During the second meeting of the environmental division of the Association of Arctic Explorers interregional public organization, experts discussed the development of a public standard of environmental safety in the Arctic region, the association's press service reports.

The meeting of the commission was held as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Experts, representatives of organizations carrying out activities in the Russian Arctic zone, scientists and public figures took part in the event.

Oleg Budargin, vice president of the Association of Arctic Explorers' environment division and general director of Rosseti, said that setting environmental standards aimed at providing environmental security in the Arctic region is a new development in Russia because there are no such standards here.

"All companies must develop internal regulations for work in the Arctic region. This is the key goal of our activities," Budargin said. He also said that the third meeting of the public commission of the Association of Arctic Explorers' environment division will be held in December, when the results of developing environmental standards will be reported.

During the meeting, the commission listened to reports on the risk of considerable environmental degradation in the Arctic region, due to increased scientific and industrial development of the region.

According to the press service, the public standard of the environmental security in the Arctic region will bring an opportunity to take into consideration current and future environmental initiatives and the best practices while carrying out activities on the Arctic shelf.

"Developing the public standard of environmental security in the Arctic region is aimed at ensuring the region's environmental security. Among the priorities are protecting the air basin, preventing pollution and soil depletion, and protecting the water resources," said Roman Berdnikov, an expert of the public commission and first deputy general director for Rosseti's technical policy.

The standard will provide for such measures of environmental protection in the Arctic region as introducing the present-day behavioral philosophy and environmental technology when working in the region, undoing environmental damage, introducing modern technological solutions for preventing the detrimental effect of oil fields on the environment, establishing a national fund to protect the sea from pollution, activating shipboard monitoring mechanisms, and implementing projects for adopting waste recycling technologies, including public-private partnership mechanisms.

A special expert group within the commission will be formed to develop the public environmental standard. Scientific and expert organizations will also be involved in this work.