Environmental economics. Рубрика в журнале - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Статья научная
The concept of sustainable development adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was a turning point in the understanding of the importance of “natural capital”, when emphasis on ecosystem services was marked. An important step in the development of the practical use of the concept of ecosystem services was the decision, which is based on three principles: recognition of the ecosystem value; carrying out its economic assessment and the development of mechanisms accounting for these benefits. The article presents the ecological and economic assessment of water regulating function of the northern region on the basis of methodology of Yu.V. Lebedev and I.A. Neklyudov based on the evaluation of average annual growth rate of groundwater flow of forested watersheds. The region is situated in the natural zones of tundra and taiga. As for taiga forests, their precipitation joins groundwater flow during the period of summer and autumn rains. The differentiation of the value of groundwater flow is determined by the topography, forest cover, wetlands and characteristics of timber stands...
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Environmental assessment of economic growth in the northern region
Статья научная
The analysis is based on P. Victor model of green growth. From the point of view of conceptual applicability (to diagnose environmental sustainability of economic development) and availability of tools, it is the simplest, most illustrative and universal in the range of indicators. The key parameters of the presented research model are relative indicators of negative impacts on natural systems per unit of economic result. The research novelty lies in taking into account economic and environmental indicators to assess the quality of life and the degree of environmental economic development of Northern regions. Assessment results in the Komi Republic reveal a generally low level of environmental quality of the region’s economic development for 2007-2016. Some progress towards “green” growth was observed in terms of discharge of contaminated wastewater into water surface bodies; stable economic situation in the “brown” growth zone is typical for atmospheric pollutant emissions, the features if “black” growth of economic results determined the volume of formation and disposal of toxic waste of industrial enterprises...
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Статья научная
The complex debate in the recent economic literature about environmental quality in economic growth, looking for a return to long-term sustainable growth in total factor productivity, recognizing the environmental aspect of development as an imperative confirm the relevance of the research topic. The aim of the study is to provide a theoretical substantiation of environmental investment as a key factor in ensuring long-term and sustainable economic growth, an “active start” to the radical transformation of the Russian economy in accordance with the requirements of the global Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance agenda; another aim is to conduct an experimental testing of the identified scientific idea. Environmental investment is characterized as a type of responsible and transformative investment capable of generating incremental total factor productivity growth by stimulating specific green innovations. The methodology of the study included methods of identification, analysis and verification of an econometric model in the form of a system of dynamic regressions by Sh. Almon with distributed lags. Experimentally (by constructing different regressions and testing Student’s hypotheses for them, determining estimates of t-statistics) as applied to the Russian economy, we evaluated long-term and short-term responses of economic growth indicators to the volume of environmental investment (specifically, its priority focus, such as waste-free and recycling resources). The econometric model has established a long-term positive effect of environmental investments. The effect consists in protecting the integrity of natural capital and improving the condition of ecosystems, which is fundamental to maintaining the potential for economic the long-term growth. Short- and medium-term effects include creating new high-tech jobs in low CO2 sectors and restoring total factor productivity growth through green technological innovation. The main barriers to environmental investment in Russia have been identified, and the minimum necessary economic instruments to stimulate it have been developed.
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Статья научная
The article presents an algorithm for the management of specially protected natural areas in the region. This algorithm consists of the following procedures: assumption of the obligation to preserve biodiversity; planning and implementation of activities to preserve natural complexes; evaluation, analysis of results and development of recommendations to improve management. According to this algorithm the procedures were tested on model objects - specially protected natural territories of federal and regional importance. In the course of implementation of these activities the sources of funding of specially protected model objects were identified: the funds of budgets of all levels; grants and charitable contributions; funds received from the provision of recreation and tourism services. The financial strategies of development were provided, and the business plans were analysed for seven natural reserves. The results of a sociological survey concerning the effectiveness of implementation of business plans show that positive effects from the existence of protected areas are much more pronounced than the limitations experienced by local residents...
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Identifying the effect of decoupling in major economic sectors of the Komi Republic
Статья научная
The concept of decoupling is currently recognized as a strategic basis for moving toward an environmentally sustainable economy. This fact is confirmed by a review of publications discussing the possibility of achieving an imperative distinction between economic activity, welfare, and resource utilization. In this regard, the relevance of the problem of ensuring sustainable eco-economic development of the region is increasing, which determined the purpose of the work - to obtain the evidence base proving the actual achievement of decoupling in basic industries (extractive, manufacturing, energy). In order to assess the relationship between economic activity and environmental impact at the industry level, we adapted the Tapio decoupling model known as the Decoupling Diamond, which includes eight decoupling states depending on economic growth rate, resource consumption or environmental impact and the value of the elasticity coefficient representing the growth ratio of these indicators. Determining the state of decoupling in each industry includes calculating the rate of change in gross value added (in comparable prices) and environmental indicators: water abstraction, dirty discharge, air pollutant emissions, production waste generation for the period 2010-2019. The results obtained indicate that the rates of change in gross value added, consumption of natural resources, and the negative impact on the environment are related, separated, or negatively divided. For all of the industries under consideration we have revealed a weak negative decoupling on the dirty discharge, for the energy industry - a weak decoupling on the production waste generation. We have identified a downward trend in current and investment environmental costs in the extractive and manufacturing industries, as well as an increase in the proportion of payments for negative environmental impact (NEI) and a decline in innovation activity. The results of the study indicate the need to improve the economic performance of basic industries and strengthen their environmental protection activities; subsequently, the results may be in demand for regulation of eco-economic relations.
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Статья научная
The state and possibilities of use of hunting resources are of great cultural and socio-economic importance for the indigenous population of the North; they also affect the safety of people living in sparsely populated Arctic territories. The paper considers the historical experience of organization and legal regulation of hunting as a type of economic activity in the Arkhangelsk Governorate [ Arkhangelskaya guberniya ] in the 19th - early 20th century; it also provides the quantitative and cost characteristics of hunting resources. We present the results of sociological surveys of hunters from Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Arkhangelsk Oblast conducted in 2015-2016, the data on the population status of game animals hunted by people in the Arctic territories. Hunting in the Arkhangelsk Governorate was most developed in Pinezhsky, Pechorsky, and Mezensky counties [ uezdy ]; there was almost no government intervention in this activity until the end of the 19th century. It was assumed that a small number of hunters (less than 3% of the population of the Governorate) can not cause irreparable damage to the population of game animals...
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Problems of providing balanced development of the northern region: ecological and economic aspect
Статья научная
Under current conditions, considering the national development goals of Russia through to 2030, one of the urgent tasks is to provide the development of country`s regions on the principles of ecological and economic balance, which is especially important for the Russian northern territories because of their greater vulnerability and lower rate of ecosystem restoration. In this regard, the purpose of the work is to study the features and problems of ecological and economic balance in the development of the northern region, as well as to justify the tools to solve them. The object of the study is the Russian North as a region which has enormous natural resource and geostrategic potential, and occupies an important place in the territory of the North. The basis of the methodology is the of P. Victor model, which makes it possible to assess the presence or absence of the decoupling effect in the regional development. Subsequently, we analyze the trends for compliance with the principles of ecological and economic balance. As a result, we have found that there is no decoupling effect for all types of anthropogenic impacts in 2007™2018. Moreover, the considered trends do not meet the key principles of ecological and economic balance including the reason of the low implementation rate of environmental innovations in economic activity due to their high cost. This necessitates the need to form a mechanism of ecological and economic balance of development; it`s most important element could be a regional fund to support the implementation of the best available technologies. The fund plays the role of a financial tool to stimulate the introduction of innovations in the enterprises that are greening their activities. The scientific novelty of the work is to improve the methodological tools for assessing and providing the ecological and economic balance of the regional development. The direction for further research will be a more detailed elaboration of the mechanism to provide ecological and economic balance in the development of the northern regions in the country.
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Статья научная
Scientific interest in the topic of hunting and game husbandry is due to the fact that the problems of rational nature management are coming to the fore - it concerns not only land relations, development of minerals and exploitation of forests, but also procurement of hunting resources combined with the protection of wildlife. The latter most clearly shows the problems of greening the modern economic activity and the traditional Northern economy associated with the use of the “gifts of nature”. The paper highlights methodological principles of economic evaluation of wildlife and the analysis of Northern (domestic and foreign) experience of their taxation; we propose a scheme for transition from the disparate approaches to the taxation of this activity (resource, permission, compensation, etc.) to an integrated environmental-economic approach. In addition to the existing norms, this approach includes imposing excise duties on the production of weapons, ammunition and equipment; establishing a targeted environmental fee on the use of subsoil; imposing fines for unlimited or excessive withdrawal of wildlife objects; establishing funds for the protection of wild animals and birds in the system of local budgets. A new approach harmonizes the interests of the state (RF subjects and local government bodies), local population of the Northern territories, nature users (including hunters), subsoil users, and manufacturers of weapons and equipment. We determine the source of formation of tax revenues of local budgets; this measure makes it possible to finance environmental protection measures, reproduction of wild animals and birds, creation of infrastructure in remote Northern territories. The paper proves the necessity of introducing innovative methods for state monitoring of wildlife and correct distribution of functions of federal, regional and local authorities in its reproduction.
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Статья научная
The article considers possibilities of energy production increasing through forest resources rational use. This important case organizing experience, which characterizes its development prospects on the materials of the Vologda region is presented in the article.
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Recycling in modern Russia: need, challenges, and prospects
Статья научная
At present, in connection with the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009, the scientific community is discussing issues related to significant changes in the model of economic growth, its sources and factors, taking into account the so-called concept of “denouement” and its “reconciliation” with the geosphere restrictions on economic activity. Against this background, a neo-industrial paradigm of modern development proposed by the Russian economic school in the 2000s and focused on the resource aspect of the economy is gaining professional and public recognition. In this regard, the goals of our study are as follows: to develop the scientific idea of creating a new resource base for social reproduction on the basis of unused production and consumption waste, to identify barriers to establishing a recycling economy in Russia, and to work out proposals for effective development of recycling in the domestic economy. The study is based on an interdisciplinary (integrative) approach, which goes in line with the principles of sustainable economic and environmental growth, humanistic and inclusive development, and public-private partnership; thus, it is of fundamental importance for the analysis of the transformation of the model of economic growth in the process of changing the economic paradigm...
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Scenarios of ecological modernization of mining corporations on the basis of innovation
Статья научная
The article considers the objective and subjective reasons interfering with the innovative modernization of the mining and mining and smelting companies on the basis of the analysis of the external and internal environment of the Russian mining corporations, during the post crisis period. On the basis of theoretical notions about the economic category of “modernization” and the analysis of ecological corporate policy of the mining companies, the scenarios of ecological modernization of the basic manufacture and main funds of nature protection appointment and the condition of their implementation taking into account the specificity of mining manufacture are proved.
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Social assessment of specially protected natural areas
Статья научная
Approaches to the consideration of functions of specially protected natural areas (SPNA) in the development of society seek to determine the size of the territory withdrawn from agricultural use for the purposes of nature conservation; these approaches also aim to evaluate money revenue gained from these territories. However, the influence of SPNA on public life is not reduced to the “monetization” of the territory. People who live near conservation areas and experience the advantages (disadvantages) of such neighbourhood should be the focus of the study of the social role of protected areas. The social role of SPNA in the life of local communities in the Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Karelia Republic was identified with the help of public opinion survey. In total 575 people participated in the survey. The research was carried out in the settlements located within the boundaries of Kenozersky and Vodlozersky national parks, and near Shilovsky Nature Reserve. When measuring the impact of conservation areas on the society of the neighbouring settlements, the authors define the axiological, emotional-and-psychological, activity-and-regulatory, economic, forecasting and integrated components...
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Статья научная
The subject of the paper is related to the need to eliminate the discrepancy between the theory of taxation in terms of forest management tax administration and forest resources rational use. The purpose of the paper is to present the results of the research on tax administration in the forest management system and its influence on the budgets of the Northern territories. Scientific novelty of the research consists of the development of the theory of tax administration in forest management and the determination of its impact on the budgets of the Northern territories: the concepts of “tax administration in forest management” and “tax potential of forest management” are specified; the necessity of highlighting the special role of tax administration in forest management in the forestry sector development programs is substantiated; the classification of fiscal payments in forest management is proposed; the criteria and indicators for assessing the effectiveness of tax administration in forest management are defined. Theoretical and practical significance of the research lies in the fixing of urgent current problems of tax administration in forest management, interrelated with the management of forests in the Northern regions; the grouping of tax authorities’ control measures in the forest sector, which makes it possible to identify tax law violations systematically; the analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of tax administration in forest management and its influence on the budgets of Russian Northern territories (the case of the Republic of Komi); the analysis of domestic and foreign practices (USA, UK, Finland) of tax administration through information technologies; the systematization of problem areas of tax administration in the field of forest management in the Northern regions of Russia (geographical, infrastructure, socio-economic, organizational, information technology); the development of ways of improving tax administration of the forest usage in the Northern territories, based on the introduction of information technologies, state and public control over forest usage, and support services for taxpayers. The research methodology is based on the theories of taxation, environmental economics, and regional economics. To achieve the goal of the study, the methods of dynamic and static analysis of the effectiveness of tax administration in forest management were used. It allowed us to identify urgent problems.
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Статья научная
The paper considers types of taxes on and payments for the use of natural resources and shows their volume and dynamics in Northern regions of Russia. We highlight tax policy in the system of natural resource management from the point of view of coordinating private and public interests and observing social and territorial justice. The goal of the paper is to present the findings of a research on the theory and practice of taxation in the system of environmental management and its impact on economic development in the Northern territories. The objectives are as follows: to determine the types of tax exemptions for the use of non-renewable natural resources, to reveal current problems in fiscal relations, to establish general principles of taxation of environmental management and to assess its effectiveness. Scientific novelty of our study consists in the fact that we assess imbalances in the system of economic federalism in terms of taxation and the excessive gap between the places of production and consumption of natural resource revenues...
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The assessment of the impact of the economy's development on air pollution
Статья научная
The economic growth has a negative impact on the environment, that is why the development of models, which would reveal the influence of different factors on the change of the environment, is necessary. In order to study environmental and economic processes, a new approach was proposed, and special models, which allow assessing the impact of the investment policy and environmental activities, were created. It gives an opportunity to link the change of the environment with approved management decisions. The purpose of the article is to identify reasons that cause transformations of the interconnection between economic and environmental indicators, to study the impact of the change of environmental legislation and other external shocks on environmental and economic processes in the Russian Federation and the European Union on the example of air environment. The relevance and significance of this work is determined by changes of environmental legislation in the Russian Federation, which is currently based on the best available technologies (BAT), and the need to build models that would allow predicting the development of environmental and economic processes in changing interconnections of indicators within the emerging practice of applying new legislation. The novelty of the research is the development of models, which allow analyzing the impact of external shocks on environmental and economic processes, on the basis of the proposed approach. Empirical analysis of data was carried out, and models of environmental and economic processes were constructed. It turned out that the change of EU legislation did not lead to a sharp transformation of existing interconnections between economic and environmental indicators, which were associated with economic crises. Crises may contribute to the emergence of a new trend or just bring the system out of balance for a few years, but later its development will again be described by equations similar to pre-crisis ones. The study also allowed us to explain the improvement of environmental indicators with the growth of Russian and EU economies. Its results may be used in the development of strategic documents for the development of regions and countries. Further studies are related to the assessment of various scenarios for the development of regions of the European North of the Russian Federation.
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Статья научная
The possibility of application of a new Western paradigm as to the specially protected natural territories in the Extreme North of Russia is discussed in the article. It implies the combination of nature protection and neighborhood development. The author writes in brief about the new paradigm and the system of specially protected natural territories in the Murmansk Oblast. There are such problems of specially protected natural territories in the region as conflict of interest between different stakeholders, lack of support from the authorities and weak tourism infrastructure and competence in this sphere. However, the enthusiasm on the subject of local national parks and nature parks and a growing number of tourists allow us to suppose that the role of specially protected natural territories in the neighborhood development will be more significant in future.
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The evolution of forest exploitation and restoration in Russia: myths and realities
Статья научная
The article analyzes the trends of forest exploitation and restoration in Russia embracing a period of over a century. It highlights the key issues of the forest industry. The article evaluates the effectiveness of institutional changes concerning forestry solutions. It suggests a package of measures on managing the evolution of the forest sector aimed at stable, non-depletable forest exploitation while maximizing forest revenue.
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The greening of the bio-resource economy of the northern region
Статья научная
The article presents the results of a collaborative study aimed at finding opportunities and limitations for effective use of renewable bio-resources, which are an important part of the resource base of the economy of the Komi Republic. The novelty of the approach to achieving the goal lies in addressing the methodology of greening established as an official course of global sustainable development and gaining momentum in Russia. The logic of the research into modernization of the bio-resource economy of the Northern region corresponded to the traditional scheme, including the understanding of the content, measurement of parameters and areas of development of the process under study, and is reflected in the structure of the article. The research covers the stages of green development, its relations with sustainable development, and approaches to their measurement. Relying on the methodology of green sustainable development for the modernization of bio-resource industries has helped: specify it as environmental modernization aimed at preserving natural capital, improving the environmental quality of life, improving the resource efficiency of economic activity; assess the level of greening of the objects under study and identify the barriers to its increase; justify the areas of conservation and effective use of land, forest and water resources and “greening” the structure of the bio-resource economy of the region...
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Статья научная
Economic approaches to rational nature management and environmental protection are becoming increasingly important in environmental management. There are inevitable contradictions between economic activity and natural systems that reveal in varying degree and that have different ways of solution. The formation of an effective economic mechanism of nature management and environmental protection is a preferred direction in this case. The article investigates the payment for natural resources, fines for violations, as well as the cost of the natural environment restoration as the most significant factors in environmental protection.
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The usage of renewable energy sources in the arctic: the role of public-private partnership
Статья научная
Sustainable development of the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation requires reliable energy supply, which is possible to achieve through searching for new environmentally clean energy sources. The Russian part of the Arctic possesses a great potential of renewable energy sources (RES), and it has required prerequisites for their accelerated development. In these conditions, the transition to renewable energy sources allows not only the provision of required energy resources to the region, supplement and partial substitution of the usage of expensive imported fuel, but the minimization of environmental damage and the preservation of natural resources for future generations. In this article, problems and prospects of the renewable energy usage in the energy system of the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation are systemized and presented. On the basis of the content analysis, the successful experience of their application in the Russian part of the Arctic is summarized, and the tasks of their promotion on these territories are shown. Besides, pros and cons of the renewable energy sources usage in the economy of the Arctic regions are defined. It is revealed that one of the most acute problems of the further development of the RES potential is related to the attraction of funding for “green” energy projects. To solve this problem, we propose the activation of cooperation between the state and business through the development of public- private partnership. We present the specifics of public-private partnership in the field of non-traditional energy and justify the importance of its application for the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty of the research is the development of theoretical provisions aimed at the cooperation between government authorities, business structures, and modern society in solving energy issues of the Russian Arctic with the goal of the sustainable development of its territories. The practical relevance of the study is the development of conditions for applying the public-private partnership mechanism to the solution of the priority objectives related to the usage of renewable energy sources in the Arctic region.
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