Environmental taxes and sectoral specialization in Russian regions: analysis of interrelation

Economic development of regions is a crucial issue in the modern world. Determining the sectoral specialization is a key factor in building an effective policy for regions to achieve economic growth. This allows public authorities to focus on sectors that have the potential to further develop territories. There is also no denying the negative impact of economic entities, which raises a debate on maintaining a balance between economic growth and rational use of natural resources. In this regard, we have developed strategic documents designed to find and maintain this balance. Environmental taxation is a relevant mechanism that has proven effective in foreign practice. Its main tool is taxes with an environmental orientation, which can serve as an indicator for determining the region’s specialization. The purpose of this study is to identify the specialization of regions based on environmental taxes and the associated environmental issues. Our findings indicate that regions with extractive production have higher taxes and payments for natural resource usage. In the RF constituent entities with sectoral specialization, the primary environmental taxes are excise taxes on diesel fuel and motor gasoline. This makes them comparable to regions dominated by the agricultural industry and livestock breeding. Further research prospects include identifying the relationship between environmental taxes, sectoral specialization, and the environmental situation using econometric methods. Additionally, it is important to develop and implement a methodology for determining the commensurability level of anthropogenic impact and compensatory payments in the RF regions.