This paper reviews sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and approved by all countries. The inclusion of the sustainability concept based on a balanced set of economic, ...social, and environmental factors in the strategic documents underpinning the long-term development of Russia is justified as part of a search for a new development model for the Russian economy.
The article talks about the problem of air pollution. In the world, its economic, social, and environmental aspects are receiving increased attention. This trend is clearly visible in the example of ...the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all countries of the world in 2015 with a horizon of implementation up to 2030. A significant part of the SDGs is directly or indirectly related to combating air pollution, which will improve the health of the population and life cities, mitigate climate problems, create a new energy sector, implement new technologies, etc. Here we can mention SDG 3 (health), SDG 7 (energy), SDG 8 (economic growth), SDG 9 (industrialization and innovation), SDG 11 (sustainable cities), SDG 13 (climate), SDG 15 (terrestrial ecosystems). In fact, we can talk about the formed “air” priorities in the transition to new economic models, primarily green and low-carbon ones.
The article dwells on the methodical, ecological and financial aspects of the appraisal of the field lands with the consideration to the ecological state of the territory. The main idea of this ...article is to perform the appraisal of the lands of the field development, based on their cadastral value, the subsoil value, but with the consideration to its decrease on the account of the previous ecological state of the territory. The ecological situation in the administrative districts of the Russian Federation differs significantly. The Chelyabinsk Region is at the last place in the Russian Federation ecological ranking. That is why for our region the condition of lands for the field development should be mandatorily taken into account. The essence of the idea suggested by this article is that the lands of field development should be appraised based on their cadastral value but with the consideration to its decrease on the account of the previous ecological state of the territory.
In the world, the theory of the circular economy and its formation in the real economic system is rapidly developing. Many international organizations (OECD, EU) and countries already have their ...programs for developing such an economy. The article emphasizes that the practical implementation of the concept of “best available technologies” is vital for the transformation of the current linear model of the economy in many countries, including Russia. In Russia, there are many obstacles to the formation of a circular economy; the inertia of the existing export-raw material model is excellent, which is unsustainable and linear. A dangerous trend is the growth of waste intensity at the macro level. The article analyzes and adapts for Russia the UN Sustainable Development Goals directly related to the circular economy, proposes and quantifies key indicators. In the field of quantitative indicators, four areas have been identified for the development of crucial indicators set for the circular economy in Russia. An author’s formula for structuring the consumption of natural resources taking into account technological efficiency and waste is proposed. The importance of using the proposed toolkit of natural-product verticals combining primary natural resources / raw materials with final consumption and allowing us to estimate the size of the lost primary natural resources is emphasized. The indicators of waste management, in combination with production and consumption systems, are analyzed. For a circular economy, it is fundamentally important to calculate the resource and material intensity indicators of various sectors and their weight in the gross product, which will allow to assess the impact of potential structural changes on waste generation and conduct a comparative analysis with the corresponding indicators of other countries.
The persistent lack of a generally accepted scientific definition of
city
seriously hinders the implementation of sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations as universal strategic ...guidelines for world progress until 2030, including the sustainable development of cities and settlements. In connection with this, actual problems of defining
city
and
megacity
(
megalopolis
) have been analyzed. A system of integrated indicators of sustainable urban development with regard to the global level has been considered. Particular attention has been paid to the new task for Russia of adapting these indicators to domestic specific natural and socioeconomic conditions, with consideration of the long-term prospects.
Regional Priorities of Green Economy Bobylev, Sergey Nikolayevich; Kudryavtseva, Olga Vladimirovna; Yakovleva, Ekaterina Yuryevna
Ekonomika regiona,
01/2015, Letnik:
11, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The article is dedicated to transforming the economy of Russian regions to a green economy, which is an essential factor for the sustainable development. This is important not only for Russia but the ...whole world because our country has the great natural capital and provides important environmental services that support the planet biosphere. Based on the analysis of economic, social and ecological statistical data and Human Development Index (HDI) we have shown that the development of Russian Federal Districts is very unbalanced and each Russian region has its own way to new economic model. For instance, it is necessary to increase the well-being in the North Caucasus Federal District, it is important to reach higher life expectancy at birth in the Siberian and the Far Eastern Districts. It is necessary to move from the «brown» economy to a green one by using the human capital (building a knowledge economy), by applying Best Available Technologies (Techniques), by investing in efficiency of use of natural resources and by increasing energy efficiency. The transition to a green economy will help to achieve social equity and the development of human potential; it helps to move from the exploitation of non-renewable natural capital to renewable human capital. All these socio-economic measures should give decoupling effect, make risks lower, reduce the exploitation of natural capital, stop the environmental degradation and prevent the ecological crisis. Transition to the green economic model has to be accompanied by new economic development indicators, which take into account social and environmental factors.
This article examines the socio-economic causes and consequences of a high load on tourist destinations (overtourism) in the Baikal Natural Territory (BNT). An economic analysis is made of the ...existing tourist flows. The areas of conflict of the interests of tourist business, the local population, authorities of different levels and investors have been identified. This study summarizes the results of field investigations made in a number of districts of Buryatia in order to develop the strategy of sustainable ecologically balanced development of the territory. The technique of informal interviews was used to identify and compare the opinions of different categories of people on the reasons behind the conflict of the interests in the BNT and the methods of settling them. Estimates of the economic benefits from the flow of unorganized tourists in the Baikal region of Buryatia by the method of travel costs have been obtained. It is shown that the policy of restriction on economic activities in the BNT and reliance on mass tourism lead to the degradation of the nature in Baikal and do not solve the problems of financial self-sufficiency of the territory. The mass nature of the tourist flow stifles the possibility for full-fledged communication with wildlife and for an educational and comfortable recreation provided that the recreational load on the territory is observed. In addition, super-tourism territories are vulnerable to emergencies (such as epidemics).
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•Fuel processor produces 12 slpm pure hydrogen from CH4 using nonpalladium membranes.•Vanadium alloy membranes are used for hydrogen extraction from conversion mixture.•V-alloy is ...proved to replace Pd as a material for hydrogen separation membrane.•Commercial fuel cell generates 1 kW power from CH4 using V-alloy membranes.
Membrane technologies allow for significant simplification of the scheme of hydrocarbon conversion for obtaining ultrapure hydrogen to feed low-temperature fuel cells. However, commercially available membranes for hydrogen extraction utilize Pd alloys and therefore are expensive even while being not very efficient. Recently developed membranes of vanadium alloys demonstrate high efficiency combined with high practical utility. These features, for the first time, allowed for design and manufacture of a fuel processor prototype based on non-palladium membranes. 18 tubular-shaped membranes of vanadium alloy, 6 mm in diameter and 23.5 cm in length, were welded in a completely leakproof membrane system. This membrane system was integrated into a classic CH4 steam conversion scheme, which comprised a reformer followed by a single-step water gas shift reactor. The reformer was designed to convert 75% of CH4 to hydrogen, with the rest providing heat required for the reaction. At CH4 consumption of 6 slpm, steam-to-carbon ratio of 3, and total pressure of water–gas shift mixture of 1.2 MPa, the membrane system was extracting 80% of produced hydrogen, and as a result the fuel processor was providing 12 slpm of ultrapure hydrogen at 0.15 MPa to feed a 1 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. As part of the fuel processor, the membrane system kept its initial throughput and perfect tightness through all the experimental process.
The membranes of vanadium alloys can be substantially more productive and much cheaper than the palladium alloy membranes which are widely used for hydrogen separation. However, the insufficient ...workability of vanadium alloys makes difficult producing the membranes of any shape, except for small thick flat samples, suitable only for laboratory studies, while membranes in the form of thin-walled tubes are most preferable for practical use. Such seamless thin-walled self-maintained membranes of tubular shape, made of V-Pd and V-Fe alloys with a thin Pd-coating on their inner and outer sides and with welded joints to stainless steel on both ends, were fabricated and tested for their throughput, service life, mechanical stability, and capability of hydrogen recovering from WGS mixtures. In view of reliable and highly productive operation of tubular V-alloy membranes as well as of their absolute selectiveness, the assembly from 18 membranes was fabricated to use it in the multi-fuel processor feeding a 1 kW PEM FC and providing up to 16 slpm of ultrapure hydrogen by the steam conversion of light and heavy hydrocarbons including diesel “Euro 5”. A similar assembly made of V-Fe alloy membranes was estimated for hydrogen purification in MOCVD applications.
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•Tubular membranes of the V-Pd and V-Fe alloys proved to be highly productive.•10000 h test was carried out at different membrane temperatures.•18-membrane assembly extracted 16 slpm of hydrogen from WGS mixture.•Light and heavy hydrocarbons were used for ultrapure hydrogen production.•1 kW PEMFC was fed by hydrogen extracted with the membrane assembly.
The evaluation of ecosystem services is a method of estimating the value of the natural capital of a defined territory. This article examined the approaches to an evaluation of ecosystem services as ...a method of an ecological-economic evaluation of the efficiency of hydropower projects.
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