Financial potential as a basis for ensuring environmental and economic security of the Arctic regions

¹ PhD (Economics), Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, Luzin Institute for Economic Studies – Subdivision of the Federal Research Centre «Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences», 184209, Apatity, Russian Federation
² Graduate student, Luzin Institute for Economic Studies – Subdivision of the Federal Research Centre «Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences», 184209, Apatity, Russian Federation

^* Corresponding author: ulchenko23@rambler.ru

Abstract

Large-scale industrial development of the Arctic territories is a steady course of development that the world economy has been following for several decades. This development is facilitated by global warming, which creates prerequisites for the freeing more and more territories from ice, depletion of resources, especially hydrocarbons, as well as the emergence of new technologies that allow extraction of minerals in difficult conditions for economic activity in the Arctic. Given the vulnerability of the Arctic natural systems, the issues of environmental and economic security, as a result of such development, come to the fore. The study, analyzes the financial capabilities of the Arctic regions and concludes that they have significant financial potential, which, if used rationally, should contribute to ensuring economic and environmental security. The paper proposes the authors’ interpretation of the concept of financial potential of the region. The review of domestic and foreign scientific literature showed that many works are devoted to topical issues of ensuring environmental and economic security of the Arctic regions, but the impact of financial potential on these categories is currently undefined. The paper also analyzes the financial potential of economic entities operating in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. It has been revealed that of the nine regions of the Russian Federation classified as Arctic, only one - the Krasnoyarsk Territory - has the value of the indicator characterizing the share of break-even enterprises, which exceeds the average Russian values. At the same time, when assessing the coefficient of provision with tax payments, in seven out of nine regions the value of this coefficient exceeds the average Russian values.