3 Sivkov Notes

30TH BSPC: THIRD SESSIONClimate change and biodiversitySpeaker: Dr Vadim V. Sivkov, Director of the Atlantic Branch of the Shirshov Instituteof Oceanology of Russian Academy of Science and the Federal StateBudgetary Institution of Science, Kaliningrad regionThe problem of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon polygon in theKaliningrad oblastThe requirements of the world community, formulated in the Paris Agreement to reduceemissions, are associated with serious financial and economic regulatory instruments,including emission quotas, generating the cost of gas emissions, forming a system ofinternational payments for increasing (decreasing) emissions, and tax instruments.Although these gases are “well mixed” and their impact on the climate is global, theirinitial sources are tightly tied to the economies of specific countries, and, accordingly,monetization (including quotas and taxes) will also be targeted. It is planned that thispractice of implementing international agreements will be put in place beginning 2023and will be fully implemented starting from 2025-2026.The main indicator in assessing the role of individual countries in gas emissions will benet emissions (that is, the difference between emissions and removals). Thus, theassessment (inventory) of the net emission of climatically active gases by each countrybecomes a problem of reliable quantitative accounting of anthropogenic and naturalsources and sinks of gases.Quantitative methods of the "carbon" economy should be developed, which will allowreliable economic estimates to be obtained based on the inventory of climatic gases inorder to develop an effective and economical strategy in the field of emission reductionand increasing absorption (sequestration).By order of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 25, 2019 No. 3183-r, the national action plan for the first stage of adaptation to climate change, for theperiod up to 2022, was approved. This corresponds to the Strategy of Scientific andTechnological Development of the Russian Federation, approved by the Decree of thePresident of the Russian Federation of December 1, 2016 No. 642 and the ClimateDoctrine of the Russian Federation, approved by the Order of the President of theRussian Federation of December 17, 2009, No. 861-rp.In connection with the need to increase the efficiency of scientific and technical activitiesassociated with the environmental development of the Russian Federation and climaticchanges, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federationissued an order dated February 5, 2021 No. 74 "On landfills for the development andtesting of carbon balance control technologies", which prescribes the implementation ofa pilot project on the creation of so-called "carbon polygons" on the territory of theRussian Federation.The carbon polygon in the Kaliningrad region, the only one from the List determined bythe Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, is located inthe center of Europe. This location is especially important for the Russian Federation,since it is the European Union that puts forward the most acute requirements forreducing greenhouse gas emissions.Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU), located in Kaliningrad, wasdetermined as the operator of the Kaliningrad carbon polygon, implementing theprogram for its creation and operation. Participating in the program is the Atlanticbranch of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of RAS (AB IO RAS), also located inKaliningrad.To date, it has been determined that the Kaliningrad carbon polygon consists of twosites: onshore and offshore.The onshore site is located in the central part of the Kaliningrad oblast within theWittgirren peat bog, which is considered by the regional authorities as an experimentalarea for rewetting in order to increase the absorption (sequestration) of carbon from theatmosphere. To date, pre-design studies of the ecological state of the peat bog havebeen carried out in the area. A conceptual plan for the restoration of the natural bogecosystem has been developed, and mapping has already been carried out.Construction of the site is currently underway.The offshore site is organized in the territorial waters of the Russian Federation to thewest of the coast of the Kaliningrad oblast. In the context of the carbon agenda, theBaltic Sea is a unique basin. It is a transboundary sea with a high anthropogenic load.Here, the level of eutrophication of waters is unprecedentedly high and, as aconsequence, the rates of primary bioproduction (photosynthesis) are high. Therefore,on the scale of the World Ocean, the Baltic Sea is a pronounced maximum with regardsto the absorption (sequestration) of carbon dioxide (CO ), one of the main greenhouse2gases. The intensity of photosynthesis is highest in the southeastern part of the seaadjacent to the shores of the Kaliningrad oblast. The location of the offshore site waschosen taking into account the distribution on the seabed of bottom sediments saturatedwith "greenhouse" hydrocarbon gases, mainly methane (CH ), one of the largest4distributions in the Baltic Sea area. As is well known, the exploration of the largesthydrocarbon deposits in the Baltic Region off the coast of the Kaliningrad oblast, andthe natural emission of hydrocarbon gases from the earth's crust require an updatedassessment of emissions. In this context, attention should be paid to the greatimportance of the data obtained in the course of industrial environmental monitoring ofoffshore oil production carried out by LUKOIL-Kaliningradmorneft Ltd. from 2003 to thepresent.Thanks to the interaction of IKBFU with AB IO RAS, the first measurements of keyenvironmental parameters at the offshore site began in April this year. To date, threeintegrated marine environmental surveys have been completed, and a fourth survey isplanned for the end of August. The first measurement results confirm therepresentativeness of the selected study area.In the near future, precise measurements for the monitoring of the flows of the mainclimatically active gases are planned. The offshore site will be provided with a remotemonitoring system based on the use of satellite and unmanned platforms equipped withthe necessary set of sensor equipment. Experimental estimates of the absorptionpotential of marine ecosystems will be obtained in order to assess their absorption(sequestration) potential in the context of various natural and anthropogenic changes.Unified measurement methods and requirements for equipment for adaptation at othersea ranges of the country will be substantiated and developed. Thus, data will beobtained for the development of hybrid models of spatial integration of gas flows.The successful functioning of the Kaliningrad polygon will contribute to the integration ofthe national climate-active gas emission control program into international observationaland research programs (EU-Copernicus CO Human Emissions project (CHE),2Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), WMO Global AtmosphericWatch (WMO-GAW), Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), etc.).The development and maintenance monitoring of the IKBFU, in cooperation with AB IORAS and other leading scientific organizations, including foreign ones, will create a newlevel of human resources that consolidate knowledge from different fields (climatology,meteorology, oceanography, numerical modeling, measurement technology, machinelearning, etc.) based on the adaptation of existing, and development of new, master'sand PhD programs, as well as new educational formats associated with the polygonsthemselves.