cent.
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