Methodological approaches to the assessment of environmental and economic damage resulting from an accidental spill of petroleum products in the Black Sea

The environmental responsibility of a business implies the obligation of a business to conduct its activities in such a way as to preserve the environment for future generations. “responsibility” also implies a willingness to pay for damage caused to the natural environment as a result of economic activities, emergencies, accidents, etc. today, the assessment of damage resulting from accidental oil and petroleum product spills remains an urgent problem, which should cover not only environmental damage, but also economic, social and image (reputational) damage. The authors propose an approach to a comprehensive assessment of environmental and economic damage based on the analysis and comparison of various methods and methodological recommendations. The purpose of this article is to conduct a critical review of existing methods for assessing damage caused to the environment, residents and the economy of regions, and to justify the choice of the most appropriate concepts for assessing environmental and economic damage caused by a spill of petroleum products in the Black Sea. When writing the article, various methods of theoretical and empirical research were used. the theoretical significance of the work lies in the fact that the authors have developed a schematic diagram of the ecological and economic damage caused to the environment, and also proposed approaches to damage assessment, taking into account not only socio-economic and environmental approaches, but also from the point of view of compensation for reputational losses. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that these approaches can be used to assess the environmental and economic damage caused by the oil spill in the Black Sea in December 2024. As a result of the study, a comprehensive assessment of the damage caused was proposed, including economic damage caused to economic facilities in the form of losses and profit losses, environmental damage, image damage to the region (reputational damage). The paper suggests indicators for assessing the region’s image losses, which are based on socio-economic development strategies.