Main Goals of Implementing the Concept of Sustainable Urban Development in Russia: A Legal Aspect

Abstract

The paper analyzes the main provisions of the concept of sustainable development in relation to cities. The authors elucidate the mechanism of implementation of the goals set out by the UN in the framework of Sustainable Development Goals 11 (SDG 11 or Global Goal 11), dedicated to ensuring openness, security, resilience and environmental sustainability of cities and human settlements. The authors provide examples of legal acts aimed at solving environmental, social and economic problems in Russia within the framework of SDG 11, enumerate pending problems, explain the need to develop the Concept for the transition of the Russian Federation to sustainable development containing a step-by-step action plan in this directionThe authors prove that it will be possible to talk about implementation of goals within the framework of SDG 11 only when the country approves a plan for the transition to sustainable development (including cities), including a description of the stages of transition, financing, responsible authorities, and, which is the most important, clear indicators that allow assessing implementation of the goals within the framework of each stage. It is a common practice in Russia to develop concepts as political and legal acts. Therefore, if there is political will, it is quite possible to develop such an instrument. The authors conclude that today we can assess the state of legislation and practical problems in the process of solving the goals set by the UN within the framework of SDG 11. They highlight that implementation of the goals under consideration is haphazard, but sometimes still effective. Attention is drawn to the fact that implementation of the goals within the framework of SDG 11, along with general problems that are equally relevant for all «ordinary» cities of Russia, for a number of «unusual» cities has its own specifics. These include, for example, Arctic cities, single-industry towns (due to the employment of the city’s population at 1-2 large enterprises, which entails an imbalance of economic and social interests), science cities, closed administrative-territorial formations (military towns).