"The main task today is to prevent the accumulation of environmental problems in the future"

The development of lithium mining, the expansion of waste processing capacities and the elimination of unauthorized landfills remain among the key areas of work of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. These tasks are directly related to both the industrial development of the country and the quality of life of the population. Alexander Kozlov, the head of the department, told Izvestia about this at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Read more about the main industrial and environmental priorities of the country in the article.

"We are able to provide the industry with raw materials"

— Mining of rare earth metals, including lithium, is actively developing in Russia: reserves are significant, demand is high, including due to the growth of production of electric vehicles. How do you assess the prospects for the development of microelectronics and chip production in the country? Can we meet domestic needs and eventually catch up with or even bypass China?

— Let me answer the question that is in the introduction of our ministry. This is the availability of resources, reserves, deposits that should provide lithium. We have these deposits in the country, they have been studied, and after a number of decisions at the country's leadership level, a number of these deposits have begun to be put into circulation by large companies such as Rosatom together with Norilsk Nickel.

We have done everything so that, for example, the deposits of the Murmansk region, in Kolomozersk, could be used in our country and provide the necessary resource. We have the Tastyg lithium deposit (Tastyg deposit, located in the Erzinsky district of the Republic of Tyva. — Ed.). Irkutsk Oil Company (Inc.) also produces lithium from reservoir waters.

I am confident that all the lithium deposits we have are capable of providing the industry with the necessary resources and raw materials. The Ministry of Industry will continue to deal with the processing of these raw materials, which will allow the production of batteries and other demanded products that the country needs.

"The problem of landfills cannot be inherited by grandchildren"

— Let's move on from lithium to the topic of landfills. How many unauthorized landfills were identified in 2025 and since the beginning of 2026? Where are the largest of them located and what damage do they cause?

— According to the data we have for the past year, over 600 thousand illegal landfills have been identified. But it should be borne in mind that these are average statistics, the volumes are different everywhere and vary depending on the region. The largest are the Krasnodar Territory and the Orenburg Region. On behalf of our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, we are providing support measures for the disposal of large facilities that are harmful to human health. Among other things, we help the heads of regions where such facilities exist with competencies and financially.

We have a division of Rosatom that works with the first and second hazard classes, which are among the most dangerous chemical waste. I'll give you an example and everything will become clear to you. Let's say there was an industry that had been transporting waste to one place for 30-50 years, for example, the Krasny Bor landfill in the Leningrad region. The state has paid attention to this. Financing was allocated, and a certain company was assigned the task of making sure that this waste never got into the bay, otherwise it would have been an emergency. The second point is that they have created facilities and equipment that will dispose of this chemical waste. And now the first such waste has already begun to be disposed of.

We have the same story in the Irkutsk region and other regions. And you know, what's especially important here is that landfills don't just look ugly, but actually threaten human life. Therefore, first of all, our colleagues from Rospotrebnadzor and Rosprirodnadzor and I conducted an audit to identify damage to human health. And we have already selected about 44 such objects.

During this year and next, we will select and finance the appropriate facilities. Why are we talking about this year and the next? Because the organizations that will be involved in this work must first prepare all the necessary documentation, including mandatory environmental assessment, and only after that they receive government support measures. This is done so that in the future, including for future generations, such problems will no longer arise.

"Waste recycling capacities need to be increased"

— By the end of 2030, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment sets a goal to increase the share of waste recycling to 25%. What is this indicator now, in 2026?

— Now this figure is about 14%. But here it is important to understand that you need to focus not only on percentage values. What is much more important is what facilities are available in the region for receiving, sorting and recycling waste so that it is not buried, but returned to secondary circulation.

The necessary legislative decisions have already been taken at the state level, for which we can thank our colleagues from the State Duma. They make it possible to form a recyclable market so that businesses can enter this area, take plastic, cardboard, and other materials from waste sorting facilities and recycle them.

Today, about 392 such facilities have already been created in the country. About 400 more are needed to fully cover the need. These are very large-scale and expensive projects, and the state is ready to support those who will build and subsequently operate these facilities.

We are aware that this is expensive, and if the government provides support measures now, then in the future the cost of this service will be much lower than if it were without government support measures. How are we going to do this? At the level of the law, today there is a responsibility of the manufacturer of goods, packaging, which produce what is subject to subsequent disposal, pay the appropriate fee to the state. At the same time, they pay only when they themselves do not create capacities aimed at recycling.

The state has provided for this specifically to avoid the appearance of abandoned landfills and spontaneous burials, as well as to stimulate the creation of processing facilities. This year, our colleagues from Rosprirodnadzor have collected about 36 billion rubles. According to the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, this money will be used to create new facilities in the regions. And we will especially support regions that cannot implement such projects on their own due to different budget levels.

This is a complex, painstaking, but extremely important process. All this needs to be done, otherwise if we don't respond to this problem, we will waste time. As a result, all the accumulated garbage and old graves will go to our children and grandchildren. I would not like to leave them such a legacy.

"Work in the new regions is proceeding in two directions"

— As part of the national project "Ecological Future" by 2030, it is planned to ensure 100% sorting of all municipal solid waste generated annually and reduce the proportion of its disposal to no more than 50%. To what extent, in your opinion, are these goals achievable in practice and what is the situation with waste sorting this year?

— It is achievable, but, as I have already said, the creation of appropriate capacities directly affects this. The quality of the design and accurate calculation of the volumes of future facilities are very important, because when they are underloaded, they become inefficient, expensive and, as a result, they will try to get away from them.

In addition, already at the construction stage, it is necessary to make management decisions that will avoid unnecessary costs and eliminate unnecessary elements that affect the final cost of the service and the cost of processing. All this is possible, but it just needs to be systematically addressed every day by mayors, governors, their deputies, and everyone responsible for this area in the regions. I emphasize — systematically, not on a case-by-case basis.

— How will the issue of garbage be resolved, with landfills in the new territories of Novorossiya and in the Donbas, where garbage has been accumulating for literally decades?

— We are working in the new territories in two main areas. The first is the waste left over from abandoned enterprises. We have already identified the appropriate sites and locations, and design is underway. As a result of the preparation of design solutions, financial support measures will be allocated for the liquidation of these facilities.

The second area is the municipal solid waste management system. As an example, Mariupol can be cited: we have fully provided the city with equipment — more than 100 units have been transferred. We provide support with containers, container sites, and garbage trucks.

In addition, every new region is currently designing facilities for the treatment and disposal of municipal solid waste. After completion of the design work and preparation of the design estimates, financing for construction will be opened immediately. Our main task is to clean it all up and do everything right so that people can live comfortably. This work is being implemented as part of a large-scale program for the restoration of new territories, a significant part of which is overseen by Marat Shakirzyanovich Khusnullin in the government.

"The implementation of the Volga project is already yielding results"

— And at what stage is the implementation of the Ecology national project now? In particular, how is the construction of sewage treatment plants on the Volga going and what has already been done?

— The decision to improve the health of this waterway was made in 2019 as part of the Volga national project, which included the construction of sewage treatment plants. Many activities are being carried out there today. These include clearing riverbeds, dredging, fighting siltation, and the like. Our colleagues from the Ministry of Construction, together with the heads of the regions, have identified the facilities that will be built. Some of them had already been built here before, but, unfortunately, not all facilities were capable of purifying water from pollution by 100%.

A lot of work with colleagues from the Ministry of Construction is currently underway in this direction, in order to bring the facilities into the right condition and so that this expensive equipment does not stand in a pile of concrete and metal, but purifies water. This is a whole life cycle, which takes more than a year. Another problem that we have encountered is the ingress of polluted waters into sewage treatment plants, which was not originally envisaged in the framework of design solutions.

And what are we doing? Using the example of sewage treatment plants, we don't take their word for it, we don't believe the documents, but we go to check. Through this project, we have seen those who pollute. Then they calculated how it pollutes, which substance gets into the water, and what it affects. The next step is a technical solution: what needs to be done to reduce these substances? And this is such a painstaking, monotonous, daily job. Using the example of Krasnoyarsk, I can say that during this time, sulfur dioxide has decreased by half in Norilsk, too.

But we must understand that this work must be administered constantly. Everyone wants to earn more and spend less, and in order to avoid such manipulations, it is still necessary that the supervisory authorities and control bodies also carry out this work in a planned, continuous manner.

"Increased attention is being paid to the growth of pollution"

— How can we explain the increase in pollution recorded in 2025? What are your reasons for this?

— I can honestly tell you that our headquarters meets with the regions on Wednesdays every week. Just this Wednesday, we heard reports from a number of regions. I can even name companies that commit violations. At the same time, there are objective reasons for what is happening. The situation is under control, and we understand what measures need to be taken.

The key task now is to develop comprehensive plans for 29 new cities. This will be more difficult work, since there are few large industrial centers there: the main sources of emissions are individual housing construction facilities and coal-fired boilers. A significant part of the burden will fall on public utilities, which will have to carry out large-scale work on the transfer of houses from furnace heating to gas and electricity.

There is a lot of work to be done with people here, but we looked at those cities that are already participating in the project, such as Ulan—Ude and a number of other cities that are currently engaged in Chita, and we saw that it brings great benefits.

What are the main key priorities for the next five years to improve the environmental situation in our country? First— I would divide it into what we already have as a fact. As you said, how many landfills we identify, how many objects of accumulated damage we have in our country. That is, we counted them. We have them all in the registry, we need to sort them out. It's not based on the principle of who has the project documentation, who doesn't, how much money, but from the point of view of what harms health in the first place.

And it is not necessary to do this only with the support of the federal government. This should become a priority for the work of regional leaders together with the supervisory authorities, because then through this participation they really show that this is a priority, that we can all understand from each substance what the consequences are for which diseases and what it affects.

The second point is, of course, to do everything to ensure that this disease, the problem does not grow. To do this, we need to adopt the right legislative acts. It is necessary to have financial support measures and to have a team — both businessmen and officials — who are ready to cope with this task.

We are moving in each of these directions. It's not always easy, but everyone understands and is aware that this is such a big and constant job because it affects the livelihood of our lives. This is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that must be conducted on a regular basis.

An equally important issue is related to the creation of new enterprises. As we can see at the economic forum, businesses continue to launch new projects. Large companies that are ready to invest significant funds are aware of their responsibility and pay great attention to the environmental agenda even at the design stage of plants, factories and production complexes.

But there are objects that were created in the last century. Unfortunately, they don't always meet the new standards and so on. You'll have to work with them too. Many of them are city-forming. And we understand that we cannot abandon these enterprises, because they feed entire teams, thousands of people work in them.

An equally important task here is how to bring order to the environment at existing enterprises. And we are working with her in the Clean Air program and a number of our other projects that we are implementing. An equally important project is the rehabilitation of our forests, because we understand that these are the lungs of our planet. It is extremely important to protect forests from fires, and this work is already underway. In my opinion, we have managed to achieve significant results in this area. The Government pays special attention to this task.

And I can give you an example: if 5 years ago the financing for this area was 6 billion rubles, now it is 26 billion. What does it affect? These are groups of paratroopers, paratroopers, and air patrols — these are our collectives. The most important thing is the areas that we have started to control. About 200 million hectares have been added to what we currently control and protect from fires.

Our industrialists are cutting down forests, and today, at all legislative levels, the forest is being restored, and as a result of this restoration, administration and control have been carried out for several more years.

We have already talked about this: according to the results of last year, our reforestation rates are higher than the volume of forests cut down or lost for various reasons. However, I repeat, all this data needs to be verified, rechecked and analyzed. The term "verification" itself is also very important in our work, because the main thing is to avoid errors in estimates.

"It ceases to be permafrost"

— Given the accelerating degradation of permafrost in the Arctic, is there a need, in your opinion, for a separate state program for the adaptation of Arctic territories and the development of construction in the changing state of permafrost soils?

— I fully confirm that permafrost changes are indeed taking place. It ceases to be permafrost. We have seen the example of the accident in Norilsk — this is exactly what it is about. And we initiated this proposal. Thank you to Vladimir Putin for supporting us.

Colleagues from the State Duma have done everything to ensure that we have legislation that allows us to monitor permafrost. This has never happened before.

Our Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, which is located here in the glorious city of St. Petersburg, took up this work together with colleagues who produce equipment, including our Moscow State University in one of the areas. These equipment and sensors are being manufactured, drilling is underway in the permafrost, and instruments are being installed so that we can monitor.

In the coming years 2026-2027, we will install the entire grid, which will allow us to monitor changes in permafrost, analyze the dynamics and provide our colleagues with data that may influence their strategic decisions.

What I think needs to be done first, and some regions have already begun this work, is, of course, to be prepared to adapt to climate change.

Here, it would be right to have adaptation plans for each region, each city, and each district, which will assume what will happen next, not for one decade, but for a century, in order to make the right technical decisions in the development of cities, towns, and the environment where people live. That's what's important to do now.

— Do these plans need to be separated into a separate state program and work on it?

— President Vladimir Putin gave such instructions, and colleagues from the Ministry of Economy and our regional leaders have already received them, they have a clear task. Every region that is subject to climate change in order to adapt should have such plans. This is strategically important for making decisions in the future.