The processing of scrap means the cleaning of the Arctic territory, which is also a priority of the national strategy for the development of the Russian Arctic zone. Scrap metal from the former Soviet era still left in the Russian Arctic zone could be melted down for export. Thus, the_{CO2 tax on}this steel will be lower, Alexander Vorotnikov of the Arctic Development Project Office (Pora) told TASS.

As early as 2020, the European Commission was considering a cross-border_{CO2 tax on} goods imported into the EU. This regulation concerns goods that do not have mandatory payments for greenhouse gas emissions. The new tax mechanism could be ready in the second half of 2021 and the tax is expected to be introduced in 2023.

“We know about modern processing, so-called “white metallurgy”, the production of steel from scrap. If we produce steel directly from scrap, we skip all the earlier stages such as ore mining, as well as black metal extraction, and are thus less burdened with_{CO2 taxes}. We could use renewable energy, and so carbon emissions will be much lower. If we export this steel, the_{CO2 tax} will be much lower,” the expert said.

The processing of scrap metal also means cleaning up the Arctic territory, which is a priority of the national strategy for the development of the Russian Arctic zone approved by the President.

Earlier, the governor of the Nenets region, Yuri Bezrodnyi, said that the Arctic territory of the region has 2,500 usable objects for recovery, including abandoned watercraft, lighthouses and buildings. The governor of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolayev said that within the next five years the Arctic coastal areas will be cleaned of 100,000 tons of scrap metal.

Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal

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