Representatives of Ukrainian business faced difficulties in implementing a system for monitoring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions, the European Business Association (EBA) said.
In particular, there is a shortage of verifiers to validate the emissions data of about 400 companies for a month and a half, according to its statement on Friday.
The EBA said that under the law on greenhouse gas emissions, companies must submit the first verified reports along with approved monitoring plans for the recent year by March 31, 2022. To date, according to ISO 14065:2015 national standard, only three verifier companies have been accredited, and two of them have appeared in the last two weeks, association said.
The EBA believes that in the current situation it will be necessary to extend the deadlines for submitting reports or provide conditions for the temporary submission of unverified reports.
According to the association, these negative aspects may lead to the application of sanctions against companies, in particular, by the State Environmental Inspectorate. Therefore, the EBA considers it expedient “to exclude the relevant issues on the subject of inspections of environmental inspectors.”
“Only verified data on CO2 emissions will allow companies to prove the effectiveness of the measures taken to decarbonize production and maintain a competitive position in the European market… That is why the European Business Association turned to the Prime Minister with a request to intervene and facilitate the involvement of all stakeholders in the dialogue: business, the Ministry of Ecology, State Environmental Inspectorate,” coordinator of the Committee for Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development of the European Business Association Olha Boiko said.
In addition, businesses need to clarify the mechanism for calculating and paying the eco-tax for carbon emissions in order to create a full-fledged emissions trading system in Ukraine, the association said.
“If earlier there was no clear unified methodology for calculating emissions, now after the introduction of unified approaches, the data of some companies may change significantly,” the EBA said.
Over 2021, mobile operator Lifecell LLC (lifecell) received a net profit of UAH 610.9 million, which is 4.24 times less than in 2020 (UAH 2.589 billion), according to the company’s financial statements.
At the same time, the operator’s income in 2021 increased by 24.1%, to UAH 8.483 billion.
EBITDA increased by 30.9%, to UAH 4.751 billion, while EBITDA margin increased by 2.9 percentage points (p.p.), to 56%.
Lifecell’s capital investments in 2021 increased by 3.2%, to UAH 3.594 billion.
According to the information provided, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the operator’s income increased by 25.7%, to UAH 2.406 billion. EBITDA in the October-December quarter increased by 26.5%, to UAH 1.319 billion.
On an annual basis, the operator’s active three-month subscriber base in 2021 expanded by 13.6%, to 9.2 million (compared to 8.1 million in 2020).
The active three-month 4.5G subscriber base in 2021 grew 32% year-on-year to 73% of total mobile data users at the end of the year. Average data consumption per user in the fourth quarter of 2021 grew by 13%, mainly due to higher data usage by 4.5G users, the company notes. The penetration of smartphones in the lifecell network at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 was 83%.
The company’s active three-month ARPU increased by 12.3% in 2021 and amounted to UAH 83.2 compared to last year’s figure of UAH 74.1. At the same time, the 12-month MoU increased 2.7% year-on-year, while falling 3.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
Operator lifecell is the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine. Turkcell (Turkey) owns 100% shares of Lifecell LLC.
Businessman Sergiy Tigipko, whose assets include PrJSC Dneprometiz, intends to acquire Nail LLC (Khmelnytsky), a large Ukrainian plant for production of nails and various fasteners, a market source told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the source, in the near future the relevant documents for approval of the purchase will be submitted to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
TAS Group has not yet commented on this information to Interfax-Ukraine.
Tigipko’s TAS Group includes assets in the financial and agricultural sectors, real estate, venture projects and an industrial group.
Nail LLC, according to information on its website, was founded in 1994 as a manufacturer of nails. In 2018, it merged with Avismetiz LLC. In addition to traditional construction, carpentry and roofing nails, the company produces special types of nails – in reels and loose, which are used in production of wooden containers and pallets, as well as various means of fastening: self-tapping screws, screws, confirmations, bolts, nuts, washers, threaded rods, anchors , drills, etc. The main office and production facilities of the company are located in Khmelnytsky.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky calls on businessmen and politicians who left the country to return to Ukraine within the next 24 hours, as this is “an important moment of the country’s unity.”
“I would focus on our management, on our country, on the people who today, some of them, are abroad, members of some parties, I don’t even want to say their names, you all understand what kind of people they are. It seems to me that this is a serious challenge. I think we should give them a signal – a fair one. First of all, from the Verkhovna Rada, from the speaker, from the state, and on my own behalf I would like to ask them to bring some of their relatives within 24 hours, to return to the country after all,” Zelensky said at a joint briefing with the German chancellor in Kyiv on Monday.
He stressed that this is an important moment, “the moment of the country’s unity.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked businessman Richard Branson and representatives of world business for supporting the Ukrainian state.
“Grateful to Richard Branson and the global business community for supporting Ukraine. Innovative businessmen best understand the key vectors of human development. Hence, their call to unite and defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, in particular, by imposing sanctions on the aggressor, is crucial,” Zelensky said on Twitter last week.
A day earlier, Branson said that in Twitter that “for business leaders, this is the moment to come together and stand up for Ukraine’s sovereignty,” and also published a link to his article “My thoughts on Ukraine and Russia” in which he repeated this thesis. “For business leaders, this is the moment to come together and stand up for Ukraine’s sovereignty. Even if it comes at a price, all of us should send a clear message that unilateral aggression is always unacceptable and that the global business community will support the full range of sanctions against any nation that seeks to violate the sovereignty of another,” he said.
The businessman also said in the article that “Business leaders all over the world have been watching the build-up of Russian troops and equipment at the Ukrainian border with great concern” and that any war between Russia and Ukraine will have devastating and terrible consequences, primarily for the civilian population on both sides, and further isolates Russia.
“But never in recent years has there been a greater risk of an all-out war on European soil – a war that, like so many before it, does not serve a just or legitimate objective. (It is hard for any of us to hide our exasperation at this point. In 2022, what on earth is one country doing amassing tanks at another country’s borders?” Branson said.
Among 136 company executives surveyed by the European Business Association, some 45% of companies are ready to continue operating even in the event of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine, another 17% of companies consider the relocation to the western regions, some 10% think of leaving the country in the worst-case scenario, while 7% fear that external aggression may lead to the closure of their business.
“A quarter of the EBA member companies see the situation on eastern borders as a psychological attack through disinformation in the media. Meanwhile, the majority, namely 67%, believe that Ukraine and the international community should stay alert,” the EBA said in a press release on Friday following results of the survey conducted among member companies on January 24 to January 27.
However, some 40% of EBA member companies have their contingency plans, some 40% think of preparing ones, and 15% are currently without any plans. Companies note the difficulties of plan preparation as there are too many potential scenarios to be considered.
Most of the companies with “plan B” formed it with consideration of the following priorities: the first is providing safety for people (employees, their families and customers), the second is the security of assets, documents, data, financial stability, while the third is ensuring the viability of the company and business continuity.
With regard to the safety of people, companies are considering relocation, evacuation, information and support, the association said.
Common plans for the preservation of assets include the physical protection of property and equipment or its relocation to other regions, strengthening information security, withdrawal of funds, and insurance, the EBA said.
Some 58% of companies plan to retain their team, while for 14% this is not even a question, they continue to hire and develop people. Only 14% say they will resort to laying off some employees or sending them on unpaid leave, while 4% think of reducing the salaries, according to the survey data.
“We also asked companies what factors will be most important for their business in the case of an emergency. For most respondents (91%), it is a stable operation of the infrastructure which includes telecommunications, financial, ground-based logistics. Meanwhile, 62% consider it important to have constant communication and enough information from country leaders. For 60%, the most essential is to have a smooth and coordinated work of state agencies and services,” the EBA said.
The association urged the authorities to pay attention to these aspects that can heavily impact business operations at a critical moment.
“Also communicate more with companies because this is what helps to reduce misinformation and tension” the EBA said.
