Green Growth in the Russian Arctic: Examples from the Murmansk region

The Russian leadership has included diversification of the economy, as well as innovation and high technology, in its official programmes and plans. This idea potentially helps to reconcile environmental and social sustainability with economic growth in the Russian Arctic, thus promoting green economy as also recognized in the domestic academic debate. Combining sociology with policy analysis and economic considerations, we scrutinized the status of green economy in Russia, especially in the Murmansk waste sector. We found that environmental policies in the mining waste and household waste sectors in Murmansk have potential to generate green growth, including green jobs and reducing impacts to the environment alongside with new economic activity. However, additional policies to encourage green business by smaller stakeholders in the mining sector and new entrepreneurs to utilize recycled materials closer to Murmansk could generate further green growth. The conceptualization of green economy in the emerging Russian academic debate was found to mostly follow the issue areas identified in the international debate though some Russia specific issues, typical to the Russian environmental debate, were also identified. It is significant that the Arctic is almost absent from the Russian green economy debate, and waste practitioners are unfamiliar with green economy concept.

-The project team has organized and participated a number of scientific panels on the topic of green economy and the Arctic, both in Russian as well as Nordic fora, distributing knowledge about the concept of green economy and practical policies and their success in Murmansk. -The case studies provide new knowledge on the Murmansk waste sector policies and their impacts to policy-makers and practitioners. -New Nordic-Russian interdisciplinary research capacity on green economy in Russia was generated and new links to the Russian green economy network created; further work on the topic is of interest to the established research team.

The Russian Arctic hosts significant natural resources, whilst it also suffers from serious environmental degradation which is critical for the Northern environment at large. The Russian leadership has included the idea of diversification of the economy to avoid future dependence on the fossil fuel exports, as well as innovation and high technology, in its various official programmes and plans. This idea potentially helps to reconcile environmental and social sustainability with economic growth in the Russian Arctic, thus promoting green growth. With its aim to study the prospects for advancing green growth in the Russian Arctic, this project responds to the challenges for securing sustainable societal and economic development in the Arctic. By applying an interdisciplinary approach which combines sociological scrutiny with policy analysis and economic considerations, this project scrutinizes the status of green growth in the Russian Arctic, prospects for existing environmental policies contributing to green growth, and the potential to generate green jobs. Project is implemented with international partners as core team members and involves regular contact between researchers and practitioners even as part of its methodology. The project will contribute to the conceptualizations of green growth as well as help understand the practical conditions of green growth in the Russian Arctic.