ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS AS AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGULATION INSTRUMENT OF BUSINESS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL SPHERE

The article is devoted to the problem of determining the boundaries of normative regulation of a green economy, sustainable development, establishing a balance between the need to preserve nature and economic activity. The research is based on methods: dialectical, economic and statistical, comparative legal, empirical, expert assessment, monographic description. The article substantiates the international standards system role for achieving the goals of sustainable economic development, its importance and significance for improving the system of international mechanisms and instruments of environmental legal regulation. The authors investigate the issues of sustainable development; defining the boundaries of regulatory regulation of the green economy; identifying a balance between the need to preserve nature and economic activity; the importance of regulatory documents that determine the rules of business conduct in the environmental sphere; the need to unify the legal regulation of environmental relations at the international level; integration of sustainable development principles into the environmental policy of nation states; introduction of universal environmental standards. The article analyzes the international standards of the ISO 14000 family and their use in modern corporate practice. It is substantiated that due to the processes of globalization and integration of national economies, there is a need to unify the legal framework for regulating environmental relations at the international level. All these issues have become more relevant during the COVID-19, as, due to the ensuing economic crisis, states postponed the introduction of new, more stringent environmental standards, which could require significant financial costs to modernize industrial production.