OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2008. Climate change will be the biggest challenge for the Barents Region, the Norwegian Deputy Minister of Environment said when meeting with a Russian counterpart this week. The two countries now establish a joint working group on climate issues.

The meeting between Norway’s Heidi Sorensen and Russia’s Sergey Donskoy was held as part of the Joint Norwegian Environmental Commission.

-For the first time, climate change becomes a separate focus area in our environmental cooperation with the Russians, Ms. Sorensens says in a press release from the Norwegian Ministry of Environment.

In the meeting, Mr. Donskoy underlined that the Russian-Norwegian environmental cooperation is a stabilizing factor helping the two countries handle environmental challenges in the Barents Region, as well as other places.

In the course of 2009, a joint Norwegian-Russian environmental status report for the whole Barents Sea will be elaborated. The two countries also agree to elaborate “a concept for a management plan for the Russian part of the Barents Sea, based on Norwegian experiences”.

In 2009 and 2010, more than 50 Norwegian-Russian environmental projects are to be supported. Among them is the re-establishment of a Norwegian station for air quality testing in the Russian border town of Nikel.

Norway and Russia have cooperated within the field of environment since 1988 when a first government agreement on environment was signed. The cooperation is today developed within the frames of the Norwegian-Russian Environmental Commission.