Problems of Legal Assessment of Integrated Environmental Risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt

The Silk Road Economic Belt has played a key role in shaping international trade relations since ancient times until today. In recent years, the particularities of the country’s involvement in the Silk Road Initiative have been exacerbated by environmental concerns and the emergence of legislative disagreements in the aspect of environmental risk management. It is for this reason that the issue of the legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt remains relevant. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and establish the problems of legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt, using Kazakhstan as an example, and to identify measures to address them. It has been determined that environmental protection in the Silk Road Economic Belt dimension is not legally backed up, and that all provisions, conventions and so on are voluntary in nature. Using the integrative method, it is the compliance with all national environmental legislation, the implementation of the Aarhus Convention provisions, the construction of a specialised information resource in Kazakhstan with current information on Silk Road projects, the development and introduction of legislative changes towards increasing the rates of environmental risk insurance in the country, have been established as the main measures to address the legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt in Kazakhstan. Thus, the practical significance of the study is that the measures identified to address the problems of legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt can be used by the Kazakh authorities in the aspect of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.