The Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management recommended that the Verkhovna Rada support a number of environmental draft laws.
Among them is government draft law No. 9194 "On strengthening responsibility for violations of legislative requirements in the field of registration of emissions and transfer of pollutants and waste", reports the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
It is noted that the document provides for the following changes:
- supplementing the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses with a new article on the liability of plant operators for failure to submit or untimely submission of a report, provision of unreliable data, non-disclosure of information, etc.;
- making changes to the administrative code regarding supervisory powers in this area by the State Inspectorate and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
In addition, the ecocommittee recommended supporting draft law No. 0204 "On ratification of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Additional protocol on liability and compensation to the Cartagena protocol on biosafety", which was introduced by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
The document will give Ukraine the opportunity to hire representatives of fauna from foreign partners to restore and support protected areas and ensure biodiversity.
"Preservation and protection of Ukrainian biodiversity is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Environment, which has taken on new meanings in the conditions of martial law. After all, due to the actions of the terrorist state, the Ukrainian flora and fauna, which makes up more than a third of the entire biodiversity of Europe, can suffer great losses," said the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets.
He explained that the ratification of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Additional Protocol is an important step for the preservation of Ukraine's nature. The document was signed back in 2011, but ratified only 12 years later.
"The implementation of this protocol will introduce international mechanisms to compensate for the damage to biodiversity and human health caused by the negative impact of GMOs [genetically modified organisms]," explained Strelets.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the eco-committee recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt as a basis, with the committee's proposals, the government draft law No. 6349 "On improving the procedure for conducting environmental audits", which was widely criticized by the public.
