Current legal issues of digitalization of environmental protection: a view from Russia

The article deals with the generally accepted category of digitalization with respect to the goals and objectives of legal protection of the environment. In terms of the Russian legislation and the scientific doctrine, it is proved that public authorities pay the main attention to economic and technological aspects of digitalization, which does not meet the basic environmental needs of the modern state and society. The authors propose a classification of the main digitalization areas of environmental protection, including the industry, agriculture, transport, waste management, organization of environmental monitoring, etc. They note that, despite all its obvious advantages, digitalization also poses a particular threat to the environment, which requires a range of preventive measures. Since national legal systems pay now insufficient attention to the regulation of the use of digital technologies in the area of environmental protection, the authors propose a range of measures to develop the national environmental legislation.