The improvement of tools and mechanisms for environmental management is an urgent task. Economic methods of regulation of economic activity in terms of environmental safety must ensure the observance of various interests: enterprises – in making a profit, employees of these enterprises – in safe working conditions, the state – in obtaining environmental taxes and fees, the population living in the zone of enterprises – in the environment. The authors consider the methodological aspects of calculating and charging for a negative impact on the environment in the Russian Federation. They analyze the effectiveness of payments for a negative impact on the environment as regulating the activities of industrial enterprises. The article proposes ways to improve the economic mechanism for promoting environmental management, in particular, ways to increase the incentive function of payment for a negative impact on the environment. Purpose. Development of science-based approaches to increase the payment for negative impact on the environment, followed by the targeted use of recovered funds. Methodology: the article uses the dialectical method as a General scientific method of cognition, methods of statistical, system, comparative, economic and financial analysis. Results: improved method of calculation of payment for negative impact on the environment, characterized by the effect of unidirectional action (summation effect) of pollutants on the human body. Practical implications: the proposed method should be used to calculate the payment for the negative impact of economic entities that emit pollutants into the environment, which have a joint negative effect on the critical organs and systems of the human body.