Narrow Results

This paper will set up a dynamic adjustment system of a specific-factor model of a closed Harris and Todaros’ (1970) economy to explore the effects of environmental tax on return migration meaning that labor moves back from the manufacturing sector to the agricultural sector. We find that when the government raises environmental tax, return migration would happen and the urban unemployment would decrease.

Amid a still fragile economic environment, and rising concerns about deteriorating environmental conditions, policy-makers are examining the potential for new sources of environmentally sustainable growth and job creation. A "green economy" has emerged as an important concept linking economic growth and environmental sustainability. This paper emphasises the potentially significant opportunities to enhance welfare from better management of scarce environmental and natural resources, including through the reduction and removal of large distortions arising from environmentally harmful subsidies. It emphasises the centrality of fiscal (and in particular tax based) measures, as part of a portfolio of policies necessary to mobilise the resources, both public and private, for such an economic transformation to be effective and equitable.

The chapter analyzes the main directions and tools for implementing the principles of sustainable development in Russia. The aggravation of environmental and social problems, especially in the last two decades, has led to the actualization of the concept of sustainable development. At the present stage, almost all countries have already included sustainable development goals in their strategies and have achieved certain results in their implementation. According to the University of Cambridge Sustainability Report, in 2021, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark were the most effective in this area. In this rating, which includes 165 countries, Russia took only 46th place. In this regard, this chapter focuses on studying the tools introduced and planned for introduction in the near future to implement the principles of sustainable development in Russia. As a result, the authors proved that the priority areas for implementing the principles of sustainable development in Russia are reducing the negative impact on the environment and achieving carbon neutrality. The best available technologies and the environmental tax can become key tools in implementing these areas. The implementation of these areas and the use of the selected tools will allow Russia to make progress in achieving sustainable development goals and enter at least the top 20 leading countries in this direction.

From the beginning of the reform and open door policy period, in 1978, to the present moment, China has consistently subordinated the importance of environmental protection to the pursuit of rapid economic growth in the name of constructing a socialist modernized state. Remarkable achievements in economic development have been made in the last three decades, and people's living standards, in material terms, have been vastly improved, but China has paid a very heavy price, in environmental terms, for such gains. Confronted with a widening spectrum of problems manifesting rapid environmental deterioration, major initiatives and measures have been repeatedly undertaken by the Central government to improve the efficacy of the country's environment protection apparatus. This chapter reviews the challenges encountered, and progress made, in the field of environmental protection, tracing the impacts of rapid industrial and urban growth on the country's environmental contours and ecological landscape. We argue that, despite of the pro-environment actions undertaken by the Central government, the prospect for a quick reversal of the current trends of environmental degradation remains slim because such efforts have always been resisted or even negated by local governments bent on pursuing economic growth at the cost of environmental protection. Unless China's political culture is reformed to allow a greater degree of transparency in local governance matters and that the implementation of environmental policies and programs is effectively and vastly strengthened, the country will be hard pressed to achieve even its modest environmental targets in the foreseeable future.