Here’s what we’re doing about it

The Russian Arctic, disinformation, and nuclear security are three major focus areas of the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center. These issues are especially urgent amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shifting geopolitics, and growing pressure on global energy and climate systems. The decisions we make in these areas today have long-term consequences for international security, environmental protection, and democratic resilience. If you’re a researcher, policy advisor, government official, journalist, or environmentalist, here are five things you’ll get from our analysts:

1. We know the Russian context. Since 1989, Bellona has documented and exposed serious environmental conditions in the former Soviet Union. Between 1994 to 2022, we maintained offices in Murmansk and St. Petersburg, working to secure enormous quantities of neglected nuclear waste from Russia’s nuclear industry and military, protecting the environmental rights of the population, and producing science-based information for a broad public audience.

2. We put our energy into information and analytical work, specifically as it releates to Russia’s powerful state nuclear corporation Rosatom—its domestic and international activities, the supposedly civilian corporation’s role in the war in Ukraine, and  profound impact on the global nuclear industry and world markets. At the core of our analysis remains our founding commitment to nuclear safety.

3. We turn a special eye on the influence of Russia’s nuclear sector on global politics, economy, and energy, as well as its role in the war and the global environmental risks it poses — things like nuclear accidents and radioactive contamination. Nuclear legacy issues and sanctions also top our list of priorities.

Our experts closely follow events in Ukraine, producing reports, articles, and working papers in both English and Russian. We monitor developments at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and other nuclear plants in Ukraine, and also keep an eye on other energy sector matters there. These include shifts in Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, following any changes in Kyiv’s government energy offices, as well as assessing the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency within the current conflict.

You can also get a subscription to our monthly Bellona Nuclear Digest, which provides regular oversight on important issues in nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine and Russia.

• Explore Nuclear Focus Area

4. We monitor Russia’s impact on the climate and environmental pollution in the Arctic. This impact has only gotten bigger amid shifting geopolitics and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About one-third of the Arctic region—including the exclusive economic zone of the Arctic Ocean—falls within Russia’s borders. These areas host vast reserves of oil, gas, and metals that Russia plans to exploit to pay for its war. Industrial development, militarization of the region, and Russia’s environmental policies inevitably affect the entire Arctic.

Our experts keep their fingers on the pulse of legislative changes, industry shifts and developments along the Northern Sea Route, the navigable corridor along Russia’s northern coast that the Kremlin is banking on for major economic development. Our monthly Arctic digest offers analysis of happenings in the Russian Arctic and how they impact the environment, both at the top of the world and beyond.

• Explore Arctic Focus Area

5. We monitor and expose Russian disinformation, which slows environmental action, undermines trust, and exploits social divisions. We work to unearth and counter these false narratives to support evidence-based policy. Disinformation in our field is no longer limited to the denial of climate change. Today, it takes sophisticated, multi-platform forms, using narratives designed to delay, distort, or derail specific measures or policies developed to protect the environment and mitigate climate change.

For Bellona, confronting environmental disinformation is central to promoting ecological awareness, safeguarding democratic processes, and accelerating solutions to the climate and environmental crises. We aim to investigate this underexplored area of disinformation research, develop new insights and methodologies, and equip politicians, journalists, civil society, and local communities with the tools needed to identify and counter misinformation and disinformation.

Our mission

Bellona’s vision is achieving a restorative, just and democratic carbon negative society. Our work aims to accelerate the implementation of solutions to the challenges of climate change, pollution, and degradation of ecosystems in the most efficient manner possible to create positive environmental change.

Location and contact

The office of the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center (BETC) is located in Vilnius, Lithuania. It employs Russian-speaking staff members who left Russia in 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine. Some team members work remotely from other countries and other Bellona offices.

Our team

Nuclear Project

Arctic Project

You can find our latest analytical reports here.

Feel free to reach us at etc@bellona.org