The All-Russian scientific and practical conference "Ecology of industrial cities" has started in Tatarstan
A press conference dedicated to the opening of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference "Ecology of Industrial Cities" was held in Kazan today. The event was attended by Alexander Shadrikov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, Oleg Sinyashin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Coordinator of the Consortium "Ecology of Industrial Cities" and others.
In his speech, Alexander Shadrikov noted the key role of industrial cities in the socio-economic development of the state and stressed the need for a balance between economic growth and environmental well-being.
"Tatarstan demonstrates that economic growth and environmental well-being are compatible. Over the past thirty years, with a 3.1–fold increase in the gross regional product of the republic, emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere have decreased by 25.6 percent, and the volume of contaminated wastewater discharge has decreased by 67.9 percent," the minister stressed.
Special attention was paid to the environmental monitoring system during the press conference. Tatarstan has 17 automatic monitoring stations and 6 mobile environmental laboratories, and more than 4 million measurements of 36 pollutants are carried out annually. Additionally, the republic receives data from 14 automatic surveillance posts of the largest enterprises.
The Minister spoke about the introduction of a summary calculation system for Kazan and Nizhnekamsk, which allows one to see the total load on the air. Thanks to this approach, over the past 7 years, the number of complaints from citizens related to air pollution in Nizhnekamsk has decreased 32 times – from 583 complaints in 2018 to 18 in 2024.
An important part of the presentation was a story about cooperation with scientific institutions. "In order to develop optimal solutions in the field of environmental safety, the Ministry works closely with institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and supports the organization of cooperation between enterprises and scientists," said Alexander Shadrikov. The Minister spoke about the scientific research carried out by the largest enterprises of the Nizhnekamsk industrial hub in cooperation with scientific institutes.
Academician Oleg Sinyashin emphasized the importance of scientific support for environmental projects in his speech:
"Starting in 2019, largely thanks to the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Tatarstan, we began to build this joint work. It all started with the Nizhnekamsk industrial hub. Alexander Valeryevich Shadrikov invited the directors of the leading academic institutes of Kazan and Moscow in order to discuss together the problems that arise in Nizhnekamsk. At that time, a scientific breakthrough was launched, bringing together scientific organizations and universities to solve the environmental problems of industrial cities. These problems are the same for many megacities: large enterprises, transport, waste, atmospheric air. No scientific organization can solve everything alone. Therefore, in 2020, the Consortium "Ecology of Industrial Cities" was formed, which included 6 organizations. The conference that we are holding today has become a platform for discussing the results and problems related to the ecology of megacities."
The results of the implementation of the national projects "Ecology" and "Ecological well-being" were presented separately. Among the significant ones are the reclamation of the Samosyrovsky landfill in Kazan, the silt fields of biological treatment facilities in Kazan, and the dismantling of inactive oil pipelines in the Nizhnekamsk reservoir.
Over the past 7 years, total investments in environmental protection measures in the republic have amounted to 72.5 billion rubles, including more than 41.4 billion rubles from enterprises.
According to the results of the ESG ratings, the Republic of Tatarstan is among the leaders among the regions of Russia in implementing sustainable development practices and managing solutions to environmental, social and corporate problems.
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The All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference "Ecology of Industrial Cities" brought together leading scientists, government officials, industrial enterprises and public organizations to discuss key issues of the ecological status of industrial centers and the search for effective solutions to environmental challenges.