The Nord Stream 2 project
Any new potentially dangerous project for the extraction and transportation of hydrocarbon raw materials raises natural concerns of the World Wildlife Fund. We believe that the priority for investments of all countries should be to increase energy production from renewable sources, while reducing investment in the extraction of fossil fuels and construction of respective infrastructure. One of the objectives of the European Union is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80–95% by 2050 from the 1990 baseline. The urgent tasks of the European Union to achieve this goal are to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and increase energy efficiency. Therefore,
WWF calls on the Governments of the Baltic Sea countries to consider renewable energy projects as priority projects over the construction of infrastructure for the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels in fulfillment of their obligations under the Paris Agreement. In the event that the European countries continue to support Nord Stream 2 project (hereinafter referred to as
- For a complete analysis of the plans of forthcoming actions, documents in the framework of a detailed assessment of the impact of the
NS-2 project on the environment (EIA) under the Espoo Convention and precautionary principles. - Publish the results of conducted analysis within the EIA framework, which should confirm that all potentially negative environmental impacts have been taken into account, and the proposed mitigation measures are sufficient.
- Introduce a system of guaranteed (financial) obligations in accordance with environmental requirements related to the closure of the
NS-2 project and dismantling of facilities at the end of its operational lifetime. - Comply with the recommendations of the EIA for the Nord Stream 1 project to create an
Ingrian-Finish Nature Reserve in the Russian part of the Baltic Sea BEFORE the implementation of the NS 2 project. - Request a detailed analysis of all alternative options for the supply of natural gas to the EU (LNG, transportation by land and sea pipelines).
WWF will carry out public monitoring of the project’s progress to confirm that the participants of the NS 2 project and relevant authorities are making necessary efforts to implement the above recommendations. In addition, WWF expects that before applying for an official approval for the confirmation of the project, the NS 2 will fulfill the following provisions:
- Conduct a
full-fledged EIA of the project; and among other things, assess issues that were not sufficiently addressed in 2009, for example, the presence of hazardous substances in Russian waters. - Evaluate existing gas transport corridor NS 1 as one of the options for the NS 2 route; moreover, the use of NS 1 corridor should be a priority for the new pipeline within the NS 2 project. Particular attention should be given to the cumulative environmental impact of each additional pipeline, since in some sections of the pipeline (for example, at landfall sites in Germany) the maximum permissible cumulative impact limit has already been reached by NS 1.
- Develop restrictive measures and economic guarantees that will help mitigate and reduce negative impacts on the environment, from the stage of document approval to the dismantling stage at the end of their operation.
- Guarantee required measures for the compensation of the damage caused to the environment before issuing of licenses and before constructing any objects.
- Take into account that although environmental threats from the new pipeline are similar to those of the existing pipeline, we should expect that due to the cumulative effect negative impact of the new pipeline will increase significantly.
About the Nord Stream 2 project
The Nord Stream 2 project includes the design, construction and operation of two new subsea pipelines that will connect gas fields in Russia with European consumers. The capacity of the project will be about 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The length of the pipelines is about 1200 km, from Russia to Germany through exclusive economic zones and / or territorial waters.