Putin, Medvedev applaud Norilsk Nickel’s environmental efforts
One of the biggest polluters in the Barents Region, the Norilsk-Nickel combine, gets greetings for their high environmental standards from both the Russian President and the Prime Minister.
Norilsk-Nickel marks its 75th anniversary this week and both President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have sent congratulation telegrams to the combine.
In his telegram, Vladimir Putin emphasizes Norilsk-Nickel’s “high repetition environmental standards.”
Dmitri Medvedev writes in his telegram about the combine “is actively implemented the program in the field of technological upgrading, environmental safety, corporate responsibility.”
Norilsk-Nickel operates three of the biggest polluters in the Barents Region; the smelter in the town of Nikel, the pellets factory in the town of Zapolyarny and the nickel and cobber smelters in the town of Monchegorsk. The emission of sulphur dioxides (SO2) and heavy metals excides by far the nature’s critical level, and the size of dead taiga forest around the plants are severe.
Read also: Worst on dirt - best on fortune
The pollution from the smelter in Nikel, located just some few kilometers from the border to Norway, has for decades been a thorn in the Norwegian-Russian bi-lateral relations. Last October, Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov “This is just not good enough, Sergey.” The statement came at an open press conference in Murmansk where the two were discussing cross-border pollution after the Barents Council meeting.
The pollution from the smelter in Nikel alone emits near five times the total emission of SO2 in Norway annually.
In November last year, just one month after the Barents Council meeting, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund excluded Norilsk-Nickel from its investment portfolio because the Fund’s council of ethics said the factories are afflicting environmental damages which clashed with the Pension Fund’s guidelines.
Read also: Norilsk-Nickel can afford cleaning
Visiting Norway in April this year, the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev discussed cross-border pollution from the smelter in Nikel with Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Both agreed that the pollution from the plants on the Kola Peninsula must be reduced to a level not harming health and environment.
So far, no definite measures are taken to reduce the emission from the plant in Nikel.
