Mechanism for Settlement of Environmental Crises in the Economy

Deshchi Musostova

, Valentina Dzobelova

and Varvara Markaryan

Chechen State University, Grozny Named After A.A. Kadyrova, Grozny, Russian Federation

North-Ossetian State University Named After K.L. Khetagurov, Vladikavkaz, Russia

Krasnodar Branch of Financial University Under the Government of the Russian Federation, Krasnodar, Russia

Keywords: Ecology, ecological crisis, economy, settlement of ecological crises, green economy.

Abstract: The current ecological crisis threatens the possibility of sustainable development of human civilization. The

degradation and destruction of local ecosystems leads to the destabilization of the biosphere, the loss of its

unity and the potential to support vital environmental parameters. Overcoming the ecological crisis can be

carried out only through the formation of a fundamentally new, more harmonious model of interaction

between nature and man. Under these conditions, a comprehensive assessment of the environmental situation

and the development of a mechanism for resolving environmental crises in the economy are of great

importance.

1 INTRODUCTION

The adoption of the concept of sustainable

development implies the assumption by individual

states and regional integrations of obligations to

implement the principles of the "green" economy,

which involve the harmonization of economic, social

and environmental aspects of the development of

society. Meanwhile, as international environmental

studies show, over the past 50 years, mankind has

been steadily widening the gap between the demand

for environmental resources and the ability of nature

to satisfy it. At the same time, developed countries

leave the largest “ecological footprint”,

demonstrating a high level of consumption of

resources and end products.

The increase in environmental tension

necessitates the implementation of comprehensive

measures in order to ensure the environmental safety

of the individual, society and the state. In developed

foreign countries, these measures are implemented

through the implementation of comprehensive legal

and organizational regulation of the environmental

sphere, as well as toughening responsibility for

environmental offenses and creating threats to the

environment.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9258-6277

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7335-0920

In Russia, topical environmental problems are

largely ignored, as evidenced by the ineffectiveness

of existing regulations, the use of outdated models of

interaction between society and nature, as well as the

low credibility of environmental organizations in the

country. The consequences of such an irresponsible

attitude to environmental issues are the gradual

depletion of natural resources, a high level of

pollution of territories, and the deterioration of public

health. Meanwhile, ensuring rational nature

management and environmental protection of

territories is an integral factor in the country's

sustainable development in the long term.

The ecological protection of the territory implies

a normal ecological situation, that is, the state of

safety of the natural environment and the vital

interests of a person from the possible negative

impact of economic and other activities, natural and

man-made emergencies, their consequences (Article

1 of the Federal Law of January 10, 2002 No. 7-FZ

"On Environmental Protection").

2 MAIN BODY

Environmental security is an integral element of the

national security of the state along with its military,

Musostova, D., Dzobelova, V. and Markaryan, V.

Mechanism for Settlement of Environmental Crises in the Economy.

DOI: 10.5220/0011569800003524

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Methods, Models, Technologies for Sustainable Development (MMTGE 2022) - Agroclimatic Projects and Carbon Neutrality, pages

253-257

ISBN: 978-989-758-608-8

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

253

political, economic, food, information and other types

of security. The system for ensuring environmental

safety at the national level involves a comprehensive

assessment of territories, the implementation of

continuous monitoring of their ecological state, as

well as the adoption of managerial decisions to

improve it.

The Russian Federation, as the world's largest

state in terms of territory, has a particularly

significant mission to maintain the ecological balance

on the planet. The scale of the country's natural,

industrial and intellectual potential also implies its

active participation in solving the global problems of

our time. Meanwhile, the sphere of ensuring

environmental protection in Russia is on the

periphery of the attention of both state bodies and the

population, which, combined with irrational nature

management, causes a significant deterioration of the

environment and entails a threat to human health.

At the present stage, Russia ranks 54th in the

ranking of countries in terms of environmental

pollution (NONEWS. https://nonews.co), yielding to

almost all developed countries, as well as many Latin

American countries. The country's most serious

environmental problems are deteriorating water

quality, air pollution, deforestation, soil degradation

and loss of biodiversity. Significant concerns are also

caused by the presence of radioactive contamination

and excessive volumes of unprocessed municipal

solid waste.

According to official sources, in 15% of the

country's territory, where most of the population is

concentrated, the quality of anthropogenic

ecosystems is recognized as unsatisfactory. This

leads to adverse consequences for public health, in

particular, an increase in the number of oncological

and acute respiratory diseases.

Of particular concern is the problem of air

pollution: the level of air pollution in Russian cities is

assessed as high, which leads to extremely adverse

consequences for human health. The indicators of the

emission of pollutants into the atmosphere are

presented in Figure 1.

Thus, the volumes of emissions of pollutants into

the atmosphere in the last 10 years have actually

remained at the same level. At the same time,

emissions from stationary sources decreased by

13.7% over the study period due to environmental

measures and a general reduction in industrial

production. Emissions from mobile sources increased

by 17.4% due to a significant increase in motorization

in Russia.

Figure 1: Emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere,

million tons (Rosstat, https://rosstat.gov.ru/).

Serious scale is the pollution of the water basin of

the Russian Federation. An important factor in water

pollution is the widespread use of outdated and

inefficient treatment facilities. The dynamics of the

discharge of polluted wastewater in the Russian

Federation is clearly shown in Fig.2

Figure 2: Emission of polluted wastewater in the Russian

Federation, billion m3 (Rosstat, https://rosstat.gov.ru/).

MMTGE 2022 - I International Conference "Methods, models, technologies for sustainable development: agroclimatic projects and carbon

neutrality", Kadyrov Chechen State University Chechen Republic, Grozny, st. Sher

254

Thus, the dynamics of polluted wastewater

discharges in the Russian Federation tends to

decrease: in the period from 2010 to 2020, their

volume decreased by 4 billion cubic meters, or 32%.

At the same time, today up to half of wastewater has

a high level of pollution, which exceeds European

standards by dozens of times and leads to a decrease

in environmental safety. The result of pollution of the

aquatic environment is the death of fish and the

emergence of infectious diseases among the

population (Dedul, 2018).

Solid waste from industrial production and

household waste pose a significant hazard. So, in

Moscow alone, more than 50 million tons of them are

formed annually - in the future they are exported to

the Moscow region and accumulate in landfills. The

territory of landfills cannot be used in the future,

chemicals located in landfills can get into

groundwater, and the number of landfills themselves

is already so large that at some point they will have to

be arranged farther from Moscow and other

megacities. The dynamics of production and

consumption waste generation in the Russian

Federation is shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: Generation of production and consumption waste

in the Russian Federation, million tons (Rosstat,

https://rosstat.gov.ru/).

Thus, the volume of production and consumption

waste for the period from 2010 to 2020 more than

doubled. At the same time, the problem of dealing

with solid waste is not solved, and only 2-3% of

household waste is recycled, which is an extremely

low share. In countries with a high level of

environmental safety, about 60% of solid waste is

currently recycled. Also in Russia there is a problem

of radioactive contamination. Currently, Russia has

33 nuclear reactors operating at nuclear power plants,

and the Navy includes 50 ships that use nuclear

installations. Some nuclear power plants have either

reached the end of their service life or are

approaching this line, which increases the risk of

accidents and emergencies.

Another source of radioactive contamination are

enterprises that produce material for the creation of

nuclear weapons. For the needs of the military sector,

there are nuclear test sites, radioactive waste burial

sites, specialized laboratories and research institutes

that use fissile material in their work.

In recent decades, the ecological situation has

become more difficult due to uncontrolled

deforestation, which is observed in such regions as

Karelia, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Kostroma and

Arkhangelsk Regions.

In the energy sector, most of the electricity is still

produced by burning fuel on inefficient and outdated

equipment, which leads to harmful emissions into the

atmosphere. The transition to modern equipment

would reduce harmful emissions by 25%.

The operation of outdated power plants is fraught

with the risk of man-made disasters, which may be of

a radiation, chemical, electromagnetic or mechanical

nature. One of the serious problems is the unreliable

system of mining and transportation systems.

Figure 4: The impact of environmental factors on human

health (Shilov, 2020).

HUMAN

HEALTH

Changin

g of the

climate

Desertificati

on and land

degradation

Destruction

of the ozone

layer

Loss of

biodiversity

Deterioratio

n of fresh

water quality

Negative

act

irradiation

Productivity of

agroecosystems

Degradation

of ecosystem

services

Quantity

and safety

of water

Mechanism for Settlement of Environmental Crises in the Economy

255

Environmental problems affect the health of the

population. Currently, doctors record an increase in

diseases of the endocrine system, respiratory organs,

the presence of such congenital diseases as

malformations and various forms of deformities is

noted.

Thus, an unfavorable environmental situation has

developed in Russia, caused by such factors as

outdated forms of energy production, lack of proper

control over harmful emissions into the atmosphere,

and irrational nature management. To solve the

problems that have arisen, it is necessary to create

measures to ensure environmental safety, both at the

federal and regional levels. The negative impact of

environmental problems on the health and quality of

life of the population indicates the need to find ways

for a more optimal coexistence of man with the

environment (Fig. 5) (Alikaeva, 2019).

Figure 5: Coexistence of man with the environment.

The study of the actual state of the natural and

anthropogenic environment allows us to conclude

that there are significant threats to Russia's

environmental security. The environmental crisis in

the country is caused by irrational nature

management, the presence of numerous hazardous

industries, the lack of a separate waste collection

system and an inefficient system for controlling

emissions of pollutants and radioactive substances.

Countering these threats is one of the most significant

tasks facing the state, and its solution is based on the

development and implementation of large-scale

projects and measures to ensure environmental safety

at the federal, regional, municipal and industry levels.

The mechanism for resolving environmental

crises in the economy is based on the relationship of

various structural elements of ensuring

environmental security (Fig. 6) (Blumenfeld, 2018).

Figure 6: Elements of the system for ensuring

environmental safety and resolving environmental crises in

the economy.

The mechanism for the comprehensive settlement

of environmental crises is associated with the

transition to a "green" economy, which involves the

harmonization of economic, social and environmental

aspects of development. The methodological basis of

the social approach to the "green" economy was laid

by the concept of "sustainable development" formed

in the late 1970s, according to which the satisfaction

of the current needs of mankind should be carried out

without prejudice to future generations. According to

V.D. Kalner, the "green" economy is such a "model

of sustainable development, which proceeds from the

conditions of maintaining a balance between

economic and social requirements and maintaining

the state of the environment at a level necessary to

ensure the livelihoods of living people without

prejudice to the needs of future generations of

earthlings in the resources of the biosphere" (Kalner,

2019).

For the first time, the United Nations

Environment Program (UNEP) identified social

justice as an essential feature of a green economy. In

the report “Towards a Green Economy”, published

within the framework of this program, the “green”

economy is characterized as an economic activity that

is designed not only to reduce the risks of negative

impact on the environment, but also to increase the

welfare of the population, to ensure social justice

(UNEP Report? 2011).

In practice, the following tools are used to

implement these principles (Fig. 7).

ENVIRONMENTAL

CRISES

MANAGEMENT

MECHANISM

Legal

support

Institutional

support

Information and

methodological

support

Technical and

technological

support

Staffing

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neutrality", Kadyrov Chechen State University Chechen Republic, Grozny, st. Sher

256

Figure 7: "Green" economy as a mechanism for resolving

environmental crises.

For a gradual transition to the principles of a green

economy, the state must take a number of key

measures to change the approach to the organization

of production and economic processes. First of all, we

are talking about reducing investment in industries

containing environmentally harmful technologies and

increasing tax rates for these industries. This

approach forces entrepreneurs to choose

environmentally friendly technologies.

3 CONCLUSION

On the part of the state, increased attention should be

directed to investing in and supporting "clean" energy

sources, agriculture and waste processing. The

transition to alternative energy sources should take

place not only at the industrial level, but also at the

household level. An important task is the introduction

of environmentally friendly technologies in the

extraction of natural resources, where resource-

intensive methods are actively used.

Thus, the "green" economy is a low-carbon,

resource-saving, energy-saving, cleaner and socially

fair economy, focused on improving the well-being

of society while reducing the burden on the

ecosystem. The listed components can be called

axiological, i.e. value level of the concept of "green"

economy. At the same time, the ontological aspect of

the studied model, which ensures its internal

movement and development, acquires the greatest

importance.

REFERENCES

Rating of countries by the level of environmental pollution.

NONEWS.

https://nonews.co/directory/lists/countries/pollution-

rating.

Shilov, I. A., 2020. Ecology. Yurayt. p. 76.

Kalner, V. D., Polozov, V. A., 2019. Green economy and

non-alternative natural resources. Kalvis. p. 19.

Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable

Development and Poverty Eradication: UNEP Report.

Saint-Martin-Bellevue: UNEP, 2011. VI. p. 42.

Rosstat. https://rosstat.gov.ru/.

Alikaeva, M. V., Ksanaeva, M. B., 2019. Small business in

sustainable development economy of Russia. p. 67.

Blumenfeld, V., 2018. Big problems of small business.

Economics and life.

Dedul, A., 2018. Small business in Russia: Achievements,

problems, prospects. Federal newspaper. p. 84.

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