Green technologies: definition of a concept, stages of formation and role in sustainable economic development

The world scientific community is actively searching for ways, directions and key factors for sustainable economic development. The paper identifies and presents the factors of instability of a market economy. A conceptual version of resolving the contradiction between the main goal of the entrepreneur's activity - making a profit -and his interest in caring for the environment, saving and reproducing natural resources, and maintaining the health of the population is proposed. This decision does not contain any prohibitions by the state and represents the inclusion in the reproduction process of NBIC technologies, which form the basis of green technologies and act as a unifying link between the internal stability of the enterprise and the external environment. The ontology of levels of sustainable development is presented. The existing approaches to the definition of green technologies are analyzed, the authors' version of the definition is formulated. The stages of their formation are highlighted and characterized. Possible generalized economic (syner-getic) effects are described for some sectors of the economy, provided that green technologies are used in them.