PROTECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR AND AIRSPACE OF UKRAINE: LEGAL, REGULATORY, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS

The study uses general scientific and special methods, the main of which are: abstract-logical, deductive, inductive, historical, modelling and forecasting, methods of system-structural, system-functional analysis, economic and statistical (grouping, comparison, etc.). The use of system analysis methods made it possible to structure the constituent elements of the regulatory and legal support of public administration in the field of protection of atmospheric air and airspace of Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to characterise the protection of atmospheric air and airspace of Ukraine in the regulatory, legal, environmental and economic aspects. It is determined that the regulatory framework for regulating the principles of atmospheric air safety is a component of the mechanism for ensuring environmental safety. The article emphasises that for the first time the principles of environmental safety were enshrined in the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, where the principles of environmental safety were established at the level of a separate section. It is emphasised that the functional content of the administrative and legal protection of atmospheric air includes: ensuring air pollution within the limits of the maximum permissible emission standards in order to ensure the right of a person to a safe and quality environment; greening of production; introduction of ecological fuel quality standards; greening of the energy cluster of the economy, including through the introduction of the principles of decentralisation of the country's energy system; establishment of information interaction between the participants of legal relations in order to ensure the transparency of economic activities related to environmental pollution; formation of a high level of environmental legal awareness, etc. The article draws a conclusion that ensuring proper quality of atmospheric air is a component of the mechanism for ensuring environmental safety. The authors underline that the understanding of the system of regulatory and legal regulation of atmospheric air and airspace protection should be functionally aimed at ensuring compliance with environmental standards for the operation of such facilities in accordance with economic feasibility and social justification. The paper concludes that atmospheric air safety and airspace safety are part of the national security system, where the former is a component of environmental safety and the latter is a component of state security, and should be understood as the state of atmospheric air and the integrity of the air environment, for which physical, chemical and biological properties are established which create favourable and sufficient conditions for the vital activity of people and settlements.