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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

First of all, I would like to wish the new State Council Presidium and all of us successful work together.

Today we are to examine a question that directly concerns every Russian citizen. I am speaking here of the environment, of the conditions in which our citizens live and work.

As you are aware, the environmental situation today is far from good. Around 15% of Russian territory is in an environmentally critical state or is close to it. The environmental situation in a number of industrial centres in Siberia and the Urals is particularly alarming. If the necessary measures are not taken, industrial recovery in these regions could end up causing further damage to the environment.

Our participation in international projects has enabled us to make serious progress towards resolving issues such as treatment and disposal of radioactive waste and the destruction of chemical weapons. These are important issues, but nevertheless they are only a part of the overall environmental problems we face.

Progress has been limited to just these areas, but we still have many other issues and unresolved problems to deal with.

Environmental problems know no borders. There is more and more talk in the world of a global environmental crisis. It is not for nothing that the environment is up there on the agenda alongside political and economic issues at G8 summits and other such forums.

We too need an integral state environmental policy. This is one of the essential conditions for a rapidly growing economy. Improving the environment must become a key part of our work to improve people’s quality of life and make our industry and our country in general more competitive.

To do this we must fulfil a number of essential tasks.

I would like to mention just a few of the main issues we must deal with.

First, we must do some serious work on modernising and bringing order to our environmental legislation.

We have a paradoxical situation in that our laws provide for no mechanism of compensation for environmental damage caused by economic activity. This largely explains why we have such a chronic shortage of funds for environmental programmes. What we have is a situation where companies bear virtually no responsibility for the damage they cause to the environment, and they have no incentive to invest in environmental protection measures.

A bill on financial liability for negative impact on the environment has been submitted to the Government for examination. I think we should move rapidly to complete work on this bill and introduce it to the State Duma. I believe the minister will tell us the details of the law’s main provisions today, and I would ask the members of the State Council Presidium to give their opinions on this issue.

We must also move to put into place legal regulation of issues such as environmental insurance and environmental auditing of companies.

Second, we must develop a comprehensive system of state management for protecting the natural environment.

We have done a lot of reorganisation recently, but the system still has serious flaws as it is founded on the principle of having one agency carrying out the double function of being responsible for state environmental control while at the same time managing the economic use of natural resources.

Along with this, there is no clear division of authority between the different levels of power in the environmental sphere.

I think that out in the regions you have an even better idea of what is going on in this area.

We also must carry out an inventory of the different federal and regional environmental programmes. This includes looking at how they conform to the Environmental Doctrine approved by the Government.

Third, the loss of qualified personnel is a big problem. We must develop a unified training system for environmentalists.

It is also important that we promote environmental education for the general public. Of course, teaching people to become environmentally-conscious is something that should begin in the schoolroom.

Non-governmental organisations can play a significant part in helping to educate people about the environment and in developing a system of public environmental control.

Fourth, in our work on a state environmental policy, we need to look to international environmental standards. This is essential to ensure quality growth in the economy and encourage the introduction of resource-saving and waste-free technology.

Overall, we need to put more effort into international environmental cooperation.

We are doing something, but this is not enough. Some managers and directors seem to still suffer under the illusion that it is possible to make big profits and gain a competitive advantage by exploiting nature. In reality, this attitude only leads to losses for the whole country.