Environmental Governance and Environmental Management: Current Retrospective of Trends

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the Russian-language concept of “environmental governance” and the term “environmental management”, which came from the English lexicon and has become established in the professional domestic vocabulary over time. It demonstrates the inadmissibility of considering them as analogues or multilingual synonyms and indicates the role and place of environmental management in the practice of environmental governance from a historical aspect. The main stages of its formation and development trends in public and corporate management regarding the interaction between nature and society are analysed. Particular attention is paid to the detailed formation of environmental management at the national level in various countries of the world and the establishment of corporate environmental management as a structural component of national environmental governance systems or environmental regulation. The logical nature of the increase in the importance of corporate environmental management in modern conditions, the expansion of functions and strengthening of its influence is noted. Environmental management from a subordinate management system, the main purpose of which was to ensure the company’s compliance with the framework of environmental impact established by the state, is transformed into a tool that determines the strategy and tactics of the company’s development in accordance with the principles of sustainable development and the “green” economy.