Abstract:
Environmental cooperation is an integral part of Russian-Chinese cooperation. Russia and
China pay attention to environmental policy issues, but these issues are not a priority; much more attention is paid to cooperation in the economic, energy, political, financial,
and military spheres. In China, environmental policy became part of public policy quite
late - only in the early 1980s, and its leading institutions were formed in the 1990s. Today,
China actively participates in numerous international environmental forums and conferences. Between Russia and the PRC, bilateral agreements on cooperation in
environmental protection were concluded; however, these documents are declarative, and
they have not developed the mechanisms of the bilateral decision of cross-border
problems. These moments were exposed, for example, during large-scale pollution of the
Amur River in November 2005, caused by an accident at a petrochemical plant in Jilin
City, China. In general, the close proximity of Russian territories to China hurts the
environment. It creates a threat to environmental safety in the transboundary zone of
Russia and China in the Far East. In addition to illegal deforestation and river pollution,
China’s proximity creates severe environmental problems for Russia, such as illicit trade
in parts of rare animals and plants, illegal extraction of marine biological resources, and
pollution of the sea. The existing problems are caused, among other things, by imperfect
Russian legislation in the environmental protection field. However, there are opportunities
for environmental cooperation between the two countries, and they require careful analysis
and practical implementation.
