State environmental policy in modern conditions: status and directions of improvement
Authors: Tregubenko Galina 
Published: April 2024

Problem setting. Given the invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country, the implementation of the state environmental policy is of particular importance today, and its effective implementation requires the use of effective tools, improvement of current legislation and strategic planning, taking into account the need to intensify European integration and adopt EU best practices in this area. Therefore, the urgent issue now is to identify ways to increase the efficiency of state policy in the environmental sphere, to formulate and optimize the regulatory and legal support for the implementation of state environmental policy.

Analysis of recent researches and publications. The issues of implementation of the state environmental policy and the problems of improving the system of public administration of environmental safety have been considered by many scientists. For example, I. I. Samoilova [1] in her scientific works investigated the potential of the public administration system in Ukraine and the issue of its use to ensure environmental safety.

Р. S. Kirin and S. V. Hryshchak conducted a comprehensive study of topical issues of ensuring and implementing environmental rights in the strategies of the State environmental policy and security of Ukraine during the wartime period and substantiated that the challenges of the wartime period determine the formation of an appropriate set of legal instruments with the help of which a platform should be built for direct or indirect measures to prevent, protect and restore the environmental rights of citizens violated by armed aggression, including an international mechanism for the restoration of environmental rights.

Despite the sufficient number of scientific papers, the chosen research topic requires additional developments due to the need for scientific research on ways to improve the efficiency of state environmental safety and ensure environmentally balanced development of the state.

Purpose of research is to study the topical issues of implementation of the State environmental policy in modern conditions and to identify possible areas for its improvement.

Article’s main body. In the context of martial law, theoretical and practical issues of effective implementation of the state environmental policy, taking into account the existing processes of deepening the environmental crisis, are gaining particular relevance and new features.

Modern processes of greening the world economy based on the concepts of sustainable development, rational use of natural resources and green economy require an effective environmental policy of the world community, with a long-term vision of state changes in accordance with the principles of balanced development laid down in strategic legislative and regulatory documents, but each developed strategy aimed at environmental protection and rational use of natural resources requires a clear mechanism for the implementation of the relevant legislation. That is, the development of relevant strategies requires the implementation of a well-established clear mechanism and consistency with the norms of the current legislation in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources.

The provisions of important strategic documents were analyzed, such as: The Basic Principles (Strategy) of the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine until 2030, the National Waste Management Strategy in Ukraine until 2030, and the Strategy for Environmental Security and Climate Change Adaptation until 2030. Some issues of implementation of regional programs on environmental protection, rational use of natural resources and environmental safety are considered.

Conclusions and prospects for the development. As a result of the study, it is reasonable to conclude that there are systemic problems in the implementation of the state environmental policy, in particular, the implementation of national and regional strategic priority areas, which require updating the relevant mechanisms for implementing environmental policy, including institutional ones. In addition to the above, it is now necessary to harmonize current legislation with strategic planning documents. That is, the current legislation in the field of environmental security should be correlated with the relevant strategic directions and state programs, which is extremely important in the context of the need to restore the national economy and all components of the country's national security on the way to EU membership.