On October 8, 2023, the Law of Ukraine “On the National Pollutant Release and Transfer Register” entered into force. The environmental community had been fighting for the creation of such a register in Ukraine for twenty years, and EPL had to initiate the case at the international level. Today we have an approved legal framework and according to the data of the Ministry of Environment, the registration of installations in the national PRTR has started (will continue for the next 6 months). But here a number of questions arise:
Registration of installations in PRTR is the initial filling of the register. This is not yet information about emissions, but information about installations and operators who will report their emissions for 2023 and this is the information that is of significant public interest in Ukraine.
In that case, why doesn’t the Ministry open access to this information to the public? Why, if the register is finally functioning, only functionaries and businesses (that upload information about their installations) have access to it?
Will the Ministry of Environment use the guise of martial law to hide from the public the information for openness of which we have been fighting for so long?
ICO “Environment-People-Law” strongly urges the government to remove discriminatory restrictions on access to information contained in PRTR register and to ensure free, non-restricted in time and unauthorized public access to data contained in the register, as required by Article 12 of the PRTR law.
We would like remind the Ministry of Environment that according to the Ukrainian law, which duplicates the international standard,
PRTR is established to ensure public access to complete, consistent and reliable data on emissions and pollutants and waste transfer, and that
the public has the right to participate in the formation of PRTR, the right to promote openness, transparency, effective functioning and continuous improvement of the register, as well as the development of relations in the area of PRTR.
Ukraine has just granted these rights to the public while the Ministry of Environment immediately violated them.
