The European Green Deal and prospects for Ukraine

Abstract

In January 2020, the European Union launched the European Green Deal, a comprehensive programme for the transition to new environmental standards in all sectors of the economy with the aim of making Europe the first carbon-neutral continent. Given Ukraine's European ambitions, it is important for it to understand the requirements of the Green Deal and assess the possibilities of taking these requirements into account in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. Purpose. To examine the requirements and current achievements in the implementation of the European Green Deal with a view to the prospects of Ukraine's post-war recovery. Results. Based on the EU regulations, current thematic reports, statistics and other open-source publications, the article analyses the main components of the European Green Deal in the context of plans and current achievements in their implementation in the following areas: legislative support, emissions trading system, carbon emissions regulation mechanism at the EU border, transport, energy, construction, agriculture and land use, ecosystem and biodiversity restoration, financial support of the green transition, science and education. Some promising directions of post-war recovery of Ukraine in the context of the Green Deal are considered. Conclusions. Despite the harsh criticism of the European Green Deal, it is vital to overcome the most acute environmental crisis in history, which threatens sustainable development and possibly the very existence of humanity. During the first 3 years of the Green Deal implementation, significant progress has already been made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, although there are still some difficulties and obstacles. Ukraine has a significant potential for post-war restoration of the energy and industry sector in line with environmental requirements, but this will require significant investments.