Relatively simple equipment upgrades would yield large emissions cuts. In return, Japan would receive some of the emissions credits that would be created. In mid-April, the Russian government continued to object to plans for an undersea pipeline in the Caspian Sea. The Russian officials based their objections on environmental concerns, specifically that seismic activity in the Caspian would make a pipeline along the seabed unsafe. But the Russian government seems more miffed by the fact that pipeline plans favored by Turkey and other area countries bypasses Russia.
Substantial fees generated by the transit of oil through the pipelines are the main issue at stake.
The Finnish and Swedish governments, along with the EBRD, agreed in early April to fund a program to reduce effluents and treat sewage coming from the Russian city of St. Petersburg that fouls the Baltic Sea. Earlier this year, an EBRD-funded project to treat the city's sewage foundered when the St. Petersburg city council hesitates to raise water rates for residents to pay for part of the program. As many as 500 factories dump industrial wastes directly into the river as well. St. Petersburg mayor Vladimir Yakovlev acknowledged at an early April meeting of Baltic Sea mayors that the city dumps 1.2 million tons of untreated effluents into the Neva each year. Mayors from the region agreed to cooperate to cut pollution in their common waters.