TRANSFORMATION OF THE INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT IN LINE WITH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND WARTIME CHALLENGES: LEGAL DIMENSION OF NATIONAL SECURITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32689/2617-9660-2026-1(37)-42-50Keywords:
National security, legal guarantees, environmental audit, legal regulation, institute of environmental audit, Sustainable Development Goals, martial law, environmental security, environmental damageAbstract
The article is devoted to a theoretical and legal study of the transformation of the institute of environmental audit in Ukraine under the conditions of martial law and post-war recovery. Full-scale armed aggression has caused largescale destruction of ecosystems, actualizing environmental security as a priority component of the state’s national security. It is proven that the traditional market model of environmental audit as a voluntary tool of the private sector, aimed at minimizing commercial risks in peacetime, has completely exhausted its potential. A regulatory vacuum has been identified in the Law of Ukraine «On Environmental Audit», which lacks legal mechanisms for the procedural recording, assessment, and verification of damage caused to the environment by military factors. In order to overcome the identified destructive dissonance, the necessity of transferring environmental auditing activity into the vertical of public-legal enforcement of national security is substantiated. The updated institute must serve as a mandatory legal filter during the implementation of the national Recovery Plan. The introduction of strategic environmental audit of the affected regions and safety detection of agricultural lands is defined as the only way to ensure Ukraine’s commitments regarding the UN Sustainable Development Goals until 2030 and to attract foreign investment in accordance with the European «Do No Significant Harm» principle. Proposals for legislative reform have been formulated. The expediency of integrating a special wartime section into the specialized Law, legalizing the legal status of a «military-environmental auditor», and amending the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine to recognize the findings of an environmental audit as an official source of evidence in criminal proceedings on the facts of ecocide is substantiated. Comprehensive modernization of the institute will lay a solid foundation for the long-term secure development of society.
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