Abstract
The key role of investment and innovation activities of coal industry enterprises in improving the environmental safety of regions specializing in coal mining is substantiated in the article. The coal industry enterprises are recognized by the world scientific community as the absolute leader in the field of negative impact on the environment and industrial production waste generation. In this regard, one of the most important tasks of increasing the investment and innovation activities of coal companies, the introduction of modern technologies should be not only an increase in labor productivity and production efficiency, but also a reduction of anthropogenic impact on the environment. Despite the obviousness of the presented thesis, the trends characterizing the coal industry as the most inert and low-innovative sphere, which follows the path of extensive development, continue to dominate. The insignificant increase in investments in fixed assets, periodically followed by a recession, the reduction of trapped and neutralized air polluting substances, the lack of demand for innovations in the coal industry, as well as their low impact on ensuring compliance with modern technical standards, procedures and rules, bear evidence of low responsibility of business entities and inefficient measures of state economic policy in the field of improving environmental safety in the commodity-dependent regions.
Highlights
The role of commodity-dependent regions in forming a significant environmental burden in countries of their operation is traditionally high, which is due to both the nature of the industry’s activity, often accompanied by “predatory” methods of mining using outdated technologies, and the desire of owners and management to save on environmental and nature restoration activities. Even those extractive industry companies that try to be environmentally responsible doing their business, cause significant damage to the environment due to the industry specifics. This is especially true for coal mining enterprises, as they can simultaneously have a negative impact on various natural objects
According to the results of the study, we can highlight the following positive aspects in the investment and innovation activities of coal mining enterprises of the Russian Federation: 1. The share of investments aimed at modernization and reconstruction in the coal mining in 2017-2018 was the highest among all sectors of the extractive industry in Russia, and significantly exceeded the share of investments in all types of economic activity in general
The low degree of innovation activity of coal mining enterprises, as well as the extremely low level of influence of the results of the introduction of innovations on ensuring compliance with modern technical standards and regulations – most of the innovations does not contribute to achieving compliance of production conditions with modern standards
Summary
The role of commodity-dependent regions in forming a significant environmental burden in countries of their operation is traditionally high, which is due to both the nature of the industry’s activity, often accompanied by “predatory” methods of mining using outdated technologies, and the desire of owners and management to save on environmental and nature restoration activities. Even those extractive industry companies that try to be environmentally responsible doing their business, cause significant damage to the environment due to the industry specifics. This is especially true for coal mining enterprises, as they can simultaneously have a negative impact on various natural objects (water, air, forest, soil, etc.)
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