Development of Green Business as an Approach to Financing the Greening of Economy

The issues of green economy development are in the focus of attention of Russian and foreign scientists. Its formation was influenced by environmental activities financing sources. The article presents the description of budgetary and extra-budgetary environmental protection financing. Special attention is paid to the need to strengthen private financial support of environmentally determined activities, which can be implemented as part of development of ecopreneurship. The purpose of this article is to identify the trends in budgetary and extra-budgetary environmental protection financing and resource conservation in the Russian Federation and to rationalize theoretically the necessity of business participation in financing of environment-related business ideas, which is aimed at supporting the greening of economic activity at the regional level. The methods of empirical and statistical research, systematization and generalization of information have been used. SWOT analysis has identified the strengths and weaknesses of green business, as well as the opportunities for and threats to its development. The study systematizes the information on the sources of financing of environment-related activities, identifies their strengths and weaknesses, and analyzes statistical data on financial aspects of environmental protection. It has been established that the financing of environmental activities in the regions is carried out according to the residual principle; most of the sources of environment financing are unavailable to economic entities; indirect assistance in the implementation of environment-related management finds absolutely no application. The material presented in this paper can be used by public authorities in the development of measures to facilitate the transition to green economy and may also be applicable in the educational process. The authors conclude that the successful transition of Russian regions to the path of sustainable economic development depends on the development in their territories of small and medium enterprises investing in activities focused on environment-related production revenues, environmental services and environmental managemen