VI International Scientific and Practical Conference "Technosphere and environmental safety in transport" (TEBTRANS-2018)

October 31, 2018

On October 24-26, 2018, the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference „Technosphere and Environmental Safety in Transport“ (TEBTRANS-2018) was held in the framework of International engineering forum at Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University. The Director of the UNIDO Center for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation Sergey Korotkov participated the Conference.

Environmental safety and labor protection issues in rail transport were discussed during the Conference. The environmental strategy of Russian Railroads JSC for the period up to 2025 was presented. The Strategy also includes implementation of international environmental agreements related to the company’s activities.

Sergey Korotkov spoke about implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs in the partnership with Russian Railroads JSC, as well as prospective areas of cooperation. It was noted that transformer oils contaminated with PCB should be recycled in accordance with the current regulatory requirements. Decontamination of such oils should be carried out on special installations isolated from materials not contaminated with PCBs. For the purpose of environmentally safe cleaning of PCB-contaminated insulating liquids, the UNIDO Center in the Russian Federation, within the framework of the UNIDO / GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railroad network and other PCBs owners” supplies PCB-decontamination unit for transformer oils purification with oils recovery to production cycle.

Along with discussion about problems and prospects for implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs in Russia and at the Russian Railroads enterprises, the conference participants discussed implementation of other environmental agreements — the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Paris Climate Agreement, in the field of environmental protection and improvement of the environmental safety system at the railway facilities.