SPbU opens Russian-Chinese Carbon Neutrality Centre
Decarbonisation and efforts towards carbon neutrality are among the key issues in the national project Ecology, which aims to reduce air pollution and actively control pollutant emissions. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation plans to create a network of carbon measurement supersites in Russia. These networks will monitor greenhouse gases and leverage the absorption capacity of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
According to Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research at SPbU, St Petersburg University is a leading research institution in Russia in the field of ecology. Scientists from SPbU participate in major environmental scientific conferences, and their research papers are published in leading scientific journals worldwide. Sergey Mikushev added that St Petersburg University is ranked first among scientific organizations in Russia in terms of the number of publications on the topic of the green transition indexed by Scopus — SPbU scientists have published 37 articles in leading scientific journals between 2000 and 2021.
"The establishment of the Carbon Neutrality Centre is an important step for both our countries. I believe that in the future, this centre will become a leading hub for experts, new research, conferences, and scientific publications in the field," said Sergey Mikushev.
St Petersburg University currently has ten joint research centres and laboratories with foreign partners, as well as laboratories created under the Megagrant Programme of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. In 2022, SPbU became the leader in Russia in the number of megagrants received and established three new laboratories.
Detlef Werner Bahnemann, who is also the head of the SPbU Megagrant Laboratory Photoactive Nanocomposite Materials and a professor at the Leibniz University of Hannover, leads the centre on behalf of St Petersburg University. During the ceremony, he stated that the centre will expand to become a global leader in environmental research. Partnership negotiations with two universities in Brazil are already underway.
"The research we're doing in our lab is responding to the global needs created by a growing carbon footprint. I am therefore very pleased to have the honour of leading this centre from the Russian side," said Detlef Bahnemann.
The SPbU Russian-Chinese Carbon Neutrality Centre was established jointly with Guangxi University, its co-director from the Chinese side is Professor Pan Jiahong of Guangxi University (State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-Cycle Safety for Composite Structures).
Pan Jianghong noted that the year of the 300th anniversary of SPbU is a good time to launch new projects and new initiatives. The increasingly close partnership between China and Russia shows that both countries are interested in developing environmental projects and carbon neutrality, he said.
Professor Evgeny Abakumov of SPbU (Department of Applied Ecology) said the issue of carbon neutrality is particularly relevant for Russia as a major supplier of natural resources - oil and gas. He noted that Russia is characterised by large areas of forested land, which not only offsets carbon emissions but is also suitable for environmental research. To this end, the University plans to create the Ladoga carbon measurement supersite in the Leningrad region. The network of carbon measurement supersites is being developed with the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and industry partners. Scientists at the Carbon Neutrality Centre will be able to take advantage of all these opportunities.