The Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt in the second reading and as a whole draft law No. 6004-d "On ensuring the constitutional rights of citizens to an environment safe for life and health" ("On industrial pollution").
The document is intended to launch the processes of green reconstruction and eco-modernization of industry in Ukraine, reports the
It is noted that the adoption of the document will trigger the gradual transition of national enterprises to European standards and the introduction of the best available technologies and management methods (BATM). It will also bring Ukraine closer to EU membership, contribute to economic growth and decrease negative impact on the environment.
"The implementation of the reform and the transition to BATM will open the door to attracting investments in the green reconstruction of Ukraine. After all, one of the conditions under which international partners are ready to invest in Ukrainian projects is the achievement of environmental standards," said Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Viktoriya Kireeva.
The message added that the document will allow the implementation of the European Directive 2010/75/EU and start the long-awaited reform of reduction and control of industrial pollution in Ukraine. This is one of the country's obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU.
It is noted that Ukrainian industry will have almost 12 years to transition to new technologies:
- 1 year – for the implementation of the draft law;
- 4 years – for putting into effect the conclusions of BATM;
- 7 years – for the possibility of a retreat to achieve EU standards.
As you know, the draft law also provides for obtaining an integrated online permit in the direction of the environment, which, according to officials, will significantly reduce the bureaucratic pressure on business. The permit will combine permits for waste management, special water use, and air emissions. In addition, it will allow:
- the public – to participate in the issuance of permits, which prevents abuse;
- state structures – to comprehensively monitor and prevent industrial pollution, because all data will be digitized, which will simplify their analytics.
It is worth noting that the document was criticized by the public. So according to experts European Business Association Provisions regarding:
- transition to a new permit system, because the process of collecting documents is quite complicated and lengthy and does not take into account the realities of war;
- preservation of current technological standards when issuing new integrated permits, which will be based on current emission standards for those installations that are economically impractical or impossible to modernize, and which have a limited service life;
- revision of the requirements for the installation of automated emission monitoring systems (AMS), in particular, to exclude from the obligation to install AMS on installations that are planned to be completely decommissioned within a short period of time (2-3 years) after the law comes into force.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, on May 29, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading draft law No. 6004-d "On ensuring the constitutional rights of citizens to an environment safe for life and health", which provides for the reform of industrial pollution.
