Russian industry produces high levels of pollutants and greenhouse gases. This is partly due to outdated industrial plants with inefficient and resource-wasting production methods. Despite a considerable need for modernization, investments in environmentally friendly technologies are lagging. The main reasons for the investment gap are unfavourable environmental and economic policies. The Russian government has, indeed, recognised the need for ecological modernization and sought opportunities for Russian industries to invest in environmentally friendly techniques. To exploit this potential, Russia is developing a legal framework for the introduction of the best available techniques (BAT) in line with existing EU regulations.
The project is meant to support Russia in implementing BAT and reducing pollutants. It is being pursued on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and in the framework of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI). The Russian partner is the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRU). The technical cooperation provided by the GIZ aims at improving the legal and institutional framework and seeks to build up the capacity of public and private actors for BAT implementation. In order to effectively promote the implementation of BAT and the respective standards in Russia, it focuses on selected industries in Russia. Pilot sectors are the petrochemical, cement and mining industries. To achieve its ambitious project goals, the GIZ works with a wide range of actors. They include government institutions at the national and regional level as well as private sector stakeholders in companies, associations and academic institutes. Furthermore, the project promotes cooperation between Russian and German companies and facilitates know-how as well as the transfer of technology between business and research institutions in both countries. The project also foresees a financial component to finance BAT investments in cooperation with Russian partner banks. The financial component, which is to be provided by KfW Development bank (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), is currently put on hold.
Key instruments in the technical cooperation include international and Russian long-term and short-term specialists for consulting purposes, human capacity-building measures with different BAT training modules for various state and business audiences, as well as training trips to Germany, communication platforms, business-to-business formats and network activities in order to share the best practice cases of BAT implementation in Germany and Russia. In addition, the project supports selected companies in the implementation of BAT in pilot projects in order to demonstrate the economic and technical feasibility of environmentally and climate-friendly technologies.