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Increasing global concern about climate change and the circular economy have successfully established itselves in international and national policies over the last decade, with the aim of reshaping the production and consumer behavior. The circular economy is one of the core pillars of European Union policy and its success depends on the energy efficiency, reducing production costs, and maintaining employment levels by ensuring continuous strong economic independency of the region. While crises are unavoidable and continue to appear, this paper aims to project the impact of any crisis on sustainability transitions using data analysis of the Global Financial crisis from 2008 to 2009 and discuss how the success of the circular economy implementation and environmental policies could be affected. The paper notes that the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 had a short-term positive impact on environmental degradation and that economic interests overshadowed environmental goals. Due to the recent events of the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war, COVID-19 societal and industrial behavior has shifted from sustainable to linear and has taken a step backward in reducing environmental pollution and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Analysis of already present data and the context of the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, reviewing of COVID-19 impact on the global economy, health sector, and environmental policies allows us to predict the consequences, as it relates to the future of circular economy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the article we have substantiated and conducted statistically assess the impact of the final results of economic activity on the current socio-demographic situation of rural areas in Ukraine. Based on the results of determining the influence of conditioned factors on the level of labour migration of the rural population in Ukraine, we have developed a regression equation. Also, based on the results of the study, we built two cartograms, comparison of which provides an opportunity to assess the dynamics of the formation of the total fertility rate in rural areas (per 1 woman) for 2016 - 2020. We built a cartogram that visualizes the results of grouping regions of Ukraine by natural increase, decrease population in rural areas of Ukraine. The results of our study provide an opportunity to confirm that in the context of Ukraine's official accession to the European Union and the serious challenges of today, the Ukrainian state should perform the functions of regulating the most important spheres of society in general and rural areas in particular. The task of increasing the employment of the rural population should be raised to the level of state priorities, which would provide an opportunity to create new jobs for the rural population in industries that can provide the maximum competitive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored sustainability transparency and SDGs 2 and 12 disclosure and its influence on their overall efficiency, using data from Ukrainian agricultural companies. To do this Sustainability Transparency Index (STI) methodology is developed and used. The following hypothesis is tested: the higher the STI score is, the better position of the company is among its peers. For these purposes, STI index is calculated for the top100 Ukrainian agriculture companies. Correlation analysis, Granger causality tests and regression analysis provide evidences in favour of high dependence of position in top100 from the STI score: the more efforts companies invest into Sustainability Transparency, the higher the position in ranking is. This is direct evidence that companies' sustainability transparency is an important element of its activity nowadays. Recommendations to improve sustainability transparency based on suitable reporting practices are provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), often disregarded as waste despite its abundance in organic matter and mineral micronutrients, has emerged as a valuable resource for diverse applications. While Europe and Asia have witnessed extensive research in this field over the past decade, Ukraine's exploration remains limited. This study conducts a thorough investigation into SMS recycling and reutilization over a 4-year period. Employing experimental and comparative methods, this research unveils compelling insights into the potential of SMS for reintroduction into the primary production cycle and secondary activities. The main conclusions reveal the success of SMS valorization in the production of additives, fertilizers, and alternative fuels. Furthermore, the application of SMS in agroecosystems significantly enhances the soil biological activity. The integration of these methods into production chains not only yields economic benefits for companies but also fosters environmental stewardship, aligning with waste-free practices and the principles of bioeconomy and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the implications of implementing simplified, highly specialized, non-rotational farming practices in Ukraine within the framework of sustainable development goals. The background highlights the need to address soil preservation and food security concerns in agricultural practices. The hypothesis suggests that such practices may lead to adverse environmental and socioeconomic consequences, including soil degradation and heightened reliance on imported agricultural products. The methods involve a comprehensive review of existing research, analyzing crop diversity, soil degradation, climate variability and agricultural employment dynamics using agroeconomic analytical methods. The results indicate adverse environmental ramifications associated with non-rotational practices, including soil degradation and heightened reliance on imported agricultural products. Conversely, transitioning towards crop rotation systems was found to potentially mitigate these outcomes by restoring soil fertility and enhancing food security. This study concludes that tailored crop rotation approaches are necessary to address soil health and food security concerns in Ukraine, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural development. Overall, the findings underscore the critical importance of implementing diversified crop rotation systems to achieve sustainable food production and environmental conservation goals in Ukraine and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the current food, energy, and safety crisis caused by the war in Ukraine strongly affected the existing gap in Sustainable Development Goals funding. Restoring global sustainability progress and the 2030 Agenda requires reshaping responsible investment architecture and rethinking the role of sovereign wealth funds as the largest investors in this process. The current study explores the ways in which the most transparent sovereign wealth funds act towards sustainability values and incorporate environmental, social, governance, and ethical criteria (ESGE) into their investment strategy, portfolio, and reporting. Also, 16 high-ranked funds by the Sustainability Transparency Index (Cavagnetto et al., 2022) were investigated by using the case study and benchmark analysis. Study results demonstrate the similarity of all funds disclosure within some questionnaire criteria like sustainability policy, scoring (voting) rules for decision-making, ESGE criteria, stakeholder engagements, and assurance of the financial information disclosed. Nevertheless, qualitative differences were identified between the sustainability transparency criteria of A and B-ranked funds. There is also huge variation in the implementation of funds’ ethical criteria, sustainability coherence, relevance of sustainability goals, disclosure of specific climate-related goals, and foundation membership criteria. Policy implications derived from the differences in sovereign funds' benchmarks are aimed at enhancing the sustainability context in funds’ operating frameworks, developing impact measurement metrics, prioritizing the most material stakeholder requests, sustainability verification procedures, and standardizing funds’ sustainability reporting. Specific channels, instruments, and regulatory measures towards greater funds’ sustainability transparency and their involvement in bridging the sustainable development funding gap may be the subject of further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal has set a concrete strategic plan to increase farm sustainability. At the same time, the current global challenges, due to climate change and fuels and commodity market crises, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, affect the need for quality food and necessitate the reduction of negative external effects of agricultural production, with fair remuneration for the farmers. In response, precision agriculture has great potential to contribute to sustainable development. Precision agriculture is a farming management system that provides a holistic approach to managing the spatial and temporal crop and soil variability within a field to improve the farm's performance and sustainability. However, farmers are still hesitant to adopt it. On these premises, the study aims to evaluate the impacts of precision agriculture technologies on farm economic, agronomic, and environmental management by farmers adopting (or not) these technologies, using the case study method. In detail, the work focuses on the period 2014–2022 for two farms that cultivate durum wheat in central Italy. The results suggest that the implementation of precision technologies can guarantee economic and agri-environmental efficiency. The results could serve as a basis for developing a program to start training in farms as well as to suggest policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The new reality of the ongoing war in Europe, in addition to the enormity of the unimaginable human tragedy, has generated serious problems of various categories, especially in the field of energy security management. Thus, there is a hypothesis that in the current situation, the implementation of the idea of sustainable development in terms of energy development and maintenance of measures for achieving climate goals, may be significantly hampered and slowed down. Based on the analysis, it was determined that there are legitimate concerns about the existence of obstacles to the process of achieving sustainable development in the context of interest. Design/methodology/approach: Research related to this issue consisted of a literature analysis of available texts. This article is purely theoretical in nature and is based on a literature analysis. For the purpose of it, three groups of keywords were developed to reflect their diverse characteristics, in order to identify the state of the current literature covering the knowledge of energy management in the energy crisis associated with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Findings: The issues raised in this article are merely an exemplification of the problems concerning further energy development and the implementation of the concept of environmental sustainability caused by the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. From a sketchy analysis of the available information, it can be deduced that, on the one hand, the effect of this aggression on the realisation of the concept of sustainable development may be an acceleration of, for example, decarbonisation, but, on the other hand, it is a very complex problem, as it may trigger a crisis whose scale and effects we are not yet able to determine. Originality/value: The article deals with new problems emerging in the space of energy management and the implementation of environmental sustainability in the context of armed conflict in Europe. The considerations presented may open up new fields and directions of research exploration for researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is due to the presence of a unique situation in Ukraine associated with the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, which increases scientific interest in European cases on the restoration of territorial integrity, mitigation of adverse socio-economic conditions impact after an armed conflict. The article is devoted to the existing European experience research in the construction of territorial units with special functioning conditions through the prism of the sustainable development. This allowed the authors to structure the studied countries into two groups: countries that use special economic zones as a priority tool of state policy (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) and countries that have experience in developing such territories after an armed conflict (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The authors analysed the use of special economic zones in the countries of the first group as part of their state policy to strengthen the socio-economic potential of problem regions and presented the main results of this process. Particular attention is paid to the Balkan experience in the construction of priority development territories after the armed conflict in the context of the sustainable development implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern innovation processes taking place around the economic system of Ukraine in the current conditions of ecological require scientific and technological development. It is impossible without the implementation of significant and effective investment projects and ensuring adequate funding. The development of the national economy requires the implementation of large-scale and effective eco-projects and the concentration of financial resources. Such a process, especially eco-project implementation has a significant impact on accelerating the modernization of the economy, increasing its competitiveness and investment attractiveness for the successful ecological post-war recovery and future sustainable economic and investment development in Ukraine. In the article, the main theoretical and methodological principles of green project financing as a driver for the economic development of Ukraine in the condition of uncertainty are presented. In the scope of researched issue bibliometrics analysis of the essence of the terms "green finance" and "project financing" was held. The current situation of innovation projects financing the role and place of investment projects in the conditions of instability was investigated. With the help of the economical-mathematical analysis, the level of financial support of innovation activity and the correlation between the sources of project financing was analyzed. Additionally, the recommendations for eco-project financing implementation in Ukraine in the situation of instability were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, there are problems of increasing economic, social, and financial stability and environmental protection (security) in Ukraine, and they are extremely relevant and important. They necessitate the solution of complex tasks aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of communities by means of effective state policy. The article summarizes and develops an approach to the realization of the national interests of Ukraine in the context of the continuous development of communities. It has received international recognition and is thus a system of views on the movement of economies and communities as their consistent interaction with each other and with nature. Today, it is recognized as a valuable model of the future world civilization, which marks the latest state of social development and is recognized as post-industrial. The theory and practice of sustainable development is a reflection of the objective need for economic reorientation and all social development with urgent consideration of the preservation of natural and human opportunities for current and future generations. For Ukraine, especially in view of its integration policy, the introduction of the concept of sustainable development acquires not only scientific but also political relevance and is one of the significant aspects of improving the efficiency of municipal self-government and achieving the best results. Thus, among the criteria of sustainable development of regions, it is expedient to include the criteria of municipal self-government activities, which would contribute to the dynamic and sustainable development of municipal entities, but the basic and optimal level of implementation of ideas and national interests of sustainable development is the municipal level. Therefore, local authorities should ensure the sustainable development of communities, taking into account the principles of local selfgovernment and creating conditions for the transfer of a minimum economic, ecological and social debt to future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article we proved that rural tourism in a market economy is becoming increasingly important, because it helps to solve the problems of rural development, namely: the outflow of young people to cities, declining employment, low incomes of the rural population, and more. The purpose of the article is to study rural agritourism and substantiate the tourist potential of rural areas of Ukraine on the basis of sustainable development. In the process of studying the dynamics of rural green tourism in Ukraine, it was found that the number of farmsteads in Ukraine is increasing and the development of agritourism is intensifying. In the article we found that the saturation of rural tourist farmsteads is unevenly distributed throughout Ukraine, due to natural and climatic conditions, the presence of historical and cultural sites, and the preservation of ethnic traditions. In the article we proved that the development of rural green tourism not only helps to preserve and develop recreational areas in rural areas but also helps to solve socio-economic problems of the village, which reduces rural unemployment by attracting youth and the local population, reproduction of labour potential, slowing down migration processes in villages, increasing the level of infrastructure in the region, replenishing local rural budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European-wide environmental obstacles of inefficient and unsustainable recycling systems and flows constrain household waste (HW) management, endangering the circular economy. The European 2020 strategy and ongoing environmental disasters indicate the ineffectiveness of the current HW sustainability practices. This paper introduces an artificial intelligence (AI) approach for calculating urban residual waste, based on its generation level. It reforms the current diverse and high discrepancy levels of HW residual for EU-countries and Ukraine. Adopting a k-means clustering method with a multi-criteria taxonomic development level index (TIDL), it produces uniform clusters with higher accuracy and manageability. Findings discover and remedy opaque managerial practices, enabling sustainable and environment-friendly development at national and regional levels for EU-countries. Results reveal an increased number of clusters in crisis, contributing to a methodological reference for environmental planning. In conclusion, this AI approach could have a European-wide impact on sustainable economic value-chain, converging toward an eco-friendly economy. [Display omitted] • Analysis of household waste management strategies in EU and Ukraine. • A methodological reference for environmental planning that moves away from the current centralized model. • Implementation of k-means household waste clustering approach with situational analysis and planning. • AI clustering approach with a multi-criteria taxonomic index for higher accuracy and manageability of waste. • Exploration of integrated AI-development economics for EU-Ukraine environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial aspect of the challenge of the sustainable land tenure formation has been scrutinized in the article. There is a set of unresolved issues at the point where interests of land owners, land users and the government clash, that witnesses the absence of effective mechanisms of the formed land tenure system improvement. At the transition to the market relations, with the private land property environment, new effective approaches to land redistribution and rational land use support are necessary. The research objective is the development of a complex approach to the land tenure spatial improvement for the sustainable development. Substantiation is carried out for the transition economy with Ukraine as an example. Land redistribution aiming at urban settlement area optimization and agricultural land tenure in the context of the social environment and economic benefit has been substantiated. The effectiveness of the spatial land improvement in the context of the national and local budget land fee revenues has been substantiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]