Experts of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG) analyzed the draft action plan aimed at implementing the Environmental Compact for Ukraine. The environmentalists of the UPG concluded that the implementation of the points of this plan will neither help to reduce the environmental consequences of Russia's military aggression nor ensure the environmental restoration of Ukraine.
A detailed analysis of the plan is available on the UPG website.
The main message that the UPG experts wanted to convey is as follows: The Ministry of Environment has taken a completely formal approach to the development of the Plan: 50 recommendations of the High Level Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War have been turned into 50 formal tasks that are not capable of reducing the environmental consequences of the war, let alone contributing to the environmental restoration of Ukraine.
Among the general comments and observations, the environmentalists of the environmental group noted the following:
- For each recommendation, a detailed action plan aimed at achieving it should be developed. Instead, in the draft Plan, in most cases, only one measure is developed for each recommendation.
- The Plan should reflect the results that are planned to be achieved through the proposed activities, not intermediate steps.
- Since the cross-cutting themes related to all recommendations are inclusiveness, full trust of the Ukrainian people, the Concept of "Planetary Boundaries", the Plan must be developed with the participation of all interested parties.
- The plan should include practical measures to collect and analyze information about the consequences of Russian aggression on the environment, not just the development of regulations and correspondence between state authorities and international organizations.
Specialists note that the planned measures in some places directly contradict the recommendations prescribed in the Environmental Treaty for Ukraine. For example, Recommendation 42 of the Environmental Treaty defined the obligation of OVD and SEA for all projects, plans and programs. And the planned event in the Plan mandates the development of mechanisms for deviating from OVD and SEO.
In addition, the Environmental Agreement clearly states that an example of a project that requires a transparent assessment with the involvement of independent experts is the possible rebuilding of the Kakhovskaya HPP. But the Plan clearly states that the possible rebuilding of the Kakhovskaya HPP should be excluded from all possible assessments.
"Obviously, during the development of the Plan, the ministry forgot about the priority of environmental issues, which are the cross-cutting themes of all the recommendations of the Environmental Treaty for Ukraine," the UPG stated.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War developed and presented the Environmental Compact for Ukraine (Environmental Compact), which is a road map for holding Russia accountable and restoring the environment. The document has 30 recommendations for Ukraine and 20 for the world community.
Later, EcoPolitic reported that control over the green recovery of Ukraine is proposed to be given to the Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyridenko.
