The government approved 21 regulatory acts in the field of environmental protection at its meeting.
For the first time in Ukraine's history, the Cabinet of Ministers has simultaneously supported such a large number of initiatives aimed at environmental protection.
One of the important documents adopted is the draft Law of Ukraine "On Preventing, Reducing, and Controlling Industrial Pollution." It implements most of the provisions of Directive 2010/75/EC, which aims to introduce an optimized, transparent, and progressive approach to controlling and reducing industrial pollution. The implementation of the directive's rules is one of Ukraine's obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU.
"The draft law provides for the introduction of an integrated permit for large enterprises that are the biggest polluters of the environment. These include, in particular, enterprises in the energy sector, metal production and processing, processing, mineral raw materials, chemical industry, etc.," said the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Roman Abramovsky.
When issuing an integrated permit, the impact of the enterprise on the environment as a whole will be taken into account. Limit values for emissions will be determined based on the conclusions of the best available techniques and management methods (BATs).
On the way to achieving climate neutrality, the Government has approved a number of other regulatory acts in the field of climate policy. In particular, changes were adopted to the Regulations for the restoration and expansion of the work of the Interdepartmental Commission on Climate Change and Ozone Layer Protection. In fulfillment of Ukraine's obligations under the Paris Agreement and the Association Agreement with the EU.
In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved three regulatory acts regarding the launch of a system for monitoring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas emissions. They will contribute to strengthening control over enterprise reporting in the field of greenhouse gas emissions. The introduced system is the first step towards launching a greenhouse gas emissions trading system.
"With the establishment of the process, the state will gain a clear understanding of the actual volume of emissions, and thus will be able to effectively plan appropriate policies, fulfill its commitments, and stimulate enterprises to introduce new technologies," emphasized Roman Abramovsky.
The "environmental" Cabinet of Ministers approved two regulatory acts concerning the use of subsoil. In particular: "On the approval of the Procedure for conducting auctions for the sale of special permits for the use of subsoil and recognizing some resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as invalid." The adopted resolution improved legislation to improve the investment climate in the field of subsoil use, introduced innovative methods for state management in the field of geological exploration and rational use of subsoil, and introduced a transparent mechanism for selling special permits for subsoil use at auctions.
A separate document also changed the mechanism for determining the initial sale price at auction of a special permit for the right to use subsoil.
As part of a powerful environmental block, the Government supported a number of other regulatory acts aimed at environmental protection.