Public awareness in the Murmansk oblast
Background
Phase 1 of the Project revealed an exceptionally low level of public awareness of the environmental harm that ODSs and F-gases used in the fishing industry of the Murmansk oblast cause and of the relevant current and expected restrictions on the management of these substances.
Component activities
The planned component activities are:
- creating and supporting the information web portal with:
- information about the Project and its organizers,
- Russian and international legislation on protection of the ozone layer and climate,
- environmentally friendly refrigeration technologies for the fishing industry of the Murmansk oblast,
- recommendations on improvement of energy efficiency of refrigeration systems,
- information about activities and their outcomes,
- electronic library,
- digital reporting system;
- organizing various activities, inter alia as part of regional trade exhibitions, including the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Murmansk oblast;
- manufacturing and distributing information and promotional products with the Project logos.
ICSTI is expected to maintain the web portal five years after the completion of the Project.
Outcomes of the Project
1. Website www.ozoneprogram.ru — a unique Russian-language Internet portal dedicated to the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances and fluorinated greenhouse gases in the Russian Federation. There is also an English version https://www.ozoneprogram.ru/eng/
The website contains:
- information about the Arctic Council’s international project in the Murmansk oblast (its components, goals, tasks);
- unique package of Russian and international legislation in the field of protection of the ozone layer and the Earth’s climate;
- materials on the use of environmentally-friendly refrigerants in various sectors of economy (Russian and translated);
- sections devoted to various aspects and sides of the rejection of ODS and greenhouse gases: destruction of refrigerants and their recovery, energy efficiency improvement when working with natural refrigerants, the „Ozone Day“ and training, etc.;
- The portal eLibrary with a large number of text and video materials – publications, manuals, reference materials, a kit for the „Ozone Day“, software, video materials.
- Portal news, updated several times a week.
Since its launch, the website has been visited by more than 500,000 unique visitors, including enterprises of the fisheries industry, refrigeration companies, representatives of government authorities, as well as students of specialized universities and educational institutions.
The website has an adaptive design for easy viewing using PC, tablets and smartphones, which expands its audience.
Thanks to successful search engine optimization, the main source of site traffic is traffic from search engines.
www.ozoneprogram.ru is in the TOP-10 of Yandex and Google (Russian) search engines by the relevant queries (keywords): „Montreal Protocol“, „Kigali Amendment“, „Protection of the ozone layer“, „Ozone-depleting substances“, and a dozens of others.
For instance, by the query „ozone-depleting substances“ the website appears in Yandex on the top of the page as a „quick answer“, and in the 2nd place of the search after Wikipedia. In Google (Russian language) it appears in the 2ndplace, just after the UN website, for the request „Montreal Protocol“.
2. Due to the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the main events were carried out in the last two years of the project.
On February 3, 2022, a conference „Legislative restrictions and the transition of fishing enterprises of the Murmansk oblast to efficient and environmentally safe refrigerants“ was held in Murmansk in a hybrid format: face-to-face and online. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Fisheries of the Murmansk oblast, managers and specialists of the operation services of fisheries enterprises and other organizations of the Murmansk oblast using refrigeration equipment, as well as specialists in the installation and maintenance of refrigeration systems.
On September 16, 2022, the „Ozone Day“ was held at Murmansk State Technical University (MSTU), dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. The event was attended by students and teachers of the university, as well as representatives of the International Center for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) — the initiator and implementing agency of the international project on the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances and fluorinated gases in the fisheries industry of the Murmansk oblast.
The program included a demonstration of a film about the Earth’s ozone layer; speeches on the impact of environmentally friendly refrigeration technologies and the development of the refrigeration sector. Also, the upcoming opening of the Arctic Training Center for Refrigeration Technologies at MSTU (held two weeks later) and other events scheduled for September 2022 were announcemed.
A competition of student projects for students of universities of the Murmansk oblast on topics related to the protection of the ozone layer and the Earth’s climate was also announced (the results were summed up in December 2022). As a competitive task, the teams developed a concept for the development of the Arctic Training Center for Refrigeration Technologies, created at the MSTU as part of a project to phase out ozone-depleting substances and fluorinated gases in the fisheries industry of the Murmansk oblast. 14 teams took part, developed and presented their projects.
On September 28, 2022, the opening ceremony of the Arctic Training Center for Refrigeration Technologies took place.
In November 2022, the newly established training center was visited by the Governor of the Murmansk oblast Andrey Chibis.
In 2023, several meetings were organized between students of the Murmansk Arctic University (MAU, formerly MSTU) with representatives of refrigeration companies of the Murmansk oblast.
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