GREEN INNOVATIONS IN REGIONAL ECONOMY

Nowadays, the concept of innovation is a generally accepted approach to promoting sustainable development. However, the continuing deterioration of the environment, the rapid changes in external conditions in relation to science and innovation, and the need for regions to switch to a green economy, determine the need for scientific search in the field of "correct" innovations, organically integrating social, economic and environmental imperatives. This kind of innovation is known as green innovation. Innovation and entrepreneurship are needed to utilize new technologies towards a sustainable society. Eco-innovation and green technologies play an essential role for: greener economic and social development, economic growth, improved productivity and competitiveness, and improved quality of life. The purpose of the article is to describe the regional context of the promotion of "green" innovations and an analysis of the main trends and factors influencing this process. The authors used the analysis of statistical and analytical data, a comparative analysis of the experience of different countries, considered the types of "green" innovations, their dynamics and factors of development. A structural model of a regional eco-innovation system is proposed. The research highlights the special status of green innovations in regional development, based on their specific characteristics, such as the ability to create public environmental benefits, manifestation of positive external effects, including network effects, the ability to convert environmental and economic benefits into significant social effects, hybrid and multiplicative. Ecological innovations, developing in a quantitative and qualitative format, can become a backbone component of a regional innovation system and at the same time a source of technological, structural, and institutional changes during the transition to sustainable regional development.