The role of local self-government bodies in administrative and legal regulation of environmental safety

Abstract

Purpose. The analysis of the role of local governments in the administrative and legal regulation of environmental safety. Methods. The interaction among administrative-legal and economic tools of environmental safety regulation in the analysis of collection, receipts and use of funds from the payment of environmental tax by the cost method is studied. Results. The comparative analysis of the main provisions of the Strategies of the state environemtnal policy till 2020 and till 2030 is carried out. It was found that until 2020, the responsibility for the availability and accuracy of environmental information was on the executive, not local governments. It is noted that by 2020 the indicator of effectiveness of the Strategy was the number of adopted local action plans for environmental protection, a strategic environmental assessment is among the qualitative indicators, however, the relevant law was adopted 7 years after the Strategy, and the first assessments were conducted only in 2019. It was found that the Strategy until 2030 needs to be adjusted either in terms of recalculating the planned targets for achieving the Environmental Performance Index (ERI) (achieving a score below 83 points) or recalculating the entire Strategy in order to intensify it and overcome "weaknesses". are highlighted when using the new ERI assessment methodology. Conclusions. It was found that the transfer of most of the revenue from the environmental tax to the general fund of the state budget created risks of their misuse, which does not allow local governments to fully implement environmental measures in accordance with the needs of cities and regions. Among the main proposals to improve this situation are to increase the size of the environmental tax, change the distribution of revenues from the environmental tax by increasing revenues to local budgets, developing a mechanism for economic incentives for enterprises that implement measures to maintain environmental safety.