On June 2022 the joint project team of the Freeport of Ventspils authority and “Ventspils High Technology Park” (VHTP) visited Norway to gain knowledge, practice and experience regarding the realization of projects related to environment and climate change.

IDN is the cooperation partner of the remediation project implemented in Ventspils and it has experience in projects related to the environment which has a substantial role in Ventspils project as well. During the visit the IDN shared their experience regarding the public awareness and education campaigns in relation to the climate change, presented examples with performed activities (e.g. in schools and in society in general) and showed how these measures, related to the climate change, are being implemented at Climate House in Natural History Museum.

The Ventspil’s project team had the opportunity to see the following sites/objects which were related to the remediation and recovery of environment, and the overall wellbeing and development of the city – the port of Drammen, a section of river where sediment remediation has been performed and Oslo port area. The experience regarding these sites and environmental projects was shared by the representatives of Ramboll company.

It is expected that the experience and knowledge gained during the visit will be beneficial also for the remediation project in Ventspils and that some of the examples provided by the IDN representatives regarding the public awareness and education campaigns related to climate change might be integrated in the current project in some way or another. Despite the fact that neither of the sites/projects implemented were directly related or identical to the project implemented in Ventspils, they all were related to the improvement of the environment after contamination which allowed to evaluate and compare these projects from the perspective of project leadership, management and risk assessment. Moreover, the contacts obtained from the Ramboll company might prove to be useful in the future as Ramboll is a rather big, international enterprise and their representatives promised to share the info about their worldwide projects which might be more similar to the remediation project in Ventspils.

The acquired knowledge, the exchange of experience between the involved parties and newly acquired contacts were useful both in the rehabilitation project implemented by the Freeport of Ventspils Authority and in relation to possible cooperation in the future in relation to environmental improvement and climate change.

The project “Historically Contaminated area with Oil Products in Ventspils – Former WTP “Ūdeka” (cadastre No. 27000290133) Territory and Oil Product Main Pipeline Network (cadastre No. 27000290007) – Remediation” is being implemented by Freeport of Ventspils Authority in cooperation with the Norwegian partner foundation “International Development Norway AS” as well as Latvian project partner foundation “Ventspils High Technology Park”. Project budget: 5 117 000 EUR. Norwegian Financial Mechanism programme (Norway Grants) co-financing: 4 349 450 EUR. The implementation period of the project is from July 1, 2021 to April 30, 2024.

Working together for a green Europe!