Russia (bbabo.net), - In Gelendzhik, one of the country's first marine carbon landfills with a total area of 26 hectares was created. Here they will monitor greenhouse gas flows, develop new sequestration technologies to reduce emissions and increase carbon absorption.
The offshore section of the test site, 12 kilometers long, is located in the Golubaya Bay area on the outer side of the water area. The ground area includes two territories: one is occupied by pines and oaks, the other - by shrub vegetation. Financing of the project, according to information published by the Ministry of Education and Science, in 2021-2022 will amount to 324 million rubles, of which 160 million are budgetary, and 184 are off-budget.
According to Nikolai Durmanov, Special Representative of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science for Biological and Environmental Safety, decarbonization of the economy is considered one of the main methods of combating climate change. To successfully counter the greenhouse effect, you need to emit as few gases as possible into the atmosphere, while extracting those already emitted.
Recall that the EU plans to introduce a carbon tax on products imported into the EU from enterprises that pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases from 2023. According to various estimates, it may affect about 40 percent of Russian exports. Therefore, now the task is to achieve carbon neutrality and confirm that the Russian Federation absorbs CO2 in the same volume as domestic enterprises emit it. Here we need methods for measuring emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. For their development and testing, a national network of carbon polygons is being created, which includes forests, swamps, agricultural lands and marine areas, since calculations must be carried out on all types of ecosystems.
- The Southern Branch of the Institute of Oceanology (IO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the necessary infrastructure, equipment and qualified employees is located in the Gelendzhik region. There is a land area belonging to the IO RAS. This made it possible to create a carbon polygon with sea and coastal areas bordering each other, Vyacheslav Kremenetsky, Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told a correspondent. - In addition, the so-called coccolithophorid bloom, algae with a calcareous skeleton, is observed in the Black Sea, which makes it possible to develop appropriate technologies for carbon sequestration. There are two more test sites with offshore sites: on Sakhalin and in the Kaliningrad region, other technologies are being developed there. The presence in Gelendzhik of the coastal and offshore parts of the polygon in the future will make it possible to study the contribution of land and sea to greenhouse gas fluxes, to study their mutual influence depending on the season, meteorological conditions and other factors. The work has already begun.
All polygons also have an educational task - to train specialists for research at such facilities, as well as to search for and develop technologies for the effective extraction of climate-active gases from the atmosphere at carbon farms.
“Now laboratory experiments are being carried out with seaweed, installations are being prepared for experiments in order to study the flowering of coccolithophorides, and landscape photography of the land part is being deciphered,” Kremenetsky added.
The landfill uses various flow meters for carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor. The equipment is designed to create stations for monitoring the flow of greenhouse gases, which in the future will allow us to estimate the total balance of their emissions (emissions) and absorption throughout Russia. However, the situation with measurements in water is more complicated, since there are no common technologies for this in the world. Therefore, scientists of the IO RAS have to rely on the experience of domestic specialists - chemists, biologists, physicists, geologists.
One of the project participants was the Kuban State University. According to the vice-rector of the university Mikhail Sharafan, several research teams are working on solving the problem.
- Locations for carbon polygons are chosen based on the representativeness of the landscape. Since the ocean actively regulates the content of climatically active gases in the atmosphere and influences the so-called global warming, it is imperative to conduct observations in areas at low latitudes, - explained Anatoly Pogorelov, head of the Department of Geoinformatics of KubSU, doctor of geographical sciences, in an interview with a correspondent. - In the Krasnodar Territory, we want to conduct observations not only in the water area. We also have representative agricultural landscape (agrocenosis) and forest fund lands.
Scientists are already proposing to create landfills on agricultural land and, for example, in the Sochi National Park, but this requires several hundred hectares, on which various crops grow. The data obtained here can then be extrapolated to similar territories in other regions.- The implementation of such projects is associated with the risk of introducing a carbon tax. For the Kuban, this problem, at first glance, is not as obvious as, say, for the extractive regions. But this topic is relevant for all subjects, - says Professor of the Department of Public Policy and Public Administration of KubSU, Doctor of Economics Maria Tereshina. - Methods for calculating emissions and carbon intensity are being worked out at pilot sites, since there are currently no universal technologies. These techniques will also be used in calculations on other landscapes.
The Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences notes that the water area of the offshore area in Gelendzhik is typical for the entire coast of the Krasnodar Territory and the results obtained there can be extrapolated to most of the coastal zone. In the near future, it is planned to include in the Kuban landfill areas of the landscape that are typical and most important in terms of contribution to the balance of greenhouse gas emissions and absorption, these are agricultural (for example, farms and vineyards), steppe and forest zones. Specific sites will be selected after consultations with regional scientific organizations. It also intends to create carbon farms to develop various technologies to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions into the atmosphere.
According to Nikolai Durmanov, it is imperative to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the most reliable way to do this is to use existing ecosystems, since plants are best at extracting CO2 and storing it as biomass. A carbon farm can be created, for example, on farmland and special agricultural technologies can be used there, allowing not only to grow products, but also to "pump" atmospheric carbon into the soil for long-term storage. According to Durmanov, in the near future this will turn into a separate industry that has great prospects in Russia with its vast territories suitable for creating large carbon plantations.
An experimental carbon farm has already been created within the boundaries of the landfill in Gelendzhik, where they will work out technologies for extracting carbon from the marine environment. Here they will also study the patterns of emission and absorption of carbon dioxide at the border of water and air, depending on seasonal and meteorological factors.
“However, the speed and scale of implementation of plans for the development of the monitoring network in the Krasnodar Territory is affected by the presence of a reliable and responsible industrial partner, since the organization of monitoring greenhouse gas flows requires significant costs for preparing infrastructure and purchasing equipment,” concluded Vyacheslav Kremenetsky. - At present, we are working on issues of cooperation with regional investors, as we consider them the most interested in creating a regional network of carbon polygons.
Meanwhile
The cost of opening carbon farms in the world is gradually decreasing, because the governments of many countries are subsidizing and incentivizing the corresponding technologies. According to the Australian Carbon Credit Units, at a cost of $20 - $25 per ton of CO2, the operation of a carbon farm is more profitable than a conventional agricultural one.
Sell carbon on special exchanges. The trading unit is the metric tonne of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. It also calculates quotas for greenhouse gas emissions, which manufacturers need to buy to compensate for the damage. Large exchanges operate in Europe, Asia, North America. The first such market in Russia is being created on Sakhalin. Exchange prices vary. On one of the main ones, the European Union Emission Trading System, in June 2021, the cost of a metric ton of CO2 reached 56 euros.
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