SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Environmental education

BASED ON SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH DATA, CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY NOTE THE INCREASING SEVERITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN RECENT YEARS CAUSED MAINLY BY THE DETERIORATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION IN THE COUNTRY AND IN THE WORLD. THE GROWING RELEVANCE OF ECOLOGY IN THE PROBLEMATIC AGENDA ALSO PREDETERMINES THE GROWTH OF THE DEMAND FOR THE STATE TO TACKLE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS.¹⁸⁹

Today, both the state and on society express a clear understanding that the state of the environment is the major factor directly affecting the quality of life of citizens. The key nature of forming “sustainable development” of nature and society is reflected in the Basic Law of the country and strategic planning documents.

In June 2022, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation posted¹⁹⁰ the Concept of Environmental Education in the General Education System on its official website.¹⁹¹ Early on, the Civic Chamber, having considered the high social significance of the issues considered in the proposed Concept, including the issues that determine the foundations of the strategy for the development of environmental education in Russia for the coming years, provided its platform for professional and expert project discussion and elaborating proposals for its improvement.¹⁹² Experts say the initial version of the concept required a number of improvements:

# the development of environmental education requires a more modern approach, taking into account new technologies and digitalized education;

# the environmental education should cover all age categories and all educational levels – from preschool to higher education;

# the system of environmental education should be extended on an ongoing basis.

Proposals for finalizing the concept were sent¹⁹³ to the Institute for Education Development Strategy of the Russian Academy of Education. The version of the Concept, finalized and approved by the federal educational and methodological association¹⁹⁴ for general education, determined the ecological culture of students as an integral result of ongoing environmental education.

The Concept approval is a significant step for the development of environmental education. Experts say, however, that it cannot fully contribute to solving the problem of creating its continuous system. Environmental studies should also be part of vocational training, tertiary education and advanced professional training programs to ensure that environmental literacy is being taught and learned across all stages of human life as a phenomenon that affects all its spheres. Further, the Concept failed to cover the issues of environmental education and the formation of environmental literacy as an integral part of the system of family values, were left outside the scope of the Concept. But these are an important social priority that contributes to the harmonious development of the individual and society in general.¹⁹⁵

A girl at the opening ceremony of Russia’s first “Park of the Future (Futurepark),” children’s edutainment park dedicated to renewable energy (Visitors Center of the Kislovodsk National Park, Stavropol Region). The ceremony is timed to coincide with Earth Hour, the world’s largest environmental initiative (this year it falls on March 26, 2022). Denis Abramov / RIA Novosti

Environmental education and awareness, the formation of environmental literacy in each and every Russian is a task global in its scope and cross-agency in its content. It requires further consolidation of efforts, active participation of a significant number of authorities at all levels, as well as public associations, professional and scientific communities.

Currently, various projects in the field of environmental education and awareness are being implemented in Russia by both authorities at all levels and nonprofit organizations. Yet, these are often of a nonsystemic nature.

Another important current issue is the provision of information support for environmental education and the formation of ecological literacy in the population. In this context, the need to create a unified eco-information platform becomes obvious.

ESG agenda: the role of civil society

SEARCHING FOR BRAND NEW MODELS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS ONE OF THE KEY TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN WORLD ECONOMY AND THE ECONOMIES OF NATION STATES. THE EXHAUSTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES, IRREPARABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES AS A RESULT OF ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITY, AN INCREASE IN THE FREQUENCY AND SCALE OF CRISIS PHENOMEN, CAUSED, WITHOUT LIMITATION, BY A REVISION OF THE ECONOMIC COOPERATION PRINCIPLES INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES AND GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS ABIDE BY – ALL THESE HAVE PREDETERMINED THE DEMAND FOR NEW ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL RULES, STANDARDS AND VALUE GUIDELINES, WHICH COULD HELP ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES BECOME A FACTOR OF CREATIVE TRANSFORMATION. NOWADAYS, THIS NEW MORAL CODE IS EMBODIED IN THE ESG VALUE PRINCIPLES, WHERE “E” STANDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY, “S” – FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND “G” – FOR RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE.

While the Sustainable Development Goals are intended primarily for the UN Member States, the attention to environmental, social and corporate governance aspects (ESG) are becoming an increasingly significant success factor for responsible businesses. Environmental preservation, social development and corporate governance issues are increasingly considered when making investment decisions and implementing new financial projects. More and more companies in Russia become more open and transparent to their stakeholders and regularly publish reports on their contribution to sustainable development. Regions and municipalities focused on compliance with the best social responsibility practices are also beginning to join the process.

Along with the state, civil society and representatives of the expert community are actively involved in the discussion of sustainable development issues, including those related to nonfinancial reporting of companies. Independent assessments of nonfinancial reports are in demand in the business sector.¹⁹⁶ A reporting organization can evaluate its impact on the environment and social processes in its report, while civil society, through public assurance, has the opportunity to influence the sustainable development of the organization.

As part of the active citizens’ forum “Community”, held in July 2022 in Lipetsk, the Civic Chamber supported a public initiative to implement a project for public assurance of nonfinancial reporting of Russia-based companies, acting as the initiator and organizer of a platform where nonfinancial reports, issued by organizations and municipal authorities of different Russian regions, could be discussed and assured.

The practice of public assurance of nonfinancial reports, which is now being documented and unified by the Civic Chamber, provides independent evaluation of activities in the field of sustainable development, makes it transparent and accessible to stakeholders, and also promotes the replication of the best practices of Russian companies and regions on environmental issues, the development of the social sphere and management efficiency.¹⁹⁷

Assessing nonfinancial reports obtained as part of the public assurance procedure creates additional incentives for companies to develop within the framework of the ESG agenda.¹⁹⁸

The Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber for Environmental, Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Sustainable Development and RAEX, a partner rating agency selected on a competitive basis, will take part in the public assurance procedure.

On October 26, 2022, the Civic Chamber met to discuss and assure public sustainability reporting for the first time.²⁰¹ RAEX experts presented the deliverables of the assessment of MTS’s public sustainability reports 2021, issued as per the methodology develop.²⁰² The reports received an ESG rating of 69.8% out of 100% and were assigned an A [esg] rating.

The A rating proves that the company’s ESG risk and opportunity management is at a high level. According to the experts, the company can improve its ESG assessment rate in the future by taking minor additional measures and introducing innovations in the field of ESG.

In 2023, the Civic Chamber plans not only to actively develop the institute of public assurance of public nonfinancial reports, but also to lay the foundation for an appropriate regulatory framework.

Preserving the national natural heritage

As preserving natural heritage is of high social significance, the issues of legal regulation of commercial operations in specially protected natural territories traditionally attract careful attention of public organizations, professional and expert communities, the part of Russian population engaged in eco-activism and the development of tourism activities.

Addressing the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity in October 2021, the President of Russia noted that, together with specially protected natural territories of local or wider significance and other legally protected forms of environmental assets, more than a quarter of continental Russia was protected by environmental law in general. Further, it is planned to create at least 23 new protected natural areas by 2024.²⁰³

Today, Russia has some 13 thousand specially protected natural areas of federal, regional and local significance, with a total area of 255+ million hectares, that is 13.5% of the country’s area.²⁰⁴

The system of specially protected natural areas (SPNA) has allowed preserving key habitats for rare and endangered species of animals, plants and fungi and creating the institutional environment for the development of scientific research and targeted environmental education programs.²⁰⁵

In recent years, the President of Russia has repeatedly noted the importance of the development and preservation of specially protected natural areas. A set of instructions in that respect was given to the Government of Russia, including on the completion of entering information on the boundaries of specially protected natural areas into the Unified State Register of Real Estate, setting eco-tourism criteria and strengthening the legal regime of state nature reserves, including when it came to the prohibition of forest logging and capital construction.²⁰⁶

In February 2022, experts and government officials met in the Civic Chamber to discuss the implementation of the President’s instructions in the field of development and preservation of specially protected natural areas. A number of instructions was noted to have been fulfilled only in part. The lack of a systematic approach to biodiversity preservation and eco-tourism was obvious, as well.²⁰⁷

Sergei Abarinov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Murmansk Region, collecting garbage on Arktichesky Plyazh (Arctic Beach) in Murmansk as part of the Chistaya Arktika (Clean Arctic) Initiative. September 3, 2021. Pavel Lvov / RIA Novosti

Experts drew attention to the fact that in recent years there had been attempts to liberalize legislation on specially protected natural areas, which seemed unacceptable, since their creation and development was the only possible and reliable tool for protecting Russia’s unique biological resources, the basis of environmental, food and genetic security.

The draft law “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Public Evaluation”²⁰⁸ sparked a massive public outcry. It provided for changing the boundaries of specially protected natural areas should the state environmental evaluation give a positive opinion. According to experts, if the draft law had been passed and the legislative initiatives proposed therein had been implemented, it would have led to the withdrawal of SPNA lands. Following the preliminary hearings, public discussion and detailed analysis of the draft law, improving proposals have been shaped and submitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia²⁰⁹ by public experts.

In March 2022, a draft law²¹⁰ was submitted to the State Duma, which provided for the withdrawal of parts of specially protected natural areas of local or wider significance and the Baikal Natural Area to implement priority infrastructure projects without the assessment of design documents by the Federal Environmental Evaluation Office. Such legislative initiatives caused a wave of criticism from citizens, environmentalists, public organizations and individual lawgivers.²¹¹ The State Duma acceded to public attitudes of social activists. A new wording of the draft law was submitted for the second reading, which withdrew the Baikal Natural Area from the scope of the draft law.²¹² In addition, a provision was added to the draft law to allow for the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure facilities only if the requirements of environmental legislation, including the statutory provisions concerning specially protected natural areas, land, forestry, water and other provisions aimed at preserving a healthy environment and natural resources, were complied with and the state ecological evaluation gave its positive opinion.

Today, one of the key mechanisms for ensuring compliance with environmental requirements that guarantee the protection and preservation of the environment is environmental impact evaluation. In 2022, improving the legislation in this field has become mainstream.

An extra attention of civil society institutions was paid²¹³ to a draft law aimed at improving environmental impact assessment procedures.²¹⁴

The main innovation of the draft law was the provisions stipulating for transferring the authority to initiate public environmental impact assessments from citizens and public organizations (associations) to the civic chambers of Russia’s regions and civicchambers of (councils) of municipalities. While noting the importance of civic chambers as a key institution of civil society, the experts at the same time pointed out the risks of such an initiative due to the lack of a sufficient number of subject-matter experts and narrow specialists in civic chambers, the necessary material base, appropriate financial resources for high-quality and professional environmental impact assessments.²¹⁵

Members of the Young Army Cadets National Movement planting trees near Timiryazev State Agricultural Academy as part of Zelyonaya Rossiya (Green Russia), an all-Russia ecological clean-up event. September 11, 2021. Kirill Kallinikov / RIA Novosti

Further, public environmental evaluations are one of the key ways to exercise the universal right to a healthy environment,²¹⁶ so excluding citizens from the list of initiators of public environmental assessments, as the experts put it, could lead to a violation of their constitutional rights.

On September 26. 2022, the highly publicized draft law on changing the procedure for conducting environmental impact assessments was withdrawn from the State Duma under public pressure²¹⁷ following the withdrawal of the same by the holder of the right of legislative initiative.

At the same time, a new draft law,²¹⁸ revised in terms of improving the legal control of environmental impact assessments, was submitted to the State Duma. It incorporated the main comments of the public to the previous draft law.

However, the revised draft law also triggered concerns in the expert community.²¹⁹ A particularly lively discussion was caused by the novelties of the draft law which established the requirement for mandatory certification of environmental experts by authorized federal agencies. Eco-activists and environmental nongovernmental organizations expressed a common opinion on the need to unconditionally ensure the independence of public experts from authorities at all levels²²⁰ and proposed to give the Civic Chamber and civic chambers of Russia’s regions the authority to maintain federal and regional registers of experts with the right to conduct public environmental impact assessments. It was also proposed to add experts to such registers on a declarative basis.

The issues of preserving the unique biodiversity of our country have caused serious concerns among environmentalists, public environmental organizations and volunteers in 2022. For example, the increasing cases of mass deaths of marine fauna, primarily Red Book porpoises and dolphins, along the Black Sea coast and offshore,²²¹ have caused a wide public outcry.

Environmentalists have been equally concerned about the state of Lake Baikal, a unique natural site included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. In September 2019, following the audits of compliance with legislation concerning Lake Baikal and its state, the President of the Russian Federation approved Instructions of September 12, 2019, No. Пр-1818,²²² aimed at taking systematic measures to protect the Baikal Natural Area. The President of Russia has repeatedly noted that the preservation of Lake Baikal for current and future generations was, beyond doubt, a state priority.²²³

Assessing the deliverables, eco-activists agreed that three years later the Instructions remained unfulfilled across all the key points while, according to individual experts, the ecological state of Lake Baikal continued to deteriorate markedly.

All these issues were discussed by the Civic Chamber in 2022. Following the discussions, proposals and recommendations for the preservation of Red Book cetaceans and the unique biodiversity of Lake Baikal were submitted to competent authorities and organizations. Currently, the Civic Chamber is monitoring the progress in registering the proposals submitted.

Significant risks for the preservation of Red Data Book plants in their natural habitat were posed by the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia “On Amendments to Article 60 of the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection”²²⁴, which provided for the possibility of removing Red Data Book plants from their natural habitat when developing mining facilities or laying transportation, communications and utilities lines. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber for Environmental Welfare,²²⁵ environmental experts and public organizations, the further development of this draft law has been suspended.²²⁶

Eco-activists were also concerned by a draft law submitted to the State Duma which provided for continuous clear cuttings in the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Area.²²⁷ The Civic Chamber initiated a public assessment of the draft law, with the involvement of numerous lawmakers and government agents, scientific and professional communities in its discussion. The public evaluation came to the conclusion that the proposed provisions were redundant, since the goals declared in the explanatory note to the draft law, including the removal of a huge part of dead and damaged vegetation, were addressed within the framework of the already existing legislation of the Russian Federation.²²⁸

The issues of preserving Russia’s natural heritage and unique biodiversity are directly dependent on the state of the environment.

When it comes to studying the mechanisms of adaptation to climate changes and their consequences and taking measures to reduce the negative impact of greenhouse gases on the environment, the approval by the Russian Government in 2022 of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program in the field of Environmental Development until 2030²²⁹ was an important decision.

The program is aimed at creating science-intensive process solutions for monitoring and forecasting the state of the environment and climate.

Mitigating the anthropogenic impact on the environment and searching for the best options to adapt ecosystems and economic sectors to climate changes are among other high-profile aspects of the Program.

Developing its own methodological and scientific base and taking appropriate practical measures will minimize environmental and climate risks, as well as effectively defend national economic interests at the global level.

Within the framework of the Program, several dozen scientific institutions across the country will receive cash grants in support of some fifty studies and developments.²³⁰ These will include the improvement of forecasting, creation of ocean models with ice coverings, studies of the climate of our planet for the past two centuries, systems to monitor permafrost melting and decarbonization scenarios in Russia and abroad. As a result, action programs to combat desertification will be developed for 13 Russian regions.²³¹