Ecological and economic development of municipalities of the Zabaykalsky Krai in the context of “green” economy

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the need to transition to a “green” economy, the idea of which is widely debated in the scientific environmental
 and economics literature. Nowadays, the level of negative environmental impact in many natural-resources regions of Russia significantly exceeds the
 average level within the country. This situation is typical of some areas of the East of the Russian Federation with a historically established raw material
 speciality of economy. The increase in the extraction and processing of natural resources in the designated areas (within the framework of implementation
 of joint Russian-Chinese projects) may contribute to strengthening of the environmental discomfort of the local population.
 The purpose of the study is to estimate the socio-ecological and economic development of municipalities of one of the border regions – Zabaykalsky
 Krai in the context of “green” economy using two quantitative factors characterizing the social and economic aspects of development: average annual
 wages fund per capita (determines the well-being of households); the volume of shipped goods of own production, performed work and services
 using one’s own resources (determines the results of economic activities of enterprises). The key environmental and economic indicators used in this
 paper are eco-intensity indicators for the economic systems of municipal districts.
 The results of the study show that residents of many municipalities of the Zabaykalsky Krai live in conditions of increased anthropogenic stress. At the
 same time, indicators characterizing the level of socio-economic development are significantly lower than the regional average one. It is shown that
 the situation worsens in some municipal districts of the Zabaykalsky Krai according to the ratio of the considered socio-ecological-economic indicators
 for the considered time interval (2011–2016).