The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has developed and presented a draft law “On the Principles of Green Recovery of Ukraine.”
The text of the document and an explanatory note can be found on the official website of the ministry at the link.
On the day of publication, the Ministry of Environmental Protection also held an event to familiarize the public and international partners with its vision for the green recovery of Ukraine.
Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Svitlana Grynychuk emphasized that this is only the first draft of the bill and called on experts to actively participate in its discussion and provide their suggestions regarding its content and substance.
The head of the ministry hopes that by autumn, the draft law “On the Principles of Green Recovery of Ukraine” will be ready for submission to the Verkhovna Rada, as well as agreed upon and taking into account the interests of all stakeholders. She is confident that the document will definitely change before then.
Why was it necessary to develop the draft law “On the Principles of Green Recovery of Ukraine”?
Since there were many different opinions and views both within our country and among our international partners on what green recovery actually is, it was necessary to create a draft law that would establish a corresponding definition and related concepts. In addition, there is currently a great need for principles and methodologies for assessing the sustainability of projects.
It is expected that such certainty will help attract investment in the recovery of our country.
Those present at the presentation, both offline and online, had many questions for the speakers — we note that this topic is of great interest to the active part of society. Among those present were many representatives of leading environmental NGOs.
What this document is about
The draft law “On the Principles of Green Recovery of Ukraine” contains seven sections consisting of 36 articles and a section 8 with transitional provisions.
Section one contains:
- definitions of terms;
- general requirements for recovery;
- principles and objectives of green recovery;
- powers of authorities in the field of green recovery.
Section two is devoted to the mechanism for assessing sustainability in the recovery process and defines four criteria (conditions) for sustainability and explains their meaning.
Section three defines the concept of sustainable (green) financial products and the requirements for their assessment and placement on the financial services market. The sustainability assessment of financial services is voluntary for financial services market participants.
Section four describes the specifics of developing and implementing sustainability assessments for recovery measures, in particular large public investment projects.
Section five defines the basic principles of good governance in the field of green recovery in Ukraine, including ensuring the transparency of this process.
Section six establishes the specifics of the recovery of individual objects and territories, in particular critical infrastructure objects, significantly destroyed settlements, and natural objects.
Section seven defines the mechanism for strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation of Ukraine's green recovery from the effects of Russian aggression in the form of the National Strategy for Green Recovery of Ukraine and action plans for its implementation. These documents will be developed later.
Source: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine.
Green recovery goals
Article 5 provides an exhaustive list of six items:
- mitigation of climate change;
- adaptation to climate change;
- water protection and sustainable use of water resources;
- transition to a circular economy;
- pollution prevention and control;
- restoration and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems.
Source: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine.
Sustainability assessment in the recovery process
According to Article 7 of the draft law, the objects of sustainability assessment are:
- financial products;
- recovery measures with an expected value (financing) exceeding €5 million.
Economic activity will be considered sustainable (“green”) if it:
- makes a significant contribution to achieving one or more of the objectives set out in Article 5 of this Law;
- does not cause significant harm to any of the objectives set out in Article 5 of this Law;
- meets the technical criteria established in accordance with Article 17 of this Law;
- meets the minimum social guarantees specified in Article 18 of this Law.
Economic activity will be considered sustainable if all four conditions are met.
It is expected that recovery entities will be able to voluntarily assess the sustainability of recovery measures, and the procedure for doing so will be approved separately by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a later date.
Financial services market participants will conduct sustainability assessments of financial products independently, without state involvement. They will be required to publish the results of such assessments.
The results of the sustainability assessment will be verified.
The specifics of conducting sustainability assessments of public investment projects are shown in the infographic:
Source: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine.
Source: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine.
The advantages of applying the green investment mechanism are shown below:
Source: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine.
In addition, it is proposed to create a new advisory body under the President of Ukraine – the National Council for Green Recovery of Ukraine. It will be a temporary consultative and advisory body that will submit proposals on the formation and implementation of state policy on green recovery and evaluate the effectiveness of the National Strategy for Green Recovery of Ukraine and plans for its implementation.
The Council will include representatives of central executive bodies, associations of local self-government bodies and their voluntary associations, public associations, self-regulatory organizations, organizations engaged in professional self-government, charitable and religious organizations.
Recently, EcoPolitic reported that Ukraine could potentially create 1.2 million “green” jobs.
