Last week, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Improvement of the Mechanism for Regulation of Air Pollutant Emissions."
Atmospheric air pollution by industrial emissions has always worried society, because it leads to a large number of premature deaths in Ukraine. Most of the enterprises were built during the times of the Soviet Union and did not change to new standards and regulations during independence. The post-war reconstruction of Ukraine should already take place according to new rules, and this Law introduces these new rules.
Therefore, this Law makes the following changes:
- Increases public participation in emissions permitting decisions.
Yes, the enterprise will have to publish in the local print media a notice of the intention to obtain a permit for emissions. After that, public organizations and individual citizens can send their comments to the local state administration. And this is not a formality: among the documents required for obtaining a permit will be a notification from the state administration about the presence or absence of such comments;
- A time limit is established and the impossibility of transferring the implementation of environmental protection measures approved by the emission permit by economic entities;
- Another important thing is that permission can be obtained if there is an environmental impact assessment report. In this way, we use the European approach of assessing the environmental impact of planned activities, which makes it possible to prevent harmful consequences from management.
- Also, the adopted Law contains a norm on the need to create regional programs to improve the state of the environment. They will become the basis for the organization of measures to restore it in the regions after the war.
It is important that the term of the measures specified in the permit cannot exceed 10 years from the date of their approval - and this term is not extended. It is necessary to finally stop the widespread practice, when business entities prefer to avoid fulfilling their environmental obligations, instead turning to the permitting authorities for obtaining new permits for emissions with postponement of the deadlines for the implementation of environmental protection measures.
There are many other things in the Act that modernize the outdated Air Protection Act of 1992. For example, this applies to the definition of the term "background concentrations of pollutants in atmospheric air" - which is important for establishing standards for maximum permissible emissions.
Therefore, the adopted Law lays the foundation for the post-war reconstruction of the country according to new rules and standards.
