Funding for the national project “Ecology” has been reduced by a third since 2018

The current amount of funding for the national project “Ecology” has decreased by 37% compared to the parameters that were provided for in the project passport in 2018. Partner, Deputy Head of the Kept Consulting Department Igor Korotetsky spoke about this at conferences “The environmental factor in the development of territories and the ESG agenda”, organized by the Kommersant Publishing House.

Funding from the federal budget fell by only 19%. “That is, the reduction occurred mainly due to other sources,” added Mr. Korotetsky.

According to him, one can state “a certain redistribution of priorities” within the framework of the national project. For example, funding for the federal project “Clean Country” from the budget increased by 80%, and the federal project “Clean Air” decreased by 44%.

The peak of financing occurred in 2022 and 2023 (142.2 billion and 126.6 billion rubles, respectively), Igor Korotetsky continued: “This is very strongly correlated with what was originally planned. The figure for 2022 is almost identical to what was planned for 2018. Another question is, why was there underfunding and underutilization of funds before 2022?”

According to him, in 2019 it was about 36.9 billion rubles, in 2020 – 64.4 billion rubles, in 2021 – 78.1 billion rubles. “There are different explanations (for underfunding – Kommersant): the contractors couldn’t cope, something was missing. But the fact remains a fact,” said Igor Korotetsky.

He also listed federal projects, the results of which are currently achieving planned targets. These are, in particular, the “Integrated system for the management of MSW” (52.9% of waste is sent for sorting, 12.8% for recycling), “Infrastructure for the management of waste of I-II hazard classes” (readiness of processing and recycling complexes is 44.8%), “Clean Country” (128 unauthorized landfills were eliminated), as well as “Improvement of the Volga” (reducing the volume of discharges by 45%).

At the same time, there is no achievement of planned targets for the federal projects “Clean Air” and “Preservation of Lake Baikal,” said Igor Korotetsky. Thus, despite the fact that pollutant emissions in 12 key industrial cities have decreased by an average of 12%, the air there is still polluted. In addition, the project underestimates the contribution to pollution from transport and the private sector. The volume of polluted wastewater discharges into Lake Baikal, in turn, decreased by 67.7%, although it should have been by 76.4%.

Finally, there are no results yet within the framework of the federal project “Comprehensive Environmental Quality Monitoring System”, since the regulatory framework is in the process of being created, and not a single city is yet covered by this system. “On the other hand, there are still 2.5 years to deploy it,” added Mr. Korotetsky.