Actual problems of formation of ecologically significant behavior of people at the international and national levels

Rednikova Tatiana Vladimirovna PhD in Law Senior Scientific Associate; Department of Environmental, Land an Agrarian Law; Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences 119019, Russia, Moscow, Znamenka str., 10 trednikova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The growth of the world's population, the intensification of economic activity and the associated degradation of the natural environment due to the ingress of pollutants into it and the overexploitation of natural resources currently lead to a significant deterioration of the environment. The processes of global warming cause the melting of ice in the polar regions, lead to a sharp increase in the number of natural disasters of an extraordinary nature, for example, such as floods, hurricanes, etc. ^{[1, p. 161]}.

Every year humanity is becoming more aware of the fact that much greater efforts should be made to preserve the favorable state of the environment, which has a direct impact on both people's health and their emotional state. Gradually, the ecocentric approach to nature conservation in the process of economic activity is replacing the anthropocentric one ^{[2, p. 480]}. Environmental protection is the goal of a significant number of international agreements, both global and regional ^[3]. Such foundations for improving public relations as sustainable development, which consists in a balanced combination of economic, environmental and social interests in order to preserve decent living conditions and conserve natural resources for current and future generations of people, an ecosystem approach to environmental protection, climate protection, environmental impact assessment of goods and services throughout their life The cycle and many other modern approaches in this area have not only become the subject of a wide range of international agreements, but over the past decades have been introduced into the fabric of the national legislation of most States. Decades of implementation of these norms have demonstrated both certain successes and revealed some problems.

The right to live in a favorable environment is enshrined in the basic laws of most countries of the world ^{[4, p. 242]}. An increasing number of people directly associate the task of ensuring their comfortable existence and maintaining health with the need to protect the environment. At the same time, almost every person who is more or less familiar with the basics of environmentally friendly behavior is ready to contribute to maintaining it in a favorable state.

It should be recognized that today the ideology of careful attitude to the environment, rational use of natural resources has become as widespread as possible. The declaration of commitment to it in the activities of any entity from international organizations to individual states, from heads of states and public authorities, representatives of business structures to citizens and their associations is the basis for the formation of their positive image from the point of view of public opinion. At the same time, some entities really put maximum effort into their activities and use all available methods and means to achieve environmental goals, while others use such declarations to mask their actions that are not fully friendly to the environment. Some subjects are quite sincerely mistaken, using in their activities certain so-called green technologies or "well-known" advertised methods and means that allegedly make a significant contribution to the cause of environmental protection, which, upon closer examination, are not. That is why it is difficult to overestimate the role of the formation by legal means of correct models of environmentally significant behavior both at the international and national levels.

However, I would like to note that at present it is extremely necessary to understand which actions and processes are really effective in achieving this goal of environmental protection, and which, often generally recognized, are not actually such, and if they are, then the degree of their benefits for nature protection can be greatly exaggerated. It is also noteworthy that in the minds of people, the goals of caring for their own health through maintaining the environment in a favorable state and preserving the natural environment of the planet for future generations (in accordance with the concept of sustainable development) often mix and replace each other. As an example, we can cite the desire of people to so-called healthy nutrition, including by eating more expensive, but declared safer organic products. Without supplicating the fact of the positive value of organic agricultural production, for example, due to the non-use of pesticides and pesticides in the technological process, we note that the motivation of a person at the time of making a decision to purchase organic goods in the vast majority of cases is associated with the purpose of ensuring the preservation of their own health.

Another feature of the consciousness of many people who want to contribute to environmental protection is the acceptance on faith of existing stereotypes about "what is good and what is bad" for the environment, blindly following the proposed and advertised model of so-called green behavior. At the same time, not everyone strives to fully understand whether this or that action is actually valuable from an environmental point of view or it can only be a fiction. Very often, in order to fully understand the essence of the issue in each specific case, it is necessary to have a specialized education. That is why states that not only declare at the political level the goal of protecting the environment and preserving it in a favorable state for current and future generations of their citizens, but also actually strive to achieve it as efficiently as possible, including by legal means, should take a more responsible approach to the development and adoption of sectoral legislation in this area and to carry out this activity solely on the basis of reliable scientific data.

In the doctrine of Russian environmental law, it was noted that the basis of environmentally correct behavior of people in relation to nature, which is formed, among other things, by legislation. At the same time, the legislation being developed should be based on taking into account the combination of objective laws of nature with the requirements of social development in order to limit the permissible influence of economic activity on natural objects ^{[5, p. 8]}. To date, the universally recognized model of civilizational development, which is based on the need to ensure a balance between solving economic and social problems of society and preserving the environment for present and future generations, is the concept of sustainable development, adopted in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). According to this concept, special importance should be attached to the preservation of a favorable state of the environment and the sustainable use of its components, ensuring the stability of local ecosystems and thereby ensuring the global stability of the planet's biosphere ^{[6, p. 9]}. The implementation of sustainable development goals involves the introduction of new approaches to the formation of not only environmental law, but also its other branches, regulating the relevant spheres of its development ^{[7, p. 18]}. It should be noted that more than 30 years of experience in implementing the concept in social development through the introduction of this ideology into legal norms of various levels has proved the need for their dynamic development, dictated by changes in the situation under the influence of both natural and anthropogenic factors. Thus, in order to achieve the global Sustainable development Goals worldwide, it is necessary to take into account the special conditions and specifics of each specific region: geographical and climatic features, population density and employment, structure and level of economic development, the state of the environment and the availability of natural resources ^{[8, p. 217]}.

Coordination of activities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals at the international level continues. In the final document "The Future we want" of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 (2012) (URL: http://www.iblfrussia.org/a-conf.216-l-1_russian.pdf.pdf (date of appeal: 30.08.2023)) it is emphasized that within the framework of sustainable development, it is necessary to take concrete and urgent actions to fulfill the obligations assumed by States in accordance with such international agreements as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (URL: https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/conventions/climate_framework_conv.shtml (accessed: 30.08.2023)), Convention on Biological Diversity (URL: https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/conventions/biodiv.shtml (accessed: 30.08.2023)) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious drought and/or desertification, especially in Africa // URL: https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/unccd/unccd_ph_r.pdf (accessed: 30.08.2023)). The document also speaks of the need to achieve harmony between man and nature (paragraph 39). The Russian doctrine of environmental law traces the idea of the need to change the anthropocentric approach to environmental protection to an ecocentric one. In particular, the necessity of increasing the effectiveness of environmental protection is justified by shifting the emphasis of environmental protection activities from measures taken solely to ensure a favorable state of the environment to measures necessary to ensure or restore a favorable state of nature ^{[9, p. 8]}. From the point of view of the formation of public ecological legal awareness of citizens of a particular state, in order to clarify the benefits or harm of any type of activity for environmental protection, it is important to detail the content of the concept of sustainability in the norms of national legislation regulating the relevant spheres of public relations. In the Russian Federation, the provisions on sustainable development are incorporated into the norms of sectoral environmental legislation, as well as into strategic planning documents, which are becoming increasingly important ^{[10, p. 4]} as acts in accordance with which environmental activities and their financing are carried out.

The Rio+20 Conference outcome document mentioned earlier also pays great attention to the so-called green economy as one of the important components of sustainable development (paragraphs 75-76). Thus, the transition to sustainable methods of using natural resources (paragraph 30) and minimizing the associated negative impact on the environment, as well as reducing the amount of waste generated within the framework of the green economy, are designed to increase the rationality and efficiency of the use of natural resources and ecosystems (paragraph 60).

The term "green economy", which is often used both at the international level and in strategic and political documents of many States, as well as in statements of individual economic entities, currently does not have an unambiguous interpretation of its content enshrined in law. As a result, depending on the context of its use, it is interpreted far from unambiguously ^{[11, p. 14-15]}. This allows it to be used, on the one hand, in a fairly broad meaning, and on the other – to use it to define fairly narrow and specific areas. At the same time, both at the international and national levels, there are also no legal criteria for classifying any activity as green. As I.A. Ignatieva rightly notes: "Based only on the actual use of this concept in certain texts, it is sometimes impossible to determine its content and scope, to designate specifically what distinguishes the "green" economy from the "non-green"" ^{[12, p. 1]}. Often in the scientific literature, the criteria for classifying a particular economic activity to the green economy is exclusively a decrease in carbon footprint and the expansion of the use of alternative energy sources ^{[13, p. 14-16]}, which cannot indicate the existence of a comprehensive assessment of its negative impact on the environment.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the ideology of the green economy adheres to the position that it is impossible to ensure endless economic growth in conditions of limited available resources without harming the environment and implies only minimizing the negative impact. At the same time, minimization of environmental damage can be achieved by completely different methods used both individually and in combination ^{[14, p. 36]}.

In the European Union, the idea of the need to assess the environmental impact of manufactured products or services throughout their entire life cycle has been promoted with varying degrees of success for a couple of decades.

So, in 2001, a Green Book on Integrated Product Policy was published in the European Union (English – Green Paper of 7 February 2001 on integrated product policy (presented by the European Commission) / COM (2001) 68 final – was not published in the Official Journal of the EU), which consisted in an approach to optimization of costs for improving the environmental characteristics of products. This policy was based on taking into account the impact of products throughout their entire life cycle, starting with the natural resources from which they are obtained, their use and marketing, and ending with their final disposal as waste. In 2003, the legislative initiative "Communication of the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Integrated Product Policy – Reliance on an ecological approach to the life cycle" was put forward COM/2003/0302 final (English – Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Integrated Product Policy – Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking (COM/2003/0302 final)). However, this concept has not received further legal consolidation in the legislation of the European Union. Product life cycle assessment is regulated at the level of ISO 14000 standards. Currently, in the European Union, in order to stimulate business to reduce the negative impact on the environment of products and services, such a tool as Green Public Procurement (GPP) is widely advertised. The definition of this process is given in the Communication "Public Procurement for Environmental Improvement" (Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Public procurement for a better environment {SEC(2008) 2124} {SEC(2008) 2125} {SEC(2008) 2126} (COM/2008/0400 final) // URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT /?uri=CELEX:52008DC0400 (accessed: 30.08.2023)) as "a process by which public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with less environmental impact throughout their life cycle compared to goods, services and works with the same basic function that would otherwise be provided." Although the GPP is a voluntary instrument and member States can determine the extent to which policies or criteria are applied, it plays a key role in the EU's efforts to stimulate a resource-efficient economy. The basic concept of GPP implies the existence of clear, verifiable, reasonable and ambitious environmental criteria for products and services based on a life cycle approach and a scientific database.

However, with the growing concern of people about the problems of preserving nature and minimizing the negative impact on it, manufacturers of certain goods and services are trying to use the so-called declaration of belonging to the green camp for commercial promotion on the market and creating the image of their company as friendly to the environment. In parallel with the real efforts of economic entities to greenize their activities and minimize the negative impact on the environment, which is an extremely costly process from the point of view of the need for additional investments in the use of new technologies, in the modern world, such a negative phenomenon as greenwashing, or greening of reputation, (English – greenwashing, by analogy with whitewash – bleaching). Greenwashing is a form of environmental marketing, which consists in misleading the consumer with the help of various methods and techniques regarding the environmental friendliness of manufactured goods or services. At the same time, the ultimate goal is to expand the sales sphere and increase sales volumes due to the unlawful declaration of the environmental advantages of its own products compared to competitors' products. According to N.P. Voronina, this phenomenon poses a threat to sustainable development, as it undermines the eco-oriented model of responsible behavior ^{[15, p. 31]}.

A separate voluntary tool that allows the consumer to navigate the environmental friendliness of a particular product, which is used both at the level of integration associations of states and in individual countries, is environmental labeling. The use of eco-labeling marks is allowed to manufacturers who have passed the established procedure of voluntary certification for compliance of their products with the criteria of this system. For example, in the EU, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation No. 66/2010 in 2009, regulating the rules for the creation and application of the voluntary ecolabeling scheme of the EU (Regulation (EC) No. 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the EU Ecolabel.OJL 27, 30.1.2010, p. 1-19 // URL: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2010/66/oj (date of circulation: 09/10/2023)), and the relevant requirements are approved by a separate act in relation to a specific product group. It should be noted that with a detailed study of the list of requirements, it is possible to understand due to which properties the products will meet the requirements of any type of eco-labeling. At the same time, the criteria differ from one system to another, and compliance with it does not mean complete safety of the product for the environment. It seems that even the legitimate use of eco-labeling signs does not adequately disclose to the consumer the extent to which the product or its packaging is safe for the environment and what its real advantage over competitors is. It turns out that only an extremely responsible consumer with a special education, if one of his main life goals is to protect the environment from negative impacts, is able to get to the bottom of the issue and independently form the correct model of environmental behavior. There are a lot of examples where, at first glance, green technologies can lead to even greater damage to the environment. One of them is the use of biodegradable packaging materials, including plastic bags. Ideally, they should decompose in the environment to the state of bioorganic compounds, water and carbon dioxide. However, currently used technologies for the production of oxo-degradable packaging materials only accelerate the disintegration of plastic containers into small fragments for 2-5 years, after which they enter the environment and create even more dangerous microplastic pollution for the environment and ecosystems ^{[16, p. 102]}.

It seems that if we want to create a correct and transparent model of environmentally friendly behavior of citizens, then both at the level of international agreements and at the level of national legislation of individual states, it is necessary to create a whole system of scientifically sound legal norms containing clear and understandable conditions and rules that can be applied by interested actors, as well as economically stimulated by states. In this case, each entity engaged in economic activity and producing goods and services can make a choice in favor of the use of modern environmental technologies. And every consumer has to make an informed choice. At the same time, the formation of a model of their own environmentally significant behavior that is correct from the standpoint of maximum environmental protection should not be preceded by an almost detective investigation. The ongoing deterioration of the ecological situation on the planet indicates the urgency of taking additional measures to form the ecological consciousness of all subjects, since the instruments existing in international and national law are not sufficiently effective.