Calculation of environmental damage from a particular production in the same way as payments or taxes for pollution, reproduction of natural resources and many others is one of the most important economic mechanisms that protect the environment.
In Russia, the implementation of this mechanism is faced with a large number of a wide variety of problems that relate to both legal and practical areas. A particular problem in this case is that the calculation of environmental damage is insufficiently provided by law.
What are the disadvantages of legislation?
There are several gaps in modern law:
- the terms by which the calculation of environmental damage is determined are insufficiently defined or even not defined at all;
- to this day, the nature of environmental damage in the legal field remains unclear;
- no specific technological approaches to how environmental damage should be calculated were identified;
- there are no methods by which such a calculation would be carried out.
What is it?
Despite the fact that the term “environmental damage” itself is a generally accepted concept in modern scientific literature and is even used in certain legal acts, there is no definite concept in Russian legislation of what it is and how environmental damage should be calculated. Today, such an approach has become widespread in the scientific literature, according to which environmental damage acts as a valuation of the environmental consequences caused by certain actions of any natural resources and the environment.
At the moment, the laws use such terms as “environmental damage”, “calculation of environmental damage” and others like that. In accordance with the legislation, harm to the environment is any negative changes in the environment resulting from its pollution and, consequently, the degradation of natural ecological systems, as well as the depletion of natural resources. In fact, this definition is non-functional for the reason that such laws as “depletion of natural resources” and “degradation of natural ecological systems” are absent in any laws. Thus, it is practically impossible to determine which method of calculating environmental damage should be used correctly, and this is precisely the main source of uncertainty.
How is the calculation carried out?
According to the laws “On Environmental Protection”, there are two main approaches to how to determine the extent of damage to nature:
- In accordance with the actual costs necessary for the full restoration of the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred, including also the lost profit. In addition, the calculation may be carried out in accordance with the projects of remediation or any other restoration work.
- In accordance with rates or technologies for determining the amount of damage to the environment, which are defined and approved by the relevant executive authorities involved in public administration in the field of environmental protection.
The first paragraph is quite within the scope of existing civil law, including the concept of “losses”, which is present in the Civil Code. At the same time, the second direction relates more to the field of administrative law, since, first of all, it relies on the normative approach for calculating the damage caused. Federal law makes a certain distinction between what constitutes environmental damage caused by a violation of the law, as well as damage caused if the law is fully respected.
How is the damage compensated?
According to the law, environmental damage that has been caused as a result of a certain economic or some other activity should be compensated in accordance with certain rates, as well as with the method used by law to calculate environmental damage. If such a methodology is absent, then in this case the determination of payments should be calculated in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred and loss of profit.
However, Art. 77, while art. 78 suggests a slightly different order of how compensation should be provided in case of violation of environmental legislation. In this case, the calculation of the prevented environmental damage is carried out in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the disturbed state of the environment, taking into account the losses incurred and lost profits, as well as in full accordance with the projects of all kinds of remediation and other restoration work. If there are none, then payment is made according to the rates and methods for determining the size of the environment, which are determined by executive authorities.
Thus, if harm is done in compliance with the law, only the primary methods of tax are used, while in case of violation of the law, the calculation of environmental damage from air pollution or other actions is carried out in accordance with the actual costs necessary to restore the environment.
What methods are used?
In the overwhelming majority of modern methods, there is a normative approach for determining the amount of environmental damage, the use of which can ultimately lead to unreasonable or incorrect results. Despite constant criticism of the approaches used to calculate the prevented environmental damage or some other, all modern methods are also based solely on normative indicators.
One of the most relevant areas of calculating the amount of damage to the environment is the calculation of damage to the aquatic environment. It is worth noting that today the calculation of the concept of “environmental damage” and the principles of calculating environmental damage are determined in accordance with a number of specialized regulatory and methodological documents.
All modern techniques have different uses and are intended to calculate the harm to various components of the environment. At the same time, there are a number of complex calculation methods used in relation to certain objects. It is worth noting the fact that the experts repeatedly conducted studies of the existing integrated methods that determine the damage already done or are calculating the prevented environmental damage, as a result of which it was determined that today the calculation of environmental damage is insufficient from the current legislation.
What is the lack of collateral expressed?
It is worth considering several examples from the protection of water bodies:
- incorrectly calculated environmental damage caused in the absence of any violations of applicable law, as in this case, under Art. 77 need to be based on fees and techniques;
- incorrectly calculated damage to aquatic ecosystems and biota;
- the damage caused to water bodies as natural resources is incorrectly defined, because they are a source of water supply, recreation and fishing.
According to the currently used methodology, the determination of harm is carried out on the basis of the compensation principle of assessing and further compensating for the amount of harm in terms of the cost necessary to determine the fact of causing harm, as well as further eliminating its consequences and causes. This includes various costs necessary for the development of design estimates and those costs that need to be allocated to eliminate the violation and further restore the state of a particular object to the indicators observed until the detected violation.
However, the items listed in clause 6 of the current methodology are actually completely absent in the calculation formulas. The basis of this methodology is a standard normative assessment approach, which ultimately leads to results that have no connection with the real environmental consequences present in ecosystems, as well as their individual components and all kinds of natural resources.
Incorrect cost calculation
The costs necessary to eliminate the causes of damage are unreasonably included in the damage, because they have no relation to the valuation of the environmental consequences. In particular, several examples and techniques are worth noting.
Harmful due to the discharge of harmful substances
In this case, the calculation is carried out in accordance with the following characteristics:
- mass of pollutants discharged from the enterprise;
- the intensity of the impact of these substances on a particular object;
- hazard class of pollutants in the event that their concentration is more than 10 times greater than the background.
After that, the calculation of environmental damage from environmental pollution is already carried out on the basis of the condition of the object, what type it belongs to and how valuable it is, as well as in accordance with some additional parameters, such as seasonality, etc.
In this case, the value of a particular object is determined by the presence in it of any rare plants, natural healing resources or belonging to objects subject to special protection.
Accident Harm
Situations quite often happen when, due to a certain accident at the enterprises, the environment is sufficiently strongly polluted by various inorganic and organic substances, including oil products, pesticides, and many others, as a result of which they can even enter sewage or drainage waters.
In this case, the methods for calculating environmental damage include determining it in accordance with the mass of the substance ejected as a result of the accident, as well as the time during which no measures were taken to eliminate the pollution that arose. Again, the methodology provides for additional calculation in accordance with the condition of the damaged object, its type and value, as well as a number of additional factors.
Harm due to the discharge of domestic wastewater from various vessels
The methodology for calculating the prevented environmental damage or the damage already done involves determining the damage in accordance with the volume of storage capacity required to collect household water or according to the category of the vessel, the number of people staying on it during the incident, as well as the time the vessel was continuously out of place parking. Additional factors are exactly the same as in previous cases.
Harm due to pollution by waste from consumption and production in the form of garbage
The area of ​​the object that has been contaminated with garbage is determined. If this object is some kind of reservoir, then in this case the area of ​​the water area, as well as the bottom and coastal stripes of the object polluted by this waste is determined. Otherwise, the parameters are the same: the state of the facility after causing damage to it, seasonality, type and value of the facility, but the degree of contamination of the facility by garbage or some other waste is already added to them.
Damage due to dumping or landfill of consumption and production waste
The calculation of environmental damage, an example of which we are considering at the moment, is carried out in accordance with the mass of abandoned bulky waste of consumption and production. In addition, damage is calculated in accordance with the condition of the object due to damage caused to it, as well as its value and type.
Harm due to various landscaping activities
Calculations of environmental damage during production in this case are carried out as a result of contamination with suspended solids, the emission of which is the result of mining or mineral exploration, deepening or any other work related to changes in the landscape, coasts, as well as violation of the conditions for using this territory without the availability of relevant permits. Also, the calculation is carried out in the event that as a result of the accident any important structures were destroyed.
If the situation occurs at a water body, then in this case, the mass of substances is determined in accordance with the average length, depth and width of their distribution in the water area, as well as the average and background concentration. Additional factors: the state of the facility after pollution, the type and value of the facility, the presence of high water or high water, seasonality.
Harm due to partial or complete depletion of a natural source
Such a calculation is carried out in the event that the damage caused is a result of any violation of the conditions for using this natural resource or is carried out in the absence of relevant documents allowing the use of these resources. Considering what costs are included in the calculation of environmental damage, we can allocate the amount of resources needed to restore the source and prevent its complete depletion. For example, if it is a water source, then in this case a double volume is required from the water that was taken.
The board norm is also taken into account, which depends directly on the source belonging to a certain territory. Among other things, the calculation indicates the condition of the object due to pollution, the type of the object, as well as whether it is surface or underground.
Mining damage
Again, the calculation is carried out if the damage was caused during the extraction of minerals in violation of the current legislation regarding the use of this source of resources or in the absence of the necessary documentation to allow its use. In this case, the damage caused is determined in accordance with the mass of mining, the type and value of the object, as well as its condition due to this pollution. The calculation of the prevented environmental damage is also being carried out, an example of which we are considering.