On March 24 and 25, within the framework of the XX International Forum "Ecology of the Big city", the conference "Reform of the system of mandatory requirements of environmental legislation" was held.

The organizers of this event were the Committee for Nature Management, Environmental Protection and Environmental Safety of St. Petersburg and the ANO "Equality".

The conference covered the mandatory requirements and current changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of environmental protection, environmental management, technological rationing, environmental expertise, environmental supervision, air protection, waste management.
More information about the program, speakers and issues discussed can be found at the link.

Also, Association for Environmental Partnership (NP "AsEP") and KOSMOS LLC attended the international round table "Promising International Projects within the framework of cross-border cooperation programs for the period 2021-2027".

The event was organized by the Committee for Nature Management, Environmental Protection and Environmental Safety of St. Petersburg.

Areas of promising cooperation were presented, which in the future could become the basis for the preparation of applications for projects under the cross-border Cooperation Programs "Russia — South-Eastern Finland", "Russia — Estonia" and "Russia — Latvia", the transnational cooperation program "Interreg. The Baltic Sea Region" for 2021-2027.
For more information about the program, the invited participants and the issues that were discussed, please follow the link.

Photos can be viewed here.

On the second day of the XX International forum "Ecology of the Big city" (EBC), work continued at the joint stand of Association of Environmental Partnerships (NP "AsEP") and KOSMOS LLC. Students of the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) also took part in the dissemination of information about the "BBC1" and "Cata3Pult" projects.

Employees of KOSMOS LLC attended a meeting of the section "Ecology and Environmental Protection" of the Expert Council under the Committee of the Federation Council on Agrarian and Food Policy "International Instruments of Green Modernization and Green Finance", where they discussed ways to attract investment in order to implement green modernization projects that comply with the principles of sustainable development, as well as issues of modernization of production facilities and transition to BAT, the formation of a closed-cycle economy based on investment projects for the management of waste and secondary resources, development of international cooperation and cooperation for sustainable development, etc.

Reports were made by Sergey Korotkov, director of the Center for International Industrial Cooperation of UNIDO in the Russian Federation, representatives of the Investment Committee of St. Petersburg, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Government of Moscow, etc.
More information about the program can be found at the link.

Representatives of KOSMOS LLC also attended the seminar "Environmental Projects of the Russia-Finland Cross-Border Cooperation Program", where project partners Terhi Jantunen (Cata3Pult) and Saija Tillgren (BBC1) presented information and activities on the relevant projects.

To hold this seminar was a joint idea of NP "AsEP" and KOSMOS LLC. The organizers of the EBC - the Administration of St. Petersburg approved the feasibility of this initiative. Such an event has never been held at the forum.
More information about the seminar program and the projects presented can be found at the link.
Link to the video here.

One of the interesting events of the Forum was the round table in the hybrid format "Green Business", where the following issues were discussed:

• "Green Code of St. Petersburg Enterprises" - an example of interaction between business, society and government;
• Sustainable development: practical implementation of programs in the field of environmental responsibility of business.

Reports of the following companies were presented: JTI, Unilever, Smurfit Kappa, HEINEKEN, "Baltika Brewing Company", etc.
A detailed program is available at the link.

Photos can be viewed here.

On March 23, as part of the opening of the XX International forum "Ecology of the Big city", a joint meeting of the Permanent Commission on Ecology and Nature Management of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and the Environmental Council under the Governor of St. Petersburg was held.

The event was moderated by Maria Shcherbakova, Chairman of the Commission on Ecology and Environmental Management of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, and Boris Krylov, Deputy Chairman of the Environmental Council under the Governor of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Management and Ecology of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Within the framework of the joint meeting of the Permanent Commission, the issues of pollution of surface water bodies of St. Petersburg were considered.
"Unauthorized discharges into urban watercourses play a significant role in the pollution of our water bodies. Almost every day, emergency services go out to eliminate oil spills, annually collecting tens of tons of petroleum products. As a result, almost all the city's beaches are closed in the summer, and our residents are at risk of chemical poisoning. It is necessary to adopt a program to survey the watercourses of St. Petersburg and eliminate all unauthorized discharges»,- said Boris Krylov.

The program of the event can be found at the link.
Here is a video clip from the Meeting.