Economic Methods of Managing the Environmental Safety of Cities Abroad: Tax Aspect

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize the economic methods used abroad for managing the environmental safety of a city and to assess the possibility of their use in the practice of Russian cities. The relevance of the work is conditioned by the fact that a significant part of large Russian cities and megalopolises are faced with serious problems in the environmental sphere. Abroad, many years of experience have been accumulated in solving similar issues through the use of methods for managing the environmental safety of the city, which is an argument in favor of its study. The article analyzes the practice of OECD countries in applying economic measures to reduce environmental pollution, ensure environmental balance and comfortable living conditions for the city population. Particular attention is paid to the powers of local governments in the environmental sphere and the degree of their financial autonomy; the benefits of environmental taxation in EU countries, including the transition to a low-carbon economy; organization of ecological cooperation on the principles of the circular economy and within the framework of the model of industrial symbiosis for the processing or use of industrial and household waste. In the course of the work, general scientific and special methods were used, including content analysis of literary sources, comparison, grouping, analogy, systemic and structural analysis, logical generalization. The results of the study consist in assessing the possibilities and determining the conditions for introducing the best foreign practices in environmental safety management in Russian cities; they can be useful to specialists dealing with both the problems of forming management decisions to stabilize the environmental situation in the city, greening the tax system at the local level, and ensuring the rational use of resources in a mobilization economy through cooperative relations in the processing of industrial and household waste through recycling.