Suchergebnisse

The problem of increasing anthropogenic pressure on the biosphere is considered in the framework of ideas about the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. The possibility of giving an exact definition of the carrying capacity is discussed, the concept of its one-dimensional projection is introduced, and examples of one-dimensional projections are given. In relation to the biosphere, they relate, in particular, to the limits of growth. The traditional definition of the concept "sustainable development" is criticized, this definition is associated with the ideology of the consumer society. The features of the perception of environmental issues by the mass consciousness in a consumer society are described. Extensions of the notion "environment" and a new approach to the interpretation of the notion "sustainable development" due to this expansion are considered.

Modern trends in social development transform environmental pollution risk into a fundamental category without which economic activity is impossible. In essence, the environmental risk indicator is on a par with such important economic categories as profit, cost, profitability, gross domestic or regional product, etc. At the same time, let us pay attention to a variety of approaches existing in the world practice for assessing environmental risks and their components (contamination likelihood and environmental harm) together with multifaceted specifics of economic entities activities. All these require a systemic consideration of methodological principles and methodological support, identifying the problems and areas in improving the applied calculation tools. The purpose of the study is to review the world experience in terms of methodology and methodological support of environmental risk assessment. The research methods incorporate environmental and economic analysis, content analysis, information modeling. The key findings of the study highlight the shortcomings and contradictions in understanding and assessing environmental risk, develop a broad systemological classification of the types and characteristics of environmental risks methodology, streamline and methodological support of these risks and show the directions to improve the assessment approaches. The scope of application encompasses environmental audit and expertise, eco-insurance, as well as regulatory
documents of ministries (RF Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, RF Ministry of Health, the Moscow Region Ministry of Ecology and Nature Management) and departments (Rostekhnadzor, Rosprirodnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosvodresursy, Rosleskhoz, Rosnedra, etc.), scientific and educational publications on environmental risk assessment.

The research aims at the establishment of main principles, priorities and directions of the environmental industrial policy development in the Russian Federation. Environmental industrial policy is considered as a part of the industrial policy aimed at the formation of highly technological competitive national industry providing for the transfer of the economy from the export of raw materials to the innovation type of development. The international experience of the implementation of industrial policies is analysed; it is shown that re-industrialisation leads to strengthening the role of the state regulation and planning both in developed and developing countries. Peculiarities of the international approaches to forming "green" industrial policy are considered. Main principles of the environmental industrial policy development in the Russian Federation are formulated as follows: (1) industrial modernisation providing for the resource efficiency enhancement and the reduction of the negative environmental impact and (2) recycling of waste (its return to the economic cycle). It is emphasised that the environmental industrial policy priorities reflect foremost national purposes and strategic objectives of the Russian Federation development.

The author studies environmental insurance in nature management as a lever of management measures to prevent and eliminate environmental pollution by oil products during their transportation and oil fields development. The research aims to develop recommendations for environmental risks insurance in Russian oil and gas industry on the basis of economic and mathematical model that allows to estimate the scale of environmental pollution by oil products. Such methods as system and comparative analysis, expert assessments, forecasting, modeling used in this work helped the author to identify Russian environmental insurance features; to propose a method for solving the problem concerning the lack of statistical data on the frequency and scale of accidents and the environmental damage magnitude by mathematical modeling of the accident, which allows to estimate the radius and depth of the underlying surface pollution. These developments will help insurers to make more adequate insurance premiums and tariffs, as well as to improve the underwriting procedure for unique oil and gas projects. But in order for the obtained achievements to find their application, it is necessary to have legislation obliging oil companies to compensate for environmental damage, and due to the scale of such damage, oil companies will be obliged to insure the relevant risks.

The subject of this research is to develop the major directions of complex socio-ecological-economic development of Moscow based on the best examples of the development of foreign cities. In the context of rapid growth of the metropolis, Moscow faces a number of environmental, infrastructure and other problems requiring complex solutions. Many developed countries have accumulated significant experience in solving typical problems of mega-cities. The analysis of foreign experience has shown that certain positive shifts are only possible with case by case approach. However, sustainable effect can be achieved through long-term strategic planning development of the city from the perspective of the population growth. Problems requiring complex solutions can be divided into three groups: environmental, social, infrastructural. The analysis of foreign experience shows that a successful promotion strategy for city development requires certain prerequisites, such as: 1) coordination between political choice and strategic planning development of the city; 2) stabilization of the population and reduction of its density. The last factor is very important, and here it is impossible to do without some of territorial planning at the Federal level.

The subject of this study is corporate social and environmental responsibility. The object is the assessment of responsibility information disclosure quality based on the methodology developed by the authors and responsibility model. Analysis of the disclosure quality is based on data from public sources — annual nonfinancial reports of companies. This study shows examples of assessment methodology application for six Russian oil and gas companies — «Gazprom Neft», «Lukoil», «Rosneft», «Zarubezhneft», «Surgutneftegaz» and «Novatek» — based on their 2014 annual reports. The purpose of the research is to present a methodology for assessing the information disclosure quality in companies' public sources of information about their social and environmental responsibility practices. The main results of the study is to present the methodology with practical examples of its use. The uniqueness of the study lies in the fact that the methodology is based on indicators of the Model of corporate social and environmental responsibility which is developed by the authors'. The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility to apply the developed methodology for assessing the disclosure quality of social and environmental responsibility for companies from other sectors and based in other countries. Study the disclosure of social and environmental responsibility in the companies' annual reports is part of a larger study of environmental and social responsibility of Russian oil and gas companies that have their projects in the Arctic region.

The paper analyses methodological features and results of the first Russian oil and gas companies environmental rating. This rating is relevant because Russian oil and gas industry plays a key role in the national economy and at the same time it is unfavorable and nontransparent from an environmental point of view. Our study aims to provide a comparative assessment of environmental responsibility of oil and gas companies operating in Russia. The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of qualitative and quantitative corporate indicators in three areas: environmental management, environmental impact and disclosure. Results of the rating indicate a high differentiation among Russian oil and gas companies in terms of environmental responsibility and transparency. Public listing of shares as well as linkages between shareholders and regional communities are among factors that have positive impact on the level of environmental responsibility of oil and gas companies.

In the complex and unpredictable environment of the XXI century, in advanced and emerging economies it is becoming increasingly important for investors to adopt new techniques that allows for the most accurate assessment of net present value (NPV) of an investment project through a risk premium or risk adjustment. The existing methods of risk assessment do not always meet the modern requirements of investors due to various limitations and shortcomings. Therefore, the article provides a new technique that allows to assess the NPV taking into account not only the negative but also the positive impact of environmental factors. Drawing on this technique, the authors propose to evaluate the influence of environmental factors using the triad of STEP-, SNW- and SWOT-analysis based on heuristic and expert technologies. It is proposed to check the agreement of the results of evaluation through the Chi-square criterion. The methodology further uses these estimates to calculate the risk premium and adjust the risk to determine the NPV.

Damage from environmental pollution (damage from violation of environmental legislation) is a basic category in environmental-economic research and is assessed during the development of project documentation, environmental audit, evaluation assessment of the effectiveness of investment projects, environmental risks insurance. At the same time, variety of existing assessment approaches necessitates methodological and methods' streamlining in the field under consideration. The purpose of the study is to review and systematize national and foreign experience in assessing damage from environmental pollution. Research methods: ecological-economic analysis, content analysis, information modeling, statistical analysis. The key findings of the study: identification of contradictions in the field of understanding and assessment of environmental pollution damage category, streamlining of methodological principles and methodology support in the field under consideration, development of approaches' classification for calculating damage from pollution depending on the methods used and the directions of assessment, systematization of methodology support based on a wide range of criteria. Scope: environmental audit and expertise, environmental insurance, as well as regulatory documents of ministries (Ministry of natural resources, Ministry of ecology) and departments (Rostechnadzor, Rosvodresursy, etc.), scientific and educational publications on the assessment of anthropogenic load.

Land use change and a shift in economic activity often bring to unpredictable consequences for local ecosystems. There is a necessity of making preliminary evaluation and analysis of comparing the different types of economic and ecological transformation, including cost and benefit analysis, not only for business and local population, but for the whole environment. We give an example of a particular animal husbandry farm in Karelia and show how potential change in economic specialization can be effective on a 10 years horizon. Among other land use types, we chose peat mining and wetland conservation. Each type of activities was complexly evaluated with different types of costs and benefits. In the paper, we use a method of land use change evaluation including the value of ecosystem services. The monetary values of ecosystem services are given with the respect to foreign analogues and taking into account local realities and prices. Our results have shown that the most beneficial for the society and the environment is wetland conservation, due to their berries picking service, which are highly appreciated on the market, and due to low costs for the third parties, since wetlands contain regulative and refinery services for local ecosystems. As a contrary peat mining is a profitable business, but pollutes the environment because of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The current specialization for animal husbandry is neither an optimal solution because of low profitability of the chosen farm. The results of the research can be used for optimization in regional politics in the sphere of agriculture and environment economics in order to protect the ecological balance between human activities and nature. ; Дан анализ возможной смены землепользования и хозяйственной деятельности одного из хозяйств Пряжинского национального района Республики Карелии. Представлен метод оценки экономической прибыли от восстановления земель с учетом экономической оценки экосистемных услуг. ; The article has been prepared with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No 14-38-00023 Control of land degradation in the Eurasian region.

In the article, the factors of a stability of the Russian economy are investigated from the systematic positions as a multilevel, multisubject and multidimensional socio-economic system. The concept of economics system stability as abilities to keep prerequisites for growth with the support and effective use of system structure of economy is formulated. The leading role of all economic subjects of different levels (including government as a subject of the international relations, regions as subjects of Federation, enterprises as economic entities) in economic stability is shown. The need of «extension» of a network of subjects due to strengthening of the subjectivity of economic fields is emphasized. Research of an internal basic system structure of an economic subject and external structure of its immediate environment in socioeconomic, administrative-and-managerial, and market spaces with the use of the results of the new theory of economic systems leads to a conclusion of similarity of these structures. It is shown that each of these system complexes includes (together with a subject) four systems of various types - object, environmental, processed, and designed. The system environment of a subject in the administrative-and-managerial space of inter-level interactions has the same structure. It gives the chance to reduce a problem of subjects' resistance to a question of balance of system structures of the complexes forming an internal filling and an external environment of subjects. The method of balance index of similar complexes is given. Recommendations on a choice of the measures of economic policy for providing economics system stability of Russia during the crisis are formulated. It is shown that such policy has to be developed with the principles of a subject-preservation, system balance of internal filling and external environment of subjects, a corporate solidarity of subjects despite their level in the administrative hierarchy. ; Исследованы факторы устойчивости российской экономки как многоуровневой, многосубъектной и многоаспектной социально-экономической системы. Приведен субъектный состав экономики. Показана ведущая роль совокупности экономических субъектов разных уровней.

In the article, the factors of a stability of the Russian economy are investigated from the systematic positions as a multilevel, multisubject and multidimensional socio-economic system. The concept of economics system stability as abilities to keep prerequisites for growth with the support and effective use of system structure of economy is formulated. The leading role of all economic subjects of different levels (including government as a subject of the international relations, regions as the subjects of Federation, enterprises as economic entities) in economic stability is shown. The need of "extension" of a network of subjects due to strengthening of the subjectivity of economic fields is emphasized. Research of an internal basic system structure of an economic subject and external structure of its immediate environment in socioeconomic, administrative-and-managerial, and market spaces with the use of the results of the new theory of economic systems leads to a conclusion of similarity of these structures. It is shown that each of these system complexes includes (together with a subject) four systems of various types - object, environmental, processed, and designed. The system environment of a subject in the administrative-and-managerial space of inter-level interactions has the same structure. It gives the chance to reduce a problem of subjects' resistance to a question of balance of system structures of the complexes forming an internal filling and an external environment of subjects. The method of balance index of similar complexes is given. Recommendations on a choice of the measures of economic policy for providing economics system stability of Russia during the crisis are formulated. It is shown that such policy has to be developed with the principles of a subject-preservation, system balance of internal filling and external environment of subjects, a corporate solidarity of subjects despite their level in the administrative hierarchy. ; Рассмотрены универсальные характеристики и свойства социально-экономических систем. Проанализирован состав административной и функциональной тетрад. Изложены основные принципы и методы оценки сбалансированности системных тетрад. Приведены выводы относительно факторов устойчивости и возможных направлений и мер экономической политики, обеспечивающих устойчивость экономики как многоуровневой системы. ; This article has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation Grant, Project N 14-18-02294.