On June 9, the annual field meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council of Rosprirodnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources) was held in Nizhny Novgorod. At the meeting of experts, Ekaterina Terentyeva, Head of Projects of Lake Baikal Foundation, presented the results of a study on the role of Russian business in water conservation conducted by the Foundation together with the NAFI Analytical Center in 2021-2022.
The Foundation was the only non-profit environmental organization to make a report to the council. Representatives of business and scientific institutes also spoke at the meeting chaired by Deputy Head of Rosprirodnadzor Svetlana Zhulina.
What was the report about?
Ekaterina Terentyeva spoke about the important role of water in reducing emissions and global monitoring of water safety. According to the World Economic Forum, the water crisis is in third place in the top 10 global risks.
According to the World Bank, water security, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions of the world up to 6% of GDP by 2050.
The results of a sociological study on the role of business in the conservation of water resources were also presented.
71% of the respondent companies first heard about the concept of «corporate water footprint» during the survey.
The Foundation’s team prepared proposals for colleagues from the Scientific and Technical Council of Rosprirodnadzor, they were announced at the meeting. In our opinion, the main task now is to tell as much as possible about water safety, rational water consumption and prevention of water risks for businesses and other organizations. We recommended that Rosprirodnadzor include training on the assessment of the water footprint in a series of consultations that the agency conducts for business until the end of 2022.
Foundation in the NTS
The Foundation has been working in the section «Protection of Water bodies» of the Scientific and Technical Council of Rosprirodnadzor since 2019 and shares expertise on water and biodiversity based on what we see based on the results of our own projects in the Baikal suitable Territory. The Foundation also presents research on sustainable environmental development practices throughout the Russian Federation.