Dzherelii V. Legal protection of the environment in cities.

The author notes the need to develop effective ways of balancing between the need to ensure maximum protection of the environment and the inevitable influence of people on it. It provides an overview of the concept of a European city, not only as a place of advanced social progress with a high degree of social cohesion, a platform for democracy, dialogue between cultures and diversity, but also as a resurgence of the environment. This concept could be the basis for developing a national program of action for environmental protection cities in Ukraine. The paper examines the role of cities in the processes of changing the lifestyle of the population, production and consumption patterns, the spatial structure of settlement and the location of production. The main tasks of the city authorities aimed at ensuring sustainable development of cities are formulated. The author carried out a comprehensive scientific study of the problems of legal environmental protection in cities in the context of European standards of legal regulation of this sphere of relations. The paper develops the author’s definition of the concept of “legal protection of the city’s natural environment” as a system of normative and individual legal regulations that are developed and enforced at the international, regional, national and local levels in order to ensure the preservation and restoration of the city’s natural environment, as well as institutional mechanisms ensuring their effective implementation. The author has summarized the directions of legal regulation at the local level (local governments) in order to minimize the negative impact of cities on the environment: in the area of exercising powers of land use planning and attracting investments, local governments should ensure the inclusiveness of the decision-making process with a view to involving them in their development all stakeholders, especially vulnerable groups; in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, local governments can use different models to promote the development of the public transport network and increase the advantages of its use over the use of personal automobile transport; combining rules (including in relation to commercial and industrial energy standards) and incentives, incentives to encourage the work of economic entities in a way that minimizes their impact on climate change; use a variety of incentives, including grants, loans and subsidies to encourage the introduction of new technologies. It has been established that the goal of implementing the European model of legal environmental protection of the city is to ensure the ecological safety of cities, the reproduction of natural objects and complexes. This model includes: 1) environmental protection, high eco-efficiency and a small “ecological footprint”; 2) the management of material resources on a sustainable basis and the isolation of economic progress from the consumption of resources; 3) high energy efficiency and renewable energy, low carbon emissions, resistance to climate change; 4) minimizing urban development, minimizing the use of land with new fields and natural areas; the density and compactness of cities reduces energy needs, provides mobility and offers opportunities for more efficient use of land.