Current issues of using digital technologies for environmental protection: legal aspect

Abstract

The global changes of recent years in the world around us indicate that the line between the physical and digital worlds becomes blurred. More and more sectors of social life move online, and digital technologies have an increasingly strong influence on the industrial, agricultural, scientific, medical, educational, and other processes. Digitalization technologies have a particular influence on the evolution of traditional ideas about the methods of environmental protection. Though most international legal acts do not place a direct emphasis on this, many environmental problems caused by the globalization era can hardly be resolved without using digital technologies (for example, in terms of overcoming the consequences of global climate change). Further development of digital technologies will reduce the consumption of hydrocarbons and greenhouse gas emissions, help to mitigate the consequences of the emergence of e-waste. The use of environmental digital technologies within the framework of global and national environmental monitoring, improvement of the safety of the operation of industrial enterprises, in agriculture, as well within the framework of enhancement of the comfort of living in the urban environment, is quite promising. However, in Russian environmental legislation, there is now no direct mention of the possibilities of using digital technologies in the field of environmental protection, which should be corrected by supplementing the law with a special chapter.