Environmental Aspects of the new wave of raw materials industrialization in Asian Russia

Abstract

The paper examines the problems of assessing the long-term impact of intensive exploitation of natural resources on the environment of a large region. Data for empirical study obtained from information of Rosstat and Annual State Reports «On the state and protection of the environment of the Russian Federation». The vast territory of Asian Russia was chosen as the object of research. The results indicate a significant increase in environmental problems at each stage of industrial development in this region. These problems are especially acute in connection with the entry of Asian Russia into the next wave of accelerated industrialization of raw materials, characterized, first of all, by a significant expansion of projects for the extraction and processing of solid minerals and hydrocarbons to new mostly undeveloped territories. This, taking into account the already accumulated environmental problems, makes additional requirements for the substantiation of plans to accelerate the socio-economic development of the region and the launch of new raw materials projects, bringing to the first place not only economic and strategic aspects, but also issues of environmental safety. This, in turn, requires not only constant monitoring of the state of the environment and protection activities of business entities, increasing the reliability and completeness of the results obtained on its basis, but also assessing the compliance of the existing institutional environment with the tasks of eliminating environmental problems accumulated in the region and reducing the negative anthropogenic impact on the environment. At the same time, the results of the analysis of both current approaches to statistical observation in this area and environmental mechanisms indicate the presence of significant imperfections in them. In this regard, it is necessary to improve the institutional mechanisms for regulating environmental protection in order to increase the sustainability of the region’s development