#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Andrey Bugrov, Nornickel’s senior vice president for sustainable development began his speech by focusing on one of the factors that stimulate the green economy – the deep concern of a large number of people about the state in which we will pass the planet on to future generations.
According to him, “young people have a completely different value line, they do not want to work in companies that pollute the environment, and are happy to deal with issues of the green economy”.
“The pandemic crisis should stimulate the green recovery in the global economy”, he said. “In any case, it is this idea that is being promoted by both the UN and the organizations of international cooperation and development. The EU launched the Green Recovery Tracker, which assesses the environmental impact of recovery plans from EU member states. The leading states have channeled about $ 350 billion into this, 17 percent of the funds allocated to rebuilding the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, this is not enough for the green transformation. Nevertheless, we see a large number of projects in the field of renewable energy, hydrogen technologies, electrification of transport, decarbonization of building materials, capture and storage of carbon dioxide”.
The speaker cited the UAE as an example, where they launched a plant for the production of green hydrogen on an industrial scale. Several projects have emerged in Australia at once – on green LNG and on green hydrogen. This country announced the creation of a hydrogen valley. Japan also announced that it is building its largest hydrogen production plant.
Russia, according to Bugrov, cannot stand aside, because it is part of the world economy and must respond to advanced trends.
“Nornickel produces metals that are needed for the production of car catalysts, batteries for electric cars, wind power plants, and hydrogen technologies. Technologies continue to develop, so it is difficult to understand which element of the periodic table will be in demand in the future. The transition has benefited a metal like palladium, which has risen 400 percent in five years. Copper, a metal that goes hand in hand with the advancement of carbon-free technology, has risen in value by 120 percent over the past five years. Therefore, the green transformation has every chance to become the engine of progress”, a company representative expressed his opinion.
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Text: Elena Popova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko and roscongress.org
