In 2022, the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management held 40 meetings, at which people's deputies submitted 13 draft laws and 2 draft resolutions to the Verkhovna Rada. However, some documents were approved without discussion. Also, during the year, personnel changes took place in the eco-committee, and some of its members got into scandals.
Read more about the results of the committee's work in 2022 in the article of EcoPolitic.
Legislation
In annual report of the eco-committee for 2022, it is noted that the Verkhovna Rada adopted 16 laws prepared by the eco-committee. Including:
- Law No. 5723 "On the nationwide targeted social program "Drinking water of Ukraine" for 2022-2026". It is designed to ensure the development and reconstruction of centralized water supply and drainage systems, as well as high-quality drinking water for the population in sufficient quantity;
- Law No. 2207-1-d "On waste management", who launched the "junk" reform and implementation of European norms;
- Law No. 5650 "On the preservation of forests" for the preservation of self-seeded forests;
- Law No. 5339 "On improvement of the mechanism of regulation of pollutant emissions into atmospheric air". Document sets: basic requirements for obtaining a permit for emissions of polluting substances into atmospheric air by stationary sources, the mechanism for issuing a permit for emissions from equipment subject to the regulation of the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment", etc. However, as the president of the Professional Association of Environmentalists of Ukraine (PAEU) Lyudmila Tsyganok noted, the document further regulates the scope of permits and complicates the restoration of destroyed enterprises and infrastructure after the end of martial law;
- Law No. 6477 "On the national register of emissions and transfer of pollutants". This European integration law implements the provisions of EU Regulation No. 166/2006 and will provide an opportunity for everyone to familiarize themselves with the company's environmental information ;
- Law No. 5159 "On the procedure for carrying out a strategic environmental assessment", which introduces liability for violations strategic eco-assessment;
- Law No. 4187 "On improving legislation in the field of subsoil use", which is designed to create a transparent, simple and understandable system of subsoil use, as well as to reduce excessive state influence on the industry. Pavlo Yakymenko, a member of the eco-committee, noted that the reform of subsoil use will become the foundation for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. It will make the industry attractive for investment, the rules – clear and predictable, and the activities of subsoil users – transparent and fast;
- Law No. 8037 "On ensuring chemical safety and management of chemical products", which will bring the chemical market in line with European standards.
Among the accepted documents was one of the most long-awaited draft law No. 2207-1-d "About waste management". Before its adoption, the sphere functioned according to the norms 1998.
"Everyone who is involved in this field knows how difficult it was to adopt this law, to submit it, to consider it in two convocations. The law itself is a compromise on the part of business, authorities and those stakeholders who were involved in the adoption and development of this law." said Oleg Bondarenko, head of the eco-committee.
Draft law No. 2207-1-d was developed deputy chairman of the ecocommittee Oleksandr Marikovskyi together with the team. While working on the document the people's deputy accused the environmental committee and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of sabotaging work in relation to him. And Marikovsky was accused of delaying the garbage reform and not publishing the document. He also had conflict with Oleg Bondorenko. In January 2022, the eco-committee suspended Marikovsky from work on draft law No. 2207-1d, which was finalized by People's Deputy Pavlo Yakymenko.
Yevgenia Aratovska, the founder and head of the "Ukraine without garbage" initiative, called the rapid adoption of the draft law, a week after the meeting of the environmental committee, a manipulation. In her opinion, the document contains a number of corruption norms, allows the burial of waste, establishes a monopoly of carriers and other contradictory provisions.
Ecocommittee and business
Coordinator of the Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development Committee of the European Business Association Olga Boyko in her blog on MIND UA told that the business community highly appreciates the government's steps to support businesses that continued to operate despite the war. The leaders of the Ministry of Environment and the Eco Committee were among the first to offer their support to the business.
Thus, for deregulation until the end of martial law, it is established:
- moratorium on scheduled environmental inspections (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 303). This suspended work on the draft law No. 3091 "On environmental control" and forced the eco-committee to revise the document fundamentally;
- obtaining environmental permits was converted into a declarative format (CMU Resolution No. 314);
- deadlines for submitting environmental reports have been postponed (Law No. 2115);
- the introduction of new environmental standards for the metallurgy and glass industry has been postponed (CMU Resolution No. 1341);
- it was possible not to pay eco-taxes to enterprises located in war zones or under occupation (Law No. 2120-IX and CMU Resolution No. 1364).
However, the eco-committee could not fully adapt to the realities of the war.
As Boyko noted, Ukraine still does not regulated procedure environmental impact assessment (EIA). Enterprises go through all stages of the EIA, despite the serious risks to the life and health of employees, because deviations from the procedure can become grounds for recognizing the EIA conclusion as invalid. In fact, EIA is currently carried out in manual mode.
Tsyganok also emphasized that the gaps in the EIA procedure, among other things, slowed down Ukraine's exit from the fuel crisis in the spring of 2022. The main comments of PAEU specialists regarding the procedure were:
- the terms of its implementation;
- non-compliance with EC directives;
- lack of proper monitoring of the effectiveness of the procedure;
- corruption component.
In addition, in 2022, the process of monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions as part of the creation of the greenhouse quota trading market was somewhat suspended.
"Sharp corners"
Boyko emphasized that in 2022, a number of "dubious initiatives" were approved, in particular, Resolution No. 836 of the CMU without public discussion. The resolution increases the subsurface user's "entry threshold" to the market and increases his subsequent costs.
Among the controversial initiatives, she also mentioned the adoption of draft law No. 5339 "About improvement of the mechanism of regulation of emissions of pollutants into atmospheric air". The document contains elements of the reforms of industrial pollution and state environmental control that have not yet been adopted.
Boyko explained that in addition to the suspension of the permit without a court and forced eco-modernization within a short period determined by the state without the right of postponement, enterprises are forced to submit an opinion from the EIA, even if the enterprise began to work long before the appearance of this procedure, and are obliged to install automated emission monitoring systems. These obligations should still be postponed for post-war times.
Personnel changes
On October 6, the Verkhovna Rada voted for changes in the quantitative and personal composition of parliamentary committees. Marikovsky became a member of the Committee on Economic Development. From October 24, new members of the eco-committee became Viktor Chornyi, Sergey Magera, Valentina Korolenko, and Sokha Roman.
During his work in the EcoCommittee, Marikovsky became a participant in several scandals with other people's deputies. He blamed the people's deputy Anton Yatsenko in personal interest in delaying the adoption of the draft law "On waste". And also Yatsenko and the people's deputy Oleksandr Yurchenko in support of ineffective reforms during the preparation of an alternative version of draft law No. 2207-1-d.
These were the main results of the work of the ecocommittee in 2022. Despite a number of controversial initiatives and wartime challenges, the committee was able to continue its activities and pass several important laws. This shows that there is an understanding of the need to reform the environmental policy of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukraine.
