Control environmental risks

The task of managing environmental risks is probably the most difficult task in risk theory. This is due to the complex mechanism of formation of environmental risks of all kinds, including the interaction of human economic activity, biotopes and biocenoses in a certain territory. Until now, formal methods of risk analysis, assessment and forecasting have often proven to be inapplicable due to the small amount of initial information about potential damages and their connections with environmental and environmental factors. In such conditions, universal heuristic risk management methods should be used, and are used.

The risk aversion method should be used first. This means that environmentally risky experiments cannot be carried out to introduce alien organisms for their economic exploitation. This can and often does lead to unpredictable environmental risks of the first kind. Vivid examples are the introduction of rabbits to Australia and the resettlement of African bees to South America. Both experiments were driven by economic considerations and are worth describing in more detail.

Rabbits were introduced to Australia and released into the wild shortly after colonization. The main driving motive was the desire to breed them in new territories under conditions wildlife with the aim of developing the fur industry in the new English colony, which was then considered as a possible engine of the colony's economy. At first, the business developed splendidly. Rabbits multiplied very quickly in Australia because they had no dominant predators. The rabbit population grew explosively. Harvesting rabbit fur brought enormous profits. However, this did not last long. The demand for rabbit fur in England fell sharply and rabbits lost their economic importance. The driving force of the colony's economy was agriculture, to which the rabbit population began to cause enormous damage. Attempts to destroy the now harmful animal were unsuccessful. Until now, Australian agriculture has suffered enormous damage from the rabbit population, which has become a type 1 environmental risk factor. The initial economic benefit was much less than the subsequent damage.

The story of bringing a family of African bees to Brazil also began with good economic wishes: the desire to save Brazil's honey industry from economic disaster. In this industry, the costs were too high, and the return of honey from the bees seemed too small. It was necessary to increase the percentage of honey produced by bees in any way, for example by using more honey-bearing bees. There are two main subspecies of honey bees: the European honey bee and the African honey bee. The African bee produces a lot of honey, but is extremely aggressive and has not been used in beekeeping. The European bee produces much less honey, but is less aggressive and does not attack humans or animals. It is the European bee that is used in beekeeping. Attempts by breeders to obtain a hybrid of African and European bees with useful qualities in the form of increased honey yield and acceptable aggressiveness did not lead to success.

Under these conditions, in 1956, a single Brazilian biologist and beekeeper brought a family of African bees to Brazil, confident that natural conditions such a hybrid forms by itself. What biologists couldn’t do in the laboratory, he thought, could happen automatically in the wild in Brazil. He releases this family into the wild and begins observing them. His hopes were not justified. The hybrid didn't work out. Moreover, African bees have begun to actively replace European bees throughout Brazil. The reasons lay in the biological differences in the reproduction of African and European bees, which were not known at the time of the migration of African bees to Brazil. These differences were clarified through subtle research much later, when the threat of the African bee was realized in the United States.

Ten years later, there were no longer any European bees in Brazil, and Brazilian beekeepers were forced to learn how to manage wild African bees. Over the next forty years, they learned this at the cost of hundreds of human lives and huge amount dead livestock. Brazil's honey industry has moved from 27th place in the world rankings to sixth. It seems that the experiment was a success, albeit at a high cost. However, everything turned out to be not so simple. African bees began their expansion to the north, spreading into the territories of neighboring countries, where there was no need to replace European bees with African ones. Moreover, in some of them there was no honey industry at all, and African bees represented a pure environmental risk of the first kind for human life and health.

A fierce struggle began with African bees in order to limit their advance to the north. Cunning methods and traps were used, tens of millions of dollars were spent and thousands of people were involved. This work was financed by many states, but mainly by the United States, which understood the danger of African bees entering their territory. Nothing helped. By the early 1990s, African bees had reached the United States and became a significant factor of type 1 net environmental risk in the southern states. The first human victims appeared. To date, their number is in the hundreds. African bees are causing panic among the US population and are seriously disrupting business. In particular, some airports became infested with African bees and required significant costs to dislodge them. Entire cities and towns have been exposed to this type 1 environmental threat. An African bee control industry has emerged in the southern United States. In an interview 50 years later, the biologist who brought African bees to Brazil admitted the results of his experiment were extremely unsuccessful and asked for forgiveness from the families of the dead people. He repeatedly repeated that he wanted only good things for his country and would never repeat his mistake if he had known about its consequences.

Of course, there are examples of successful experiments in the importation of alien organisms for their subsequent economic exploitation. Almost all agriculture actively uses the selection and breeding of previously alien plants and animals in new territories. However, in the overwhelming majority of cases, such work is carried out under the supervision of competent authorities, and environmental risks of the first type are under the control of specialists. A serious risk arises in the case of voluntaristic decisions in pursuit of short-term economic gain. Unfortunately, the economic transition period in Russia facilitates just such experiments. There is also a significant number of independent entrepreneurs who are willing to take the risk of introducing new, alien organisms, without realizing the consequences of such actions.

Environmental risks are divided according to their origin into risks of the first, second, third and fourth kind. They are managed in various ways. However, they have one thing in common. Environmental risk management must fit into the overall system of managing the economic activity of a certain territory, i.e. this issue is the prerogative of the government sector, which sets the rules of the game for the commercial sector and the population. In such conditions, the main method of managing environmental risks is repressive direction. However, in Russia at present, environmental legislation is practically absent and has been replaced by legislation on environmental protection. Moreover, the concept of environmental risks is not included in the concept general management territories, which has negative consequences for all sectors of risk subjects. The procedures for making management decisions for territories within the Russian Federation do not provide for the assessment of environmental risks at all, i.e. there is no management in this regard.

The commercial sector bears actual responsibility for the very presence of environmental risks of the second and third types and should bear them in full. However, in practice such readiness is absent. Moreover, often in the commercial sector there is no understanding of environmental damage, and only environmental risks are recognized. Enterprises express their willingness to pay for pollution and nothing more. They are not ready to pay for the consequences of the impact of these pollution on ecosystems, human life and health. Obviously, in this case they would have to compensate for much greater damages, the justification of which could be much higher. Adopting the concept of compensation for environmental rather than environmental damage would mean collapse for many enterprises.

An important method for managing environmental risks of the second and third types for the commercial sector is environmental insurance. It can be mandatory or voluntary. In Russia, for hazardous industries there is a list of activities and facilities that are subject to mandatory environmental insurance. However, the practice of such insurance encounters difficulties in adequately assessing environmental risks, as well as the reliability of the insurance companies themselves.

The population, for which environmental risks of the second and third types can be quite high, have different ways of managing these risks. In countries with a developed civil society, where the government is forced to take public opinion into account, targeted campaigns and actions play a huge role. The power of these control influences can also reach the international arena. In authoritarian or corrupt governments, the range of legitimate actions by the population to assert their rights is much narrower, if not non-existent. For the population, the main method of managing environmental risks is to reduce negative consequences economic activity of enterprises through the choice of place of residence, influence on the commercial sector and the government sector through shares, including with the help of non-profit environmental organizations. We can say that in Russia over the past 10 years, the environmental consciousness of the population has grown significantly and continues to grow.

Management of environmental risks of the fourth type is carried out on the basis of compensation methods, among which the main place is occupied by lawsuits against the perpetrators of negative events that led to economic damage through deterioration of environmental characteristics in the vicinity of economic facilities. Such lawsuits are the main weapon in the tourism industry, hunting grounds, and the fishing industry. It is also possible to insure environmental risks of the fourth type if there is a developed insurance system within the country.

Risk management is carried out to reduce its likelihood. Early anticipation of risk and timely adoption of measures to reduce it (increase its security) is risk management. Risk management refers to the process of rational distribution of costs to reduce various types risk, ensuring the achievement of such a level of safety of the population and the natural environment that is only achievable in the economic and social conditions existing in a given society.

Risk management stages:

Description of environmental risk

Definitions of acceptable level of risk

Selection of necessary actions for supervision and risk reduction, depending on the ecological state of environmental factors, public health indicators

Cost-benefit analysis of existing risks and planned measures to monitor, prevent and reduce them

Determination of priorities, depending on the description of risk factors

Making decisions to prevent, monitor and reduce environmental risks

Implementation of decisions

Control over the implementation of these decisions is carried out by Gos.Ekol. Inspections

Summing up the results obtained

There are three methods for managing environmental risks

1. Risk Prevention Method , is based on environmental risk control and can be carried out in the following ways:

Preventing risk situations by eliminating all its prerequisites

Reducing environmental costs by complying with all environmental regulations

Transfer of control over environmental risks, through the transfer of ownership rights to companies that pollute the environment, as well as the transfer of risk responsibility to others, especially insurance companies

2. Environmental risk compensation method, refers to an activity that has already occurred and caused damage that must be repaired.

3. Environmental risk insurance method , includes self-insurance. Aimed at creating insurance coverage in case of damage to policyholders as a result of sudden excess pollution of the environment (land, water or air). Compensation for damage is possible only in the form of monetary amounts.

Topic 3

Environmental subsidies

The economic mechanism for environmental protection includes a set of tools for managing natural resources that affect the costs and income of users and polluters of environmental resources.

System of economic instruments for environmental protection

activities include:

Tax policy;

Subsidies and preferential lending;

Accelerated depreciation of environmental funds;

Sale of rights to pollute;

Using the “deposit-return” principle;

Payments for pollution and waste disposal.

Environmental subsidy – This is a payment or tax benefit intended for the purchase of environmental equipment or the implementation of environmental measures. Unlike taxes and fines, which are a tool for punishing polluters, subsidies are intended to encourage their environmental activities. They can come in the form of direct payments, subsidies, tax benefits and loans with reduced interest rates. Environmental subsidies come in two main forms: a subsidy for the purchase of environmental equipment and a subsidy per unit of pollution reduction.

Types of environmental subsidies:

Free benefits for foreign grants and budget donations

Loans for a long repayment period

Loans with low interest rates

Subsidizing interest payments on bank loans

Environmental tax cuts for certain pollutants

Reduction for some tax categories

Additional income from restructuring tax system in an unfavorable ecological zone

Loan guarantees (commercial loans) for polluters who are not responsible for only a portion of the costs of cleanup equipment

Assistance to private polluters that is proportional to the reduction in pollution levels

Exception costs

Sources of subsidies

1. Environmental taxes, collected from owners and polluters of the environment

2. Off-budget environmental funds

3. International credit institutions that finance programs and environmental projects

4. The state budget is referred to when the amount of taxes collected is less than the costs spent on disinfection, maintenance and improvement of environmental factors

5. Local budgets and funds

6. Commercial banks and other financial and banking institutions

7. Voluntary funds

From international lending institutions that provide environmental subsidies can be distinguished: World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank.

Benefits of environmental subsidies.

A double effect is achieved - the rhythm of product growth is maintained to meet consumer needs, especially those products that have a low degree of substitution (food products, certain metals, etc.), as well as the maximum reduction or elimination of environmental damage.

Flaws

The main disadvantage of subsidies is that they discourage the costs of internalizing environmental pollution or overuse.

Subsidies are expensive and require funds that are often not reimbursed, increasing several times the difference between marginal social and marginal private costs, negative environmental externalities

The involvement of a large number of economic agents subsequently increases the volume of pollution and increases the costs of further recovery environment

Poor incentives for new technical innovations

Subsidies refer to the possibility of pollution, use natural resources within unacceptable limits

The distribution of subsidies requires the development of regulations that should ensure proper control over their use, constant control over non-governmental organizations for the protection of the environment and the local population.

Subventions-a type of state financial benefit to local authorities or individual sectors of the economy, provided for certain purposes free of charge

Subventions – these are some amounts of funds that are allocated from the budget top level by decision government agency authorities on a free and irrevocable basis to the lower level budget. However, these amounts of money must be spent for specific purposes.

Related information.

Typically, a risk is an event that is most likely to happen. As a result of this, various cases may occur - neutral or negative. Speaking about ecology, the level of probability of a negative impact, negative consequences dangerous to human life, the preservation of natural resources, historical, cultural and material values ​​associated with natural disasters, as well as other factors constitute environmental risk.

Risk management in general includes making and implementing management decisions. They must improve workflow and increase the rate of positive consequences when risks occur. The degree of environmental risk can be understood by assessing environmental events, disasters, and the impact of pollution on the environment.

Let's look at the results of work in the field of risk management using the example of OJSC Atomredmetzoloto.

Organization of the risk management process at ARMZ

The company has made it a rule to carry out risk assessment procedures at the planning stage, as well as implement risk hedging programs.

To avoid unpleasant situations, the company is guided by the following aspects:

Modernization of technological equipment;

Compliance with all current regulations regarding the production and technological process;

Implementation of the control function, both from departments and external organizations;

Insurance of civil liability of enterprises to third parties and employees of enterprises.

JSC Atomredmetzoloto complies with all standards regarding environmental impact and helps improve environmental safety, which is what the state requires.

Unfortunately, it is worth noting that recently the natural environment has suffered greatly from human activity. By violating environmental requirements, we destroy, destroy, and pollute the world around us. Let's take shale gas production, for example. A lot can be said about its harm to the environment.

For example, due to the fact that this activity is an environmental threat, .

Classification of negative environmental impact factors

Pollution can be classified into natural and anthropogenic. Natural are caused by natural phenomena, such as floods, volcanic eruptions, etc. Anthropogenic pollution occurs due to human activities.

Risk Management in Business Practices

Managing environmental risks in an enterprise typically involves different types of tasks.

For example, the joint-stock financial corporation Sistema conducts an analysis of the effectiveness of the risk management and internal control system every quarter, then evaluates the corporation and all subsidiaries, and then reports on this to shareholders. The annual report is provided to members of the Board of Directors.

An integrated risk management system helps to identify risks at all stages, analyze them and organize them by management levels.

In 2013, the Board of Directors of Sistema JSFC created the Internal Control and Audit Department.

The Internal Control and Audit Department carries out verification activities in order to obtain reliable information about actions. And another equally important element of the work of the Internal Control and Audit Department is the improvement of the company’s internal business processes.

The key point effective system Environmental risk management involves identifying risks and directly working with them. The question is how to manage environmental risks to ensure the highest degree of sustainability of all activities of the company - this promotes success and reduces the rate of failure.

For environmental risk management processes, the results of the study are important. In preparing the necessary environmental projects All points must be taken into account. Both quantitative and qualitative risk characteristics must be taken into account.

A wide variety of regulations are being developed to prevent or reduce risk. And the scope of these documents can extend not only to one company, but to the entire country. These include laws and regulations relating to health protection, improving working conditions, ensuring road safety, standardizing the quality of goods sold, and reducing negative impacts that are detrimental to the environment.

Analysis and assessment of environmental risks

Risk analysis and assessment plays a key role in building an effective response system. To analyze and assess environmental risks, it is necessary to identify hazardous factors and causes.

Fulfilling the conditions for effective management of social and environmental risks will contribute to the sustainable development of companies.

The risk management process includes a comparison of alternative designs for potentially hazardous objects and technologies, identifying the most dangerous risk factors that operate at this stage. Databases and knowledge bases are also being created for expert systems to support technical decision making. This process also determines investments that are aimed at reducing risks.

It is important to compare the results of the risk assessment. After this, you can find different solutions to reduce them, given that each of these options is evaluated differently. It all depends on necessary expenses for its implementation. And such actions are repeated until it is selected best option solving the problem.

Standardization issues,ISO 14000

Modern management literature is replete with different approaches. In particular, many companies use ISO 9000 ( international standard on quality management), ISO 50 001 (energy management standard), ISO 22 000 (international food safety management standard) and others. Regarding the topic of ecology, ISO has released standard 14,000 - environmental management.

Environmental risk management is a logical continuation of environmental risk assessment and analysis. It is based on a set of political, social and economic assessments of the obtained risk values, a comparative description of possible damage to the health of both an individual and society as a whole, the possible costs of implementing various options for management decisions to reduce risk and the benefits that will be obtained as a result implementation of events.

Environmental risk management has four elements.

1. Comparative assessment and ranking of risks according to their nature
rank, as well as the social and medical significance of possible
consequences for human health.

2. Determination of risk acceptability levels.

3. Selecting a risk reduction and control strategy.

4. Making management decisions.

If, at the final stage of environmental risk assessment, the degree of danger of a particular substance under certain conditions is established, then initial stage environmental risk management is carried out comparative characteristics risks in order to set priorities - highlighting the range of issues requiring priority attention, determining the likelihood and establishing the consequences. This stage of risk management includes determining the probability levels of developing health disorders and analyzing their causality.

Risk management can be carried out in several ways:

1. Absolute control - reducing risk to zero. This approach is used when there is a real possibility of completely preventing exposure to a particularly hazardous chemical, for example, by banning its production and use.

2. Reducing risk to a reasonable maximum technically and economically achievable level. This approach is quite subjective, as it requires argumentation of the concepts of “reasonableness” and “maximality”. The application of this approach must necessarily be accompanied by an assessment of possible damage to health, since otherwise it is impossible to assess the cost-benefit ratio.

3. Application of the concept of minimum, i.e. reducing the risk to a level that is perceived by absolutely everyone as practically zero.

4. Establishment of risk at a level acceptable for each individual and society as a whole (“adequate margin of safety”).

When analyzing risk acceptability, the following are taken into account:

Benefits from the use of a particular substance (for example, increased crop yields due to the use of pesticides);

Costs associated with regulating the use of this substance (complete or partial ban, replacing it with another drug, etc.);

The ability to implement measures to reduce the potential negative impact of a substance on the environment and human health.

To establish risk acceptability, the cost-benefit method of economic analysis is widely used. However, the concept of acceptability is determined not only by the results of economic analysis, but also a large number political and social factors, including the perception of environmental risk by various population groups.

The strategy for controlling environmental risk levels involves a selection of measures, in to the greatest extent helping to minimize or eliminate risk. Such typical measures may include:

Use of warning markings (inscriptions, stickers, labels);

Limiting the number of persons in the risk source area;

Limiting the scope of use of a risk source or areas with such sources (for example, prohibiting the use of contaminated areas of the territory for recreational purposes);

A complete ban on the production, use and import of certain
chemical substance or the use of this technology
logical process or equipment.

The tasks of environmental risk management, along with the development of priority measures to eliminate and reduce risk, include the choice of a strategy for periodic or continuous monitoring of exposures and risks. These types of monitoring perform the following functions:

Control (comparison with maximum permissible or acceptable levels);

Alarm (quick response to a dangerous situation);

Prognostic (the ability to predict risks);

Instrumental (as a means for recognizing and classifying observed phenomena).

The development of an environmental risk management system in technogenic systems requires the identification of characteristic components of production and significant environmental aspects of the activity of a particular enterprise that have a negative impact on the environment and public health, the presence of an information system in order to disseminate the results of determining the levels of risks to human health among the interested part of the population (e.g. among physicians, management decision makers, researchers, the public and society at large).

Communication and dissemination of risk information is a natural extension of the risk assessment process. A risk assessment would be meaningless if the results obtained were not communicated in some way to those involved in risk reduction decisions.

The results obtained from the risk assessment process should be presented in such a way that they are accessible to non-specialists, members of the press and the public, and allow identification public opinion about the impact of current or planned economic activities.

When disseminating risk information, it is necessary to take into account the specific risk perception different groups of the population. If risk assessment specialists are guided by

quantitative characteristics and professional information, then the population in its perception of risk is guided not only by its quantitative characteristics and possible health consequences, but also by the already formed opinion of the public.

An important factor influencing the perception of risk information is clarification of the voluntary nature of the risk. The population is always more concerned about forced rather than voluntary risks. Therefore, factors that increase the sense of danger and, as a result, cause greater “outrage” include such as inhalation of air contaminated with industrial chemicals (artificial risk), catastrophic leaks of gaseous toxic substances (catastrophic risk), microorganisms created by genetic engineering methods (exotic risk), a risk associated with the lack of visible advantages (construction of any enterprises near residential buildings).

The reaction of a person or group of people to risk is determined both by individual factors and by factors characterizing the risk itself or information about it.

Individual factors influencing risk perception are divided into the following groups:

Personality characteristics;

Emotional state.

Factors associated with the risk itself are characterized by:

The origin of the danger and the consequences that the risk may lead to;

The severity of the risk for an individual or group of persons;

The severity of the consequences of the risk;

Variability of risk information obtained from different sources.

Informing the population about environmental risk is an integral part of the risk management system. Communication is a process of interaction in the exchange of data and opinions regarding risk between individuals, groups of people and institutions.

The basic rules for disseminating information about environmental risk are based on the maximum involvement of the public in a qualified and friendly discussion of problems related to the assessment of this risk. These rules are formulated as follows.

Treat the public as a legitimate partner and ensure their participation in decisions that affect their lives and value systems. This rule is based on the belief that the population has the right to participate in decisions that directly affect their lives. Public information must be organized so that public participation is productive.

Take into account the interests of different groups of the population, carefully plan the transfer of information. When communicating with a population, careful planning should be done to convey information about risk, as many groups of people have their own special interests and concerns. For example, residents living near a chemical plant will be of little interest in the number of deaths per 1 ton of plant output. They will be interested in what the risk of disease is for them and their children.

Listen to the concerns of the population. People will begin to listen to specialists only when specialists begin to listen to the voice of citizens. People, as a rule, are more concerned about issues such as social justice, availability of work, and the responsibility of officials than statistics on mortality and morbidity. You should delve into what is bothering them and make it clear that you know about it.

Gain the trust of the population. When disseminating information, it is necessary to be honest and not to minimize or exaggerate the degree of risk, trying, for example, to solve a financing problem scientific research. Do not attempt to answer questions that have not been sufficiently studied or are controversial. Be prepared to answer, “I don’t know.” Do not express unscientific views on issues related to environmental quality and health impacts.

Coordinate your work and collaborate with other reliable partners. In cases of disagreement regarding factors

risk, scientists should strive to develop a consensus view before information is made available to the public.

Consider media requests. Risk assessors and regulators must be available to reporters, as the press is the main source of information.

Express your thoughts clearly and understandably. It is necessary to try to use special terms and professional jargon less often, and not to overload information with statistical data.

When communicating and disseminating information about environmental risk, misconceptions may arise about the role of the information itself in highlighting the risk. For example, the idea that the dissemination of information about risk does not always contribute to resolving a conflict situation and simplifies the adoption of management decisions to control risk is erroneous. This is due to the fact that not all people share common interests and general systems values. Management decisions risk control measures may suit some people and not suit others at all.

Environmental management provides great opportunities for risk management. During the 90s, the vast majority of leading foreign industrial companies demonstrated significant results in reducing the negative impact on the environment while simultaneously increasing production volumes, reducing specific costs of raw materials and materials, saving energy resources, and improving product quality. Environmental activities as one of the components of balanced development are becoming more and more economically justified, allowing enterprises to use the various direct and indirect advantages and benefits associated with it.

The development of environmental management is becoming generally accepted as a way to practically solve environmental problems and reduce environmental risk in technogenic systems. Environmental management can be defined as the process and result of the proactive activities of economic entities aimed at consistent improvement in achieving their own environmental goals and objectives, developed on the basis of independently adopted environmental policies. The characteristic features of this process are:

Increasing environmental responsibility of enterprises due to the global trend towards reducing government intervention in the economy, stimulating private initiative and creating global markets;

The transition of enterprises from a passive position in solving environmental problems, determined by the requirements of state environmental control, to active position, largely determined by its own goals and objectives;

Expanding the boundaries of proactive environmental activities of enterprises;

Shifting priorities in actions from the “end of the pipe” (cleaning waste water, waste gases, disposal and disposal of waste) directly on the sources of negative impact on the environment (use of resources, technological processes, organization of production);

Establishing a direct relationship between environmental activities and opportunities to attract investment, production development, saving and saving resources, reducing losses, improving product quality and its competitiveness;

Maximum use of cost-free and low-cost methods and means to solve environmental problems; activation of internal unused reserves and capabilities;

Open demonstration by the enterprise of environmental goals, objectives and results achieved in accordance with them, including negative results;

Active cooperation with all persons and parties interested in the environmental aspects of the enterprise (from investors, shareholders and business partners to consumers, the public and competitors).

The practical basis for the activities of enterprises in the field of environmental management is the prevention of negative impacts on the environment. Its characteristic areas include:

Saving raw materials, materials, energy resources;

Reduction of technological losses, losses during storage and transportation, unaccounted losses, etc.;

Reducing the consumption of extremely hazardous and highly hazardous substances and materials;

Use of secondary resources;

Improvement of main and auxiliary technological processes in order to reduce sources of formation of pollutants, waste and other harmful factors affecting the environment;

Organization of flows of pollutants and waste;

Recycling (processing and use of production and consumption waste, production of by-products);

Reducing situations with increased environmental risk (accidental impact on the environment);

Preparation for activities and activities in conditions of emergency impact on the environment; elimination of environmental consequences of accidents;

Environmental education of enterprise personnel in order to increase ecological culture and reducing environmental risks for personnel;

Increasing the efficiency of industrial environmental monitoring.

Effective activity of an enterprise in the field of environmental management is considered as the main guarantee of environmental safety and the ability to manage environmental risks in the process of design, construction and operation of industrial facilities. The development of activities in the field of environmental management will make it possible not only to solve specific economic and environmental problems facing individual enterprises and the country as a whole, but also to involve the untapped potential of Russia (including cultural, intellectual, entrepreneurial) in solving national and global environmental problems.

Practical lessons:

Module 2. Basic principles for ensuring human and environmental safety

No. 1. Global environmental problems: climate change, destruction of the ozone layer, pollution of natural waters with organic substances, etc.

Protective mechanisms of the natural environment and factors ensuring its sustainability. Dynamic balance V natural environment. Hydrological cycle, cycle of energy and matter, photosynthesis.

No. 2. Diagnostics and chemical-analytical control of environmental objects. Maximum permissible concentrations. Sanitary and hygienic standardization. Environmental quality indicators. Environmental impact assessment. Pathways of transformation of pollutants in the environment

No. 3. Individual and collective risk. Risk level. Distribution of risk among the population. Perception of risks and society's response to them.

Comparison and analysis of risks on a single scale. Uncertainties in risk assessments. Risks from exposure to multiple hazards. Total risk.

No. 4. Application of logical analysis methods - fault tree, event tree.

No. 5. Nature and scale of stationary and emergency chemical releases. Dynamics and forecasts. Analysis of the causes of accidents at chemical and chemical facilities. Impact assessment.

Module 3. Main directions and methods of combating environmental pollution.

No. 6. Methods of wastewater treatment. Atmospheric purification methods.

No. 7. Disposal of industrial solid waste.

No. 8. Methods of localization, conservation, disposal of radioactive waste.

Every year, environmental problems and risks become more and more relevant not only for society as a whole, but also for individual organizations that are objects of administrative management. Such organizations are divided into two main groups. The first group includes various organs state power, regional and local government. The second group includes large enterprises of various forms of ownership.

Organizations forming the first and second groups are directly related to environmental risks. Moreover, the subjects of the first group act more as controlling and restraining bodies, and the enterprises of the second group act as potential sources of environmental hazards and threats. However, for both great value has sound management of the environmental risks they face in their activities.

We will try to highlight the main features and methods of managing environmental risks. To do this, it is necessary to first define the concept of “environmental risk”. Unfortunately, such a definition is missing in modern scientific literature. However, based on the main features and distinctive features of the category of environmental risk, this gap can be eliminated.

If we consider environmental risk as the mathematical expectation of the loss function when finding estimates of the parameters of a mathematical model or its structure, then its essence can be determined by at least six particularly important components:

1) the fact of the release of pollutants into the environment or unplanned depletion of natural resources;

2) the volume of the incoming harmful substance;

3) type of pollutant;

4) duration of polluting exposure;

5) time of year;

6) the degree of environmental hazard of this chemical or physical element.

Summarizing the above characteristics, we can formulate the concept of environmental risk. Under environmental risk the potential for environmental damage through accidental release of pollutants or unplanned pathological depletion of natural resources should be understood.

Both the emergency release of pollutants and the unplanned depletion of natural resources can be defined by the term “ecological disaster”.

The essence of environmental risk management is, on the one hand, to prevent the occurrence of environmental disasters, and on the other hand, to minimize their negative consequences.

Prevention of environmental disasters is carried out mainly through:

♦ clear forecasting of the environmental consequences of projects planned for implementation;

♦ development and implementation of environmentally friendly and resource-saving technologies;

♦ economic incentives for business entities that respect the environment;

♦ administrative and legal deterrence of unscrupulous entrepreneurs;

♦ Increasing use of environmental education and propaganda.

Minimizing the negative consequences of environmental disasters can be achieved through the use of environmental insurance. In foreign practice, this concept most often means insurance of civil liability of owners of potentially dangerous objects in connection with the need to compensate for damage to third parties caused by a technological accident or catastrophe. Its expanded interpretation includes comprehensive general liability, which provides protection for the insured in the event of any claim brought against him seeking compensation for losses resulting from property damage. Insured is the obligation (of a private law nature) of the insured provided for by the law on criminal liability to compensate for damage caused to society, as well as to legal entities and individuals as a result of the impact of harmful substances on land, air, water and other natural resources. Property losses arising from violation of property rights, rights to equipment and production activities and the right to use water space or a certificate of use are insured.

Property liability insurance related to pollution damage originated in the 1960s, when policies aimed to provide coverage for accidents and contingencies, defined as an event involving prolonged or repeated exposure to conditions that result in personal or property damage and are unexpected and unintentional on the part of the policyholder. These policies were essentially a license to pollute.

In the domestic literature, a slightly different idea of ​​environmental insurance has developed. Its definition should be given on the basis of characteristics of the features inherent both in the processes occurring in the natural environment under the influence of harmful substances entering it, and in property insurance and liability insurance operations.

Emergency environmental pollution insurance focuses on risks, the origin of which often cannot be identified, and therefore cannot be assessed and adequately reflected in quantitative indicators. It will probably never be possible to construct an integral indicator of the consequences of emergency pollution that reliably reflects the level of economic losses, and there is no such need. It is necessary to create a methodology acceptable for users (in our case, for insurers and policyholders) for assessing the losses caused to them.

The specificity of emergency pollution or depletion lies in the fact that its consequences and the so-called constant anthropogenic pressure on nature are incomparable. At the same time, the continuous flow of harmful substances into the environment in volumes significantly exceeding those temporarily permissible can be classified, based on its negative results, as emergency pollution. This gives grounds to talk about methods for determining the qualitative and numerical characteristics of emergency environmental pollution. However, the probability of a situation in which the impact on natural components fits within the outlined framework cannot be calculated using the information base available today.

There are no accident statistics with recorded environmental effects, or perhaps not yet available (which is unlikely). This is primarily due to the lack of a clear concept of an environmental accident. One can give enough examples of accidents and man-made disasters, even the frequency of their occurrence, but there is no methodology for assessing the environmental hazard of a particular production that meets the requirements of environmental insurance.

The main thing in the methodology for assessing the environmental hazard of enterprises and industries should be environmental insurance auditing. It is intended to answer only two, but very important questions:

1) what is the probability of an environmental accident at a specific facility included in the environmental insurance system;

2) what is the magnitude of losses that may be caused by an environmental accident.

There are several methodological approaches to the problem of insurance environmental auditing in its current form.

The dangers of industrial production, firstly, are identified according to the list of harmful chemicals, used in this production in critical quantities, secondly, is determined by the multiple excess of the maximum environmental impact standards, and thirdly, it is identified based on the calculated values ​​of the risk of pollution and the hypothetical damage caused by it.

The methodology of environmental insurance is characterized by the dissimilarity of views of foreign and domestic researchers on its role in the economic life of society. For the former, it is associated and carried out (rarely) within the framework of property insurance. If it is carried out in the process of liability insurance, then the damage caused to the owner of the property or his health as a result of pollution, and not necessarily an accident, is compensated by the insurance organization. She does this either on the basis of a previously concluded insurance contract providing for regular insurance premiums, or at the expense of the culprit identified in court. In both cases, the amount of loss is determined by traditional methods of assessing property losses and lost profits.

In environmental insurance, losses are considered losses caused by the release of a certain amount (in emergency volume) of a harmful substance into the environment from one source and the formation of negative effects in specific recipients. In liability insurance for accidental pollution, the person who causes the harm and the recipient are personified. In property insurance against environmental pollution, the contribution of an individual pollutant is not allocated. It follows that financial coverage of insurance amounts is provided not only from various sources, but also the received insurance premium is used by the insurer for various purposes.

So, environmental insurance, carried out as liability insurance for accidental environmental pollution, is aimed at ensuring environmental safety and compensation for losses of third parties (of course, subject to the commercial interests of the insured), and property insurance is aimed only at compensating for the losses of the insured.

This differs from other types of insurance, such as medical insurance, although it would seem to cover the same circle of persons, called “third parties” in insurance, as the latter. Losses expressed, say, in the loss of public health, are determined in environmental insurance on completely different principles than in medical insurance. In environmental science, it is necessary to identify sources of harm and recipients with maximum reliability and, depending on this, determine tariff and compensation policies. Health insurance starts from different premises: every company paying wages to its employees, bears the financial burden of eliminating losses associated with the morbidity of the population, regardless of whether this enterprise causes harm. The definition of environmental insurance as insurance of the liability of enterprises - sources of increased environmental danger and property interests of policyholders arising as a result of emergency environmental pollution, providing the possibility of compensating for part of the losses caused by pollution and creating additional sources of financing for environmental protection measures, is guided precisely by the methodological basis that is discussed here there was a speech. Its main task is additional financial support for environmental safety while respecting the interests of all parties: insurers, policyholders and third parties.

While there is a fairly rich range of regulatory and methodological documentation for property insurance operations, it has yet to be developed for insurance of liability for accidental environmental pollution.

The fact that the need to find new sources of financing for environmental protection measures today is more acute than ever is clear, as is the fact that so far only private capital has real additional financial reserves. Finding attractive investment areas for him is another function of environmental insurance in the sense in which we understand it.

There is a point of view that the adoption of the Federal Law “On Environmental Insurance” will oblige polluting enterprises to participate in environmental insurance. An obligation not supported by economic feasibility will remain an empty phrase. The law must fit into economic relations and take into account the realities of the insurance business and environmental activities of policyholders.

There are currently several pieces of legislation outlining the limits of polluter liability and the role of insurance in this area.

In Art. 23 of the Law "On Environmental Protection" states that in " Russian Federation carried out... environmental insurance of enterprises, institutions, organizations, as well as citizens, their property and income in the event of environmental and natural disasters, accidents and disasters." Insurance serves not only to make a profit, but also to prevent, eliminate and compensate for harm (in In environmental economics, the term “damage” is used; in legal practice, “loss”) caused to victims. Economic damage here refers to the amount of costs for preventing the impact of polluted environment on recipients (in cases where such prevention, partial or complete, is technically possible). and costs caused by exposure to the polluted environment. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation stipulates: “Losses are understood as expenses that a person whose right has been violated has made or will have to make to restore the violated right, loss or damage to his property (real damage), as well as lost income that this person would have received under normal conditions of civil transactions if his right had not been violated (lost profits). If the person who violated the right received income as a result, the person whose right was violated may demand compensation, along with other damages, for lost profits in an amount not less than such income."

Thus, theoretically, the amount of the insurance amount consists of the costs of preventing accidental pollution and assessing the impact of the polluted environment on the recipient. For the policyholder, the first represents additional expenses that are unjustified in the absence of environmental insurance during the validity period of the contract. For society and third parties in whose favor an insurance contract for liability for accidental environmental pollution is concluded, such costs are part of the potential losses. Realizing this and assessing possible insurance compensation, the insurer either allocates funds to prevent accidents or forces (economically stimulates) the policyholder to take environmental protection measures. They can either be carried out or taken into account in calculating the sum insured.

The second component of the insured amount is losses resulting from the impact of harmful substances released into the environment on recipients. Unlike the first type of losses, they also occur to third parties. In both cases, environmental insurance acts as insurance of liability for emergency pollution of the environment by sources of increased environmental hazard.

Losses from accidental pollution are suffered not only by recipients - third parties in whose interests liability insurance is carried out, but also by the policyholders themselves - sources of pollution, who are also recipients. Insurers can be both.

In this regard, the differentiation of the compensation policies of insurers was discussed above. Thus, by compensating for losses of a source of accidental pollution within the framework of property insurance, the insurer does not create an interest for the policyholder in preventing pollution. By indemnifying the losses of recipients - third parties, it frees the insurer - the emitter of pollution - from the need to eliminate the consequences and prevent a future accident.

A special role in monitoring the behavior of the policyholder is assigned to tariff rates for environmental insurance. They cannot be established uniformly not only, for example, for the sectors of production of the insured, but even for individual enterprises. The same applies to liability limits for environmental pollution risks accepted by the insurer.

Theoretical aspects of the relationship between insurers and policyholders in such situations require modeling possible situational solutions and developing an appropriate methodological framework.

The insurance process itself rewards those who minimize future risks and costs to society. As a result, the private market mechanism becomes a regulatory and risk management tool with the potential to significantly reduce environmental damage. The use of such a direct economic incentive can be an effective addition to traditional methods of economic and legal regulation of the relationship between society and nature. So, let us highlight four blocks of fundamental problems in the development of environmental insurance. The first, which determines the essence, place and role of environmental insurance in the economy, gives it, as an element of ensuring the environmental safety of the country, national significance. This factor is the basis of the concept of introducing compulsory environmental insurance.

The second block represents the fundamental provisions of insurance environmental auditing, which allows solving the problems of attributing objects of the insurance field (assessing the degree of environmental hazard of enterprises and industries, the amount of possible losses, etc.).

The third forms the legal space of environmental insurance. In Russia, unlike a number of Western countries, there is a real opportunity to create a comprehensive legal framework for the development of environmental insurance. The basis will be the Federal Law “On Environmental Insurance” and the corresponding methodological and instructional documents, which make up the fourth block.