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Canada pledges €20 million to Barents Sea cleanup
Northern Dimension programme attracts growing list of backers
Canada is making one of the largest contributions yet – €20 million – to the EBRD-managed fund that addresses environmental, safety and security hazards posed by the aging soviet nuclear fleet in the Barents Sea. Canada is the first non-European donor to contribute to the to the Northern Dimension Environment Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund, which now stands at €120 million.
The latest pledge was announced by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as part of Canada’s contribution to the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, launched last year at the G8 summit in the western Canadian resort of Kananaskis. The pledge marked two events last week: the G8 summit in France and the 300th anniversary of the founding of St Petersburg, the city at the heart of the NDEP programme to address north-west Russia’s environmental issues.
France and the United Kingdom are also expected to announce contributions to the fund soon, following the signing in Stockholm in late May of the Multilateral Nuclear Environment Partnership in Russia. That groundbreaking agreement provides a much-needed legal framework under which Russia and the international community can implement projects to cope with the huge quantities of spent nuclear fuel and waste in Russia’s Barents Sea militarised zone.
In addition to radioactive waste stemming from the operation of nuclear submarines and other nuclear vessels, there are roughly 40,000 spent nuclear fuel units in many areas of the Barents Sea region, says Vince Novak, director of the EBRD’s Nuclear Safety Department. The nuclear material is inadequately stored – some of it on land, some in submarines (some of which are threatening to sink). Typically, the fuel is highly enriched; it poses an environmental threat and a security risk. The international community created a “nuclear window” as part of the NDEP Support Fund to improve management of the waste in the Barents Sea area. The EBRD manages the fund because of its experience generally in Russia, and its specific experience in managing funds to deal with the nuclear legacy of the soviet era.
The European Commission (EC) has made the largest NDEP donation so far – €50 million. The fund is also backed by €10 million each from Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have also signalled their intention to pledge to the fund. Of the total €120 million firmly pledged to the fund, roughly two-thirds is earmarked for the nuclear window; the remainder will be spent on non-nuclear environmental matters, such as sewage treatment for St Petersburg. (Click here for details).
Canada’s member on the EBRD Board of Directors, Scott Clark, said his government’s contribution is in recognition of the fact that the environmental and security issues posed by Russia’s nuclear fleet transcend boundaries and must be addressed by the global community.
For more information please see the following websites: www.ndep.org, www.ebrd.com and www.globalpartnership.gc.ca
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