Russia to Build Nature Protection Fleet
This photo is from April, 2014, when Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi to discuss the application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend Russia’s continental shelf in the Arctic. (Photo: kremlin.ru)
Sergei Donskoi, the Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, confirms that the program of the Arctic socioeconomic development includes construction of an environmental protection fleet after 2021.
Sergei Donskoi, the Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, confirms that the program of the Arctic socioeconomic development includes construction of an environmental protection fleet after 2021.
According to the minister, the project was included in the state program on the ministry’s initiative, and the fleet will upgrade the safety level of sea activities and minimize substantially any possible environmental risks to the sea ecosystem.
The project will cost 3.1 billion rubles, Russian news agency TASS reports.
When the minister spoke at the Russian Government’s Marine Board meeting last week, he also said that another way of minimizing environmental risks was to start using vessels fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), or Green Shipping.
Accordring to TASS, the minister proposed starting with the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
"The construction of icebreakers fueled by LNG has already begun. The first ship, Polaris, was built at the United Shipbuilding Corporation Arctech in Finland. In its turn, the Ministry of Natural Resources participates in building three LNG-powered river tankers for Volgotrans as part of the implementation of the Arctic Council's projects," the news agency quotes Donskoi as saying.
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