The Steering Committee of UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railway network and other PCBs owners”

November 19, 2015

The Steering Committee of UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railway network and other PCBs owners”

On the 18th November 2015 the Steering Committee of UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railway network and other PCBs owners” took place in the Center for Scientific and Technical Information of Russian Railways.

In the Steering Committee chaired by the director of the Centre for International Industrial Cooperation UNIDO in the Russian Federation S.A. Korotkov, the representatives of UNIDO head-office, the federal executive authorities of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Energy in the Russian Federation, and also the counterparts of the project – the representatives of “Russian Railways” JSC, SUE “Vodokanal of St. Petersburg”, Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University, and the representative of FSBI “Russian Energy Agency” for the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation took part. The Steering Committee was carried out within the holding meeting of “Russian Railways” JSC upon the environment problems.

The Steering Committee of UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railway network and other PCBs owners”

The attendees have highly appreciated the project performance, in particular there was expressed the gratitude by the senior vice-president of “Russian Railway” JSC V.A. Gapanovich and the director of International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology in the Russian Federation N.R. Inamov.

Nuritdin Inamov specially accentuated the uniqueness of the project and its primary importance for the Russian Federation in the part of Stockholm Convention on POPs implementation, and also he informed the attendees about the possibilities for project expansion to the Arctic territories of Russia with engagement of financial resources from Arctic Council.

During the Steering Committee the personnel of “Russian Railway” JSC were awarded with gratitude letters by the Ministry of Natural Recourses and Ecology of the Russian Federation for the personal contribution into the implementation of Stockholm Convention on POPs in Russia, namely V.A. Gapanovich, V.F. Pershin, I.A. Kostina, L.G. Bukhntina.

The Steering Committee of UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian railway network and other PCBs owners”

The representatives of the UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation- Mr. Mikhail Nikiforov and Ms. Ekaterina Ivanova- highlighted the key actions taken within the project’s framework, such as elaboration of the legislation in a part of PCBs management; implementation of the first phase of inventory-process at the production sites of the “Russian Railways” JSC; establishment of the laboratories for transformer oils’ analysis; trainings on PCBs management and disposal organized for general personnel and supervisors.

The crucial role of the educational programmes was also emphasized during the presentation of Ms. Zuhra Galperina, the Deputy Director General of the Federal State Budgetary Organization “Russian Energy Agency” of The Energy Ministry of the Russian Federation. Ms. Galperina pointed out that the awareness of the mentioned above topic among the management of power-generating companies can be considered as one of the key success factors for the project’s implementation. “Russian Energy Agency” expressed its willingness to participate in the education-related part of the project within the Russian energy sector, which accumulates around 27% of PCBs-contained equipment and materials.

Another part of the discussion was focused on the issues related to PCBs-disposal. Mr. Valentin Ischenko, international consultant at UNIDO, presented the available approaches for disposal of PCBs-contained materials depending on the PCBs level within them. It was recommended to pay a specific attention to the Russian know-hows, presented during UNIDO workshop on “The organization of accounting system of polychlorinated biphenyls in the energy-intensive industries of Russia” held on the 28th of October 2015 in the Analytical Centre for the Government of the Russian Federation.

The Steering Committee’s participants gave their high rating to the actions taken by the project’s counterparts and expressed their hope for the further cooperation as well as the outreach toward the new sectors including the general PCBs management in the Russian Federation and the neighboring countries.