The Development of Economic Assessment Methods of Damage from Environmental Pollution and Their Practical Application

The article analyzes the evolution of approaches and the development of methods of economic assessment of damage from environmental pollution. It examines the stages of improving and deepening the mechanism of formation and compensation of environmental costs of production in the context of the challenges of environmental management at the regional level. The authors examine the period from the last quarter of the 20th century to the present. This gives an opportunity to demonstrate the development of methods for economic valuation of provoked and preventable damages and their results for addressing the regional and Federal levels. These results may be used for the equitable distribution of environmental investments in the regions, for ranking the regions according to the degree of environmental hazard, and assessing the effectiveness of environmental protection measures and programs. Includes the new methods of evaluation of the past (accumulated) damage concerning the cascade effect of the economic assessment of damage in emergency. Considers approaches that allow to assess preventable damage, taking into account risk factors and uncertainty. Shows the evolution of approaches to evaluation and methods of determining economic damage from environmental pollution, given the solution of specific economic problems, including the determination of the size of compensatory payments for environmental violations, the elimination of accumulated environmental damage, preservation of natural capital through the development of resource conservation and recycling, etc.