Organization and legal aspects of conducting an environmental impact assessment

The primary task of state environmental expertise is to prevent possible adverse impacts of intended economic and other activities on the natural environment, as well as the related social, economic, and other consequences of their implementation.

Environmental expertise includes public and state expertise.

State environmental expertise is conducted by expert units of territorial environmental protection agencies.

Public environmental expertise is conducted by public organizations (associations) whose main area of activity is the protection of the natural environment, including the conduct of environmental expertise, and which are registered in accordance with the established procedure.

Environmental expertise includes information gathering, its summarization, consideration of materials by a commission, evaluation of the expertise materials, and the preparation of a conclusion.

The basic principles of environmental expertise are formulated in the Law on Environmental Protection. State environmental expertise must be based on mandatory requirements, scientific validity, independence, and interdepartmental neutrality, with wide transparency and public participation. These principles must be used in any environmental expert activity.

The subjects of state environmental expertise must be: 1) the client, which is a government structure authorized to appoint the expertise; 2) the contractor, who is the executor of the environmental expertise assignment; 3) the consumer – an enterprise or organization that owns the facility which has become the subject of expert analysis.

Based on the results of the environmental expertise, an expert conclusion is drawn up, consisting of three parts: 1) the introductory part contains information about the object being examined, information about the client, and additionally, data on the agency performing the expertise and the timing of its conduct; 2) the descriptive part provides a general characterization of how environmental requirements are reflected in the project submitted for expertise; in the case of designing an enterprise, information is provided on the ecological state of the territory where the construction will take place; 3) the concluding part must contain an assessment of the entire complex of measures for the rational use of natural resources and protection of the natural environment; this part must end with conclusions on the admissibility of the impact of the economic or other activity, which was the object of the environmental expertise, on the natural environment and the feasibility of implementing the object.

The expert conclusion is sent to the client, the territorial body of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, and local self-government bodies.

The Law on Environmental Protection prohibits the financing and implementation of projects and programs that have not received a positive conclusion from state environmental expertise.

The confrontation between the economy and ecology is one of the main problems of natural environment protection. Previously, attempts were made to solve it through administrative-command methods of influence based on prohibitions, restrictions, and measures of criminal and administrative punishment. The economic mechanism of natural environment protection relies on the material interest of the executor in achieving a real goal while taking environmental requirements into account. Material interest is achieved in different ways.

One of them deals with positive factors of influence: financing, lending, benefits when introducing environmentally friendly technologies, and in tax assessment. They create direct economic incentives for the protection of the natural environment.

Negative factors influence economic interest through the withdrawal of a portion of monetary income as payment for resource use, or a tax on environmentally harmful products manufactured using environmentally hazardous technologies.

New economic incentives include environmental insurance, licensing of natural resource use, and the improvement of contractual relations, where a prominent place is occupied by the economic mechanism of regulation — contracts for integrated natural resource use, leasing, transfer for permanent use of objects, protection of natural monuments, etc.

10.5 1. Payment for natural resources of Russia

The Law on Environmental Protection provides for two types of payments:

I. Payment for the use of natural resources includes: payment for the right to use resources; payments for exceeding limits and irrational use of natural resources; payments for the reproduction and protection of natural resources.

Land payment is made in the forms of: land tax, rent, and normative land price.

Tax rates are set taking into account the composition of the soil, quality, and location of the areas. The normative price of land characterizes the value of a plot of land of a certain quality and location, taking into account the potential income over the calculated payback period.

Payment for the use of subsoil has the following forms: for the right to prospect and explore mineral deposits and their extraction; for the use of subsoil for other purposes not related to the extraction of mineral raw materials, for example, waste disposal. The distribution of funds from use is carried out as follows: - payments for the right to extract mineral resources are distributed between the Federation and local authorities; - payments for the right to carry out prospecting and exploration work and for the right to use subsoil for purposes not related to the development of mineral resources are credited to the budgets of cities and districts, to

Payment for the use of water bodies is collected in two forms: for the right of use and for the restoration and protection of water resources.

Every agricultural enterprise uses natural resources in its operations and impacts the environment. Legislation mandates regular payments for the right to use water, forest, and plant resources, as well as wildlife objects. The allocation of these funds is strictly regulated: payments for surface water, as well as forest fees and lease payments, go into the budgets of cities, districts, and constituent entities of the Federation. Fees for groundwater are divided between the federal and regional budgets, while funds for the protection and reproduction of forests and water bodies are credited to state extra-budgetary funds.

When using plant resources, fees are levied for the collection of medicinal herbs, fruits, berries, and the harvesting of technical raw materials. The exploitation of wildlife includes regular payments for hunting, trapping of animals, the use of their by-products, and the leasing of hunting grounds. All these fees are mandatory and are paid by consumers throughout the entire duration of their natural resource usage.

• Share of payments to the federal budget — 10%
• Share of payments to environmental funds — 90%
• Markup in industrial centers — up to 20%
• Rate increase in protected zones — 2 times

Calculation of pollution payments and risks of activity suspension

Payments for environmental pollution compensate for harm to nature and human health, and also incentivize enterprises to reduce emissions and discharges. The law divides payment rates for pollution into those within established standards and those exceeding the limits. The calculation of environmental payment amounts for an enterprise takes place in three consecutive stages:

1. Determination of base standards for each type of pollutant, taking into account its degree of danger to the environment and public health.
2. Calculation of differentiated standards by multiplying the base rate by a coefficient reflecting the ecological characteristics of the region.
3. Establishment of specific payment amounts by local authorities with the participation of environmental services, sanitary-epidemiological supervision, and the enterprise itself.

If a natural resource user lacks a permit for the discharge of harmful substances, the payment is charged as for excessive pollution. In this case, local authorities have the right to increase ecological significance coefficients. In large cities and industrial centers, such an increase is permitted up to 20%, and in zones of ecological distress, districts of the Far North, on the territories of national parks, in nature reserves, and resort regions — by two times.