Bashkortostan may join a pilot project to create carbon polygons. The "Hour of Science" meeting, which was held by the Chief of Staff of the Head of Bashkortostan, Alexander Sidyakin, discussed the issue on May 27. It was attended by the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic Andrei Nazarov, heads of relevant ministries and departments, rectors of universities in the region, representatives of the scientific community.
"So far, seven pilot regions have been identified in Russia: Kaliningrad, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen regions, the Chechen Republic, and Krasnodar Territory. Our republic has good advantages to become the eighth pilot region", the Chief of Staff of the Head of Bashkortostan noted.
The republic has a powerful scientific base represented by the Eurasian Research and Educational Center, rich natural resources in the form of forests, farmland, and peat bogs - all this will contribute to the emergence of an industry for the absorption of greenhouse gases.
"Given the modernization of our industrial potential, the creation of carbon belts around industrial zones will help improve the region's environmental situation, " the prime minister of the Government RB Andrei Nazarov stressed.
The rector of the Bashkir State Agrarian University, Ildar Gabitov, and the vice-rector for scientific and innovative work at Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, Ruslan Rabaev, presented projects for the creation of the first carbon polygons in the Burzyansky and Ufimsky districts.
Svetlana Mustafina, a projector from the Bashkir State University, proposed a plan to convert forest lands affected by fires and logging into the category of lands under future carbon polygons.
Vadim Zakharov, Chairman of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about forming the consortium "Carbon Polygon of the Republic of Bashkortostan" with the participation of universities and specialized authorities.
Nikolai Durmanov, Deputy Director of the X-BIO Institute for Development, Special Representative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia for Biological and Environmental Safety, highly appreciated Bashkortostan's readiness to join the pilot project and recommended focusing on the creation of carbon polygons on the non-forest lands, but on agricultural areas.
Representatives of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology - Senior Vice President for Industry Relations Alexei Ponomarev and Director of the Center for Design, Production Technologies and Materials Iskander Akhatov - announced the formation of a new carbon competence center at Skoltech and expressed a desire to provide the republic with the necessary scientific and methodological assistance.
"The creation of a separate scientific school for carbon production has every chance of receiving mega-grants from the federal budget," Alexander Sidyakin summed up.
