The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Environmental Management recommended that the Parliament adopt in the second reading and in general bill No. 11355 "On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution."
This was reported by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
This bill implements the European 2010/75/ЄS Directive and aims to launch a green recovery of Ukrainian industry using the best available technologies and management methods (NDTM).
Its adoption is one of the conditions for obtaining EU membership, as well as one of the indicators of the Plan for the implementation of the Ukraine Facility program, which provides for financial support of Ukraine from the EU for €50 billion.
The industrial pollution management reform is one of the 6 reforms under Section 15 "Green Transition and Environmental Protection" of the Plan for Ukraine Facility.
Experts from the environmental community and the industrial sector recognize the importance and relevance of draft law No. 11355 "On integrated prevention and control of industrial pollution", but warn of a number of caveats regarding this document. As two main shortcomings, they named its inconsistency with the wartime conditions in which enterprises have to work, as well as the lack of state financial support for the transition of national enterprises to European work standards and the implementation of the best available technologies and management methods (BTM).
About this, in particular, said in the Association of the Extractive Industry of Ukraine:
"The draft law does not take into account the real economic situation in Ukraine, which has suffered greatly due to the war. [...] European enterprises received at least €803.5 billion in state aid from EU structural funds [for eco-modernization – ed.] in the period 2000-2022, of which almost €200 billion was allocated only in 2021-2022"
In a comment that EcoPolitics took from the Director General of the Center for Ecology and Development of New Technologies, Vladyslav Antipov, he noted:
"War, constant shelling, blackouts are only part of the problems that Ukrainian industrial enterprises are currently facing. And there is also a lack of funding, a lack of labor, a lack of foreign technologies and experts, and many other factors that do not add to optimism about the possibility of transitioning to NDTM within the time limits set by [the draft law – ed.]."
The expert emphasized that the financing of large-scale environmental projects, which must be implemented for the transition to NDTM, remains a major issue. He stated that many Ukrainian industries are currently operating either on the verge of profitability or even in the red.
"Enterprises do not have their own funds for such large-scale investments, and it is simply impossible to attract foreign financing for a plant over which missiles fly every day," Antipov stated.
Ludmila Tsyganok, president of the Association of Environmental Professionals PAEW, agrees with him. In a comment for EcoPolitics, she noted that in the previous draft law No. 6004-d, for which the Verkhovna Rada failed to vote, the time limit for the implementation of new environmental standards was precisely set before the end of the war. And the new draft law No. 11355 already talks about clear deadlines without taking into account the amendments for the end of the war.
"Perhaps our people's deputies know when the war will end, but it looks quite strange. That is, we close our eyes to the whole situation around us," she said.
As previously reported by EcoPolitic, on June 20 Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted as a basis the project of the Law "On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution" No. 11355. We also analyzed the draft law and identified flaws in it, which may lead to the closure of some enterprises and the collapse of the permit system.
