Clean air and water: how Ukraine and the EU are fighting for the environment?

For clean air and water. Ukraine is also fighting for the environment together with the EU. However, for now, only on paper. It declares ambitious plans but does not give money to industrialists for modernization.

And abroad, they want to introduce an additional tax for those with high emissions. What does this threaten Ukraine with? And what assistance are government officials preparing?

The European Union has agreed to save nature - it wants to live on a climate-neutral continent.

"There is a dual task. On the one hand, to reduce existing emissions. On the other hand, to introduce such environmental measures that will neutralize the CO2 that is emitted," says Lyudmyla Tsyganok, president of the Professional Association of Environmentalists of Ukraine.

A lot of money is needed - a trillion euros.

They want to grow vegetables and fruits without pesticides and antibiotics. Transport goods - not by cars, but by rail or sea. We all have to switch to electric cars, so more charging stations need to be built for them. And also - plant forests and breed animals. But factories must reduce emissions to a minimum. All in all - 30 years.

Ukraine is also ready to fight for clean air. But for now, the government is not helping in any way. And businesses themselves cannot cope.

"Unlike European enterprises, Ukrainian enterprises are forced to carry out environmental modernization exclusively at their own expense," says Vladyslav Antypov, CEO of the Center for Ecology and Development of New Technologies.

If everything remains as it is, we will pay Europeans for dirty air. They want to introduce a carbon tax on imported goods. It will be paid by those who have not had time to clean up their production. In a year, our companies will have to pay about half a billion euros. Because of this, their goods will also become more expensive.

"We will sell fewer products, we will receive less money. Enterprises will be able to invest less, in particular, in environmental protection measures," says Oleksandr Kalenkov, president of the "Ukrmetalurgprom" association of enterprises.