Topical Issues of International Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Safety

INTRODUCTION. Environmental problems, today, in terms of the degree of harm to the environment and all living things on the Planet, it is not possible to compare with other problems. In January 1997, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in resolution 15/157, called on States to take decisive measures in matters of carrying out activities in all directions exclusively in accordance with the norms of international law, to implement international legal principles and take measures to join multilateral agreements in order to ensure the development of international law in general and all its branches. Most developed countries have set a course to ensure comprehensive security, the implementation of which is possible only if they take a clear course to ensure the protection of the population through a set of socio-economic, political and environ[1]mental measures.  Ensuring environmental safety is an essential part of the problem of the security of the existence of the state as a whole, the resolution of which at the present stage of society's development is becoming as much a priority as ensuring military and economic security. Environmental safety is a set of conditions, processes and phenomena that ensure an ecological balance in the natural environment, the state of protection of all components of the natural environment, a category aimed at maximizing the protection of all natural objects and natural ecosystems from danger (man–made, biological, radiation, chemical, etc.). Environ[1]mental security is opposed to the uncontrolled economic growth that humanity is facing, as well as the complex problem of contradictions between the growing needs of society and the inability of the bio[1]sphere to provide them. In this regard, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, speaking at the Conference on the Problems of the Oceans, rightly stressed the inability of human society to improve what it cannot appreciate. Today, there is no need to prove that environmental problems in terms of the degree of destructive impact and catastrophic consequences for all living things and the planet as a whole cannot be compared with problems of a different nature. The rapid increase in population, the development of new fertile territories, economic growth and, in this regard, the increasingly intensive use of Land spaces and resources have led to serious and sometimes irreversible consequences that negatively affect its condition. Humanity is faced with the difficult problem of contradictions between its growing needs and the inability of the biosphere to provide them.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. This study uses the works of both Russian and foreign experts in the field of international environmental and international maritime law. The research used general scientific methods of cognition – analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction. Special legal methods were also used in the work – formal legal, technical legal, the method of legal analogy, as well as the comparative legal method.

THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY. The analysis of the current practice on environmental safety issues allowed us to draw logical conclusions that, taking into account the need to resolve international and national environmental problems, modern society needs to form a new system of environmental relations, where international relations will be transformed towards giving the highest priority to the problem of environ[1]mental safety, including the primary requirements concerning the rational use of all natural objects: land, waters, forests, etc. in order to ensure the optimal possibility of realizing the ecological function of nature.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. The preservation of the natural environment is a complex task that requires not only legislative regulation at both the international and domestic levels, but also the formation of a correct public consciousness about its importance for the existence of all life on our Planet, the unity of ecosystems and the value of all components of the natural environment, which, among other things, will allow the world community to unite in ensuring cooperation on global environmental issues, creating a system of universal environmental safety.

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