Eco-efficiency of regional development: strategical planning with DEA

Despite the implementation of the national “Ecology” project, attempts to develop low-carbon energy and transport, the implementation of “garbage reform” and other measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of the economy on the environment, the eco-efficiency of production systems in Russia remains low. In this paper, we propose a new approach to solving the problems of comparative assessment of the effectiveness of regional environmental management systems (R-EMS), taking into account the structural heterogeneity of the regional economies. The developed approach includes the simultaneous solution of two DEA tasks, one of which is formulated to assess the eco-efficiency of the region’s economy, and the other to assess the efficiency of spending funds aimed at protecting the environment in the region. As a result of solving two problems, the researcher receives a large amount of information that can be used in developing strategies for regional development. In particular, the information obtained can be used to develop measures to stimulate the activities of regional authorities in the field of environmental management and increase their responsibility for the effectiveness of environmental protection measures. The proposed approach was tested on the example of solving the problem of comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the R-EMSs in Russia in the period 2015-2019. However, the method developed by us is not tied to specific territories and can be used to conduct similar studies in other countries and regions.