“Despite some progress in harmonizing national legislation with EU norms, access of Ukrainian citizens to environmental information during the war remains difficult.”, — write: www.ukrinform.ua
During the presentation of the results of the study “Access to environmental information in Ukraine during the war” in Ukrinform, the head of the NGO SaveDnipro, Iryna Chernysh, said this.
It is noted that EU directives and other documents related to access to environmental information were analyzed, as well as Ukrainian legislation and the actual access of citizens to such information since the beginning of the war were evaluated.
In the course of monitoring, 209 sets of environmental data from 74 managers (according to Resolution No. 835) for the period 2022–2024 were examined. Only 38% of these sets were found to be open access.
Thus, all managers were grouped by type of authority into ministries, departments, State Administration (OVA) and city councils of regional centers. In particular, the ministries turned out to be more closed – 33.8% of data sets are open, while State Administrations publish 44.4% of sets, departments – 43.9%, and city councils of regional centers the least – only 25.9%.
According to the rating of openness of the largest managers (more than 10 sets of environmental open data that are published properly), the State Energy Agency and the State Production and Consumer Service lead the way (70% and 63.6%, respectively), while the Ministry of Energy is the most closed at 5.9%
In addition to the conclusions of the European Commission, Iryna Chernysh emphasized that the broad concept of “environmental information” complicates its legal regulation. In addition, insufficient awareness of the owners of environmental information regarding their protection, as well as low compliance, create additional obstacles.
Read also: Environmentalistsdisaster in the Black Sea: Russian tankers were sunk in the wintering grounds of dolphins In addition, problems with access to environmental information are associated with a lack of technical capabilities for high-quality data processing and publication.
Research experts recommend unifying the terminology in the law of Ukraine on access to public information in accordance with the Aarhus Convention, as well as providing for alternative methods for submitting a request for access to information (written, oral, or in another form at the requester’s choice).
Also, it is necessary to determine the entry into force of the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the State Environmental Monitoring System, Information on the State of the Environment (Environmental Information) and Information Support for Environmental Management” from January 1, 2025.
Instead, Bohdan Semenenko, director of the Department of Industrial Pollution Prevention and Climate Policy of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, noted that before the full-scale invasion, most environmental data was open, but it did not meet EU standards.
According to him, for European integration, it is first necessary to improve the terminology and ensure high quality data, then they can be made available taking into account the impact on the current situation in the country.
As reported, the organization of international lawyers Global Rights Compliance emphasized that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been striking critical infrastructure, which complicates the supply of food and destroys the environment.