RUSSIA HAS promised to help efforts to clean up the heavily polluted Baltic Sea as part of its plans to build a 1,200km undersea pipeline to carry natural gas to Germany.
Countries living on the shores of the Baltic met in Helsinki yesterday to agree measures to reduce pollutants, including phosphorous and untreated sewage, that have made the sea one of the world’s dirtiest.
“I’m convinced that Nord Stream [pipeline] will be an environmentally friendly, secure and trouble-free delivery route to Europe to strengthen the energy stability of the entire European continent,” said Mr Putin of the pipeline, which has an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic metres.
Nord Stream said it was prepared to share with environmental researchers data it had collected on 40,000 km2 of the sea bed.
“We hope that the data we have gathered will help to form a better picture of the challenges which the Baltic Sea is facing,” said Mr Matthias Warnig, chief executive of the Nord Stream consortium. “We want to encourage universities and researchers around the Baltic Sea to create new solutions to improve the state of our sea.”
Russia’s neighbours are concerned that the pipeline’s construction will disturb pollutants settled on the Baltic seabed, including fertilisers that encourage algal bloom and choke marine life.
The sea is already suffering from over-fishing and high levels of marine traffic – already 15 per cent of total – likely to increase with the expansion of the Russian port of Ust Luga.
Finnish president Tarja Halonen, who chaired yesterday’s “Baltic Sea Action Summit”, called for greater co-operation between companies and governments to rescue the sea. “It’s clear something has to be done, and quickly,” she said.
Finland is the only Baltic country yet to approve the Nord Stream pipeline passing through its territory. A positive decision is likely in the coming days.
No major political commitments emerged at the conference yesterday beyond the 140 commitments made in advance by participants from Germany, Denmark, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Environmental groups gave a mixed reading of the commitments. " vary greatly in size," said Finnish environmental campaigner Seppo Knuuttila to the Helsingin Sanomatnewspaper. "We are still waiting for the truly remarkable and important commitments."