Institute for Market Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia:

A. S. Tulupov, Head of Laboratory, Doctor of Economic Sciences, tul@bk.ru

The mechanisms of compensation for the mining-induced environmental damage under the existing legal framework are discussed: pollution charges; administrative, property, disciplinary and criminal liabilities; cost recovery method and a methodological support. It is shown that the current mechanism of the environmental damage compensation is of the fiscal nature, effective incentives to reduce environmental pressure are absent and the money compensation is not answerable to the actual damage value. It is found that the legislation in effect imposes fines provided by all indemnification tools on a mining company in case that it violates the environmental laws and charges the company with the duty to eliminate the damage of the environmental impact, which leads the mining company to a significant financial stress in excess of the factual value of the caused damage. The revealed contradictions reinforce the need for improving the current system of compensation of harm due to the violations of the environmental legislation. However, even given the existing system of the environmental charges nonconforming with the actual damage, mining companies should know all features of the compensation mechanism in order to prevent their activities from extra money sanctions and to develop appropriate nature-conservative measures to reduce the cost loading.
The study has been supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Projects No. 17-02-00010a.

1. Porfiriev B. Climate change as a major slow-onset hazard to development: an integrated approach to bridge the policy gap. Environmental Hazards. 2015. Vol. 14, No. 2. pp. 187–191.
2. Skufina Т. P., Samarina V. P., Krachunov H., Savon D. Yu. Problems of Russia's Arctic development in the context of optimization of the mineral raw materials complex use. Eurasian Mining. 2015. No. 2. pp. 18–21. DOI: 10.17580/em.2015.02.05
3. Novoselov A. L., Novoselova I. Yu. Models and methods of natural use decision-making. Moscow : YuNITI, 2012. 383 p.
4. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_61070/ (accessed: 15.07.2017).
5. Environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage : Directive 2004/35/EC. European Parliament and of the Council, 2004. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32004L0035 (accessed: 15.07.2017).
6. Environmental tax statistics. Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2017. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Environmental_tax_statistics (accessed: 15.07.2017).
7. Ekins P. Environmental tax reform (ETR). Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011. 371 p.
8. Environmental tax reform in Europe: implications for income distribution : technical report No. 16/2011. European Environment Agency. Luxembourg, 2011. 68 p.
9. Liability for environmental damage in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA): implementation of good international practice. OECD, 2012. 36 p. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/env/outreach/50244626.pdf (accessed: 15.07.2015).
10. Muller N., Mendelsohn R., Nordhaus W. Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy. American economic review. 2011. Vol. 101, No. 5 pp. 1649–1675.
11. Withana S., Brink P. T., Illes A., Nanni S., Watkins E. Environmental Tax Reform in Europe: Opportunities for the future. A report for The Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. Brussels, 2014. 61 p.
12. Turgunova K. K., Sultamurat G. I., Boranbaeva B. M. Kazakhstan republic legislation law as a way to reduce negative impact on environment. CIS Iron and Steel Review. 2016. No. 1. pp. 9–15.
13. The Constitution of the Russian Federation. Moscow : Ayris-Press, 2017. 64 p.
14. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation : in 4 parts. Moscow : Eksmo, 2017. 608 p.
15. Available at: http://rulaws.ru/laws/Federalnyy-zakon-ot-10.01.2002-N-7-FZ/ (accessed: 15.07.2017).
16. Available at: http://fzrf.su/kodeks/koap/ (accessed: 15.07.2017).
17. Available at: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/9017477 (accessed: 15.07.2017).
18. Tulupov A. S. The “damage” concept in natural use economics. Nauchnyy vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo gornogo universiteta. 2013. No. 11. pp. 297–302.
19. Tulupov A. S. Damage theory: basic approaches and issues of methodical provision. Moscow: Nauka, 2009. 284 p.
20. Tulupov A. S. Methodological issues of environmental pollution damage assessment. Regionalnye problemy preobrazovaniya ekonomiki. 2014. No. 9(47). pp. 107–114.
21. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_34683/ (accessed: 15.07.2017).
22. Available at: http://base.garant.ru/12167365/ (accessed: 15.07.2017).