The Role of Environmental NGOs in Promoting Sustainability among Russian Oil Companies

The Russian Federation is famous for its landscapes, beautiful nature and its rich natural resources, especially oil and gas resources. According to The Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) / Oil and Gas Data Transparency, the Russian Federation took became the third in the world in 2018 after Saudi Arabia on crude oil production . The oil and gas industry is a “leader” among other sectors in the Russian economy in terms of its negative impact on the environment. The “Russian Energy Strategy until 2030 ,” approved by the Russian government, provides for a significant increase in the natural resources production, especially oil and gas. This implies that new environmental problems and risks will inevitably arise from accidents, gas flaring, emissions and discharges of pollutants etc. More often the problem of oil production in Russia is considered in the light of low environmental standards (for example, the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) has not been ratified), which fail to protect unique nature and wildlife from aggressive rush for oil and gas resources that causes serious influence and even cause irreparable damage to the environment . Understanding the fact that to amend the state environmental policy is not a direct task of non-government organizations, a number of leading environmental organisations in Russia, including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Russia), decided that one of the most effective means of achieving environmental goals would be a development of a constructive dialogue with the leading companies, primarily with the oil and gas sector.