Sergiusz Pimenow

Biomethane production from agricultural residues and livestock waste offers Ukraine a strategic pathway to strengthen energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and integrate renewable gases into the European energy system. This study develops and evaluates three scenarios for the Ukrainian biomethane market under European integration: conservative, baseline, and innovation-driven integration. The scenarios differ in investment intensity, public support, regulatory alignment with EU requirements, deployment of anaerobic digestion and biogas upgrading technologies, sustainability certification, and access to domestic and cross-border gas infrastructure. An integrated scenario framework combines agricultural feedstock availability, technological readiness, institutional conditions, market integration, and environmental effects. The results indicate that Ukraine has substantial potential to become an important producer and supplier of sustainable biomethane to the European Union because of its large agricultural resource base, existing gas infrastructure, and geographical proximity to EU markets (projected production in 2030 of 0.26–0.88 billion m³/year, required capital expenditure ranging from EUR 360 million to EUR 1.51 billion, and emission reductions ranging from 443.6 to 649.8 thousand t CO₂-eq/year under the conservative scenario, from 870.2 to 1274.6 thousand t CO₂-eq/year under the baseline scenario, and from 1464.1 to 2144.6 thousand t CO₂-eq/year under the innovation-driven integration scenario). The innovation-driven integration scenario provides the strongest prospects for increasing biomethane output, accelerating the modernisation of biomass conversion systems, expanding grid injection and cross-border trade, substituting fossil natural gas, and reducing emissions from agriculture and energy use. However, its implementation depends on stable investment conditions, transparent guarantees of origin, harmonised sustainability criteria, and coordinated energy and agricultural policies. This study contributes an interdisciplinary scenario-based approach that links biosystems engineering, renewable energy conversion, energy system analysis, and policy design. The findings support strategic planning for biomethane infrastructure, investment prioritisation, and the integration of Ukraine’s agricultural bioenergy potential into a circular and low-carbon European energy system.

The interdependence and interconnectedness of components that make up the natural resource potential of agriculture, which define the distinct characteristics of the industry, are examined. Current trends in the utilization of land and other elements of agricultural natural resource potential of Ukraine, along with their impacts, are analyzed. Challenges related to shaping a natural resource strategy of sustainable development of agriculture in the face of climate change, degradation processes and the effects of military conflict are being investigated. The need of a transition to agroecological farming practices is substantiated and their core principles are outlined. Proposals for transforming approaches and methods to shift from resource-intensive and environmentally harmful practices to agroecologically focused agriculture, as a key factor in achieving sustainable development, are presented. This monograph is intended to scientists, educators, students of agricultural universities, professionals of ministries and agencies, as well as general readers who are committed to the protection and preservation of natural resource potential in agriculture.

Organic farming in the European Union is strongly shaped by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support, yet participation durability remains less examined than supported organic area or organic–conventional comparisons. This study assesses whether the length of participation in CAP-supported organic farming is associated with the organizational, production, and economic outcomes of organic farms in Poland. It applies a two-level approach: CAP support trajectories based on ARMA data for 2008–2025 and organic production duration based on Polish FSDN data for 2008–2022. A comparative analysis was conducted of the characteristics of the potential, organization, and economic situation of farms with varying levels of persistence within the organic farming support system. The frequent variation in the results obtained indicates the distinct characteristics of these groups of farms. The results show that organic farming in Poland is highly CAP-dependent and follows an unstable trajectory, with expansion up to 2012–2013, subsequent decline, and renewed growth after 2019. Longer participation is associated with differences in land resources, supported organic UAA, ANCs conditions, production organization, and livestock presence, indicating both adaptation and structural selectivity. FSDN data show that fully organic farms have lower land and labor productivity than conventional farms, but persistent fully organic farms achieve similar income per hectare when subsidies are included; without subsidies, their income remains much weaker. The findings indicate that the evaluation of organic farming support should move beyond beneficiary counts and certified organic area to include participation durability, production-system coherence, economic viability, and territorial embeddedness. More differentiated instruments are needed to strengthen durable, knowledge-intensive, and territorially embedded organic farming systems.

This study examines how Ukrainian enterprises of different size classes adapted their trade activity under the compounded shocks of COVID-19 and the full-scale war. The article addresses national economic resilience and sustainable recovery by examining how export and import dynamics changed among micro-, small-, medium-, and large-sized firms during 2015–2023. The methodology combines the logarithmic decomposition of intensive and extensive trade margins with a strategic positioning matrix based on labour productivity and the net-export coefficient. The results reveal marked size-based differences in aggregate trade-adaptation patterns. During the pandemic, microbusinesses shifted toward a quantity-led compensatory pattern, whereas during the war, medium-sized and large enterprises showed a stronger efficiency-led export pattern. Micro- and small firms displayed characteristics associated with technology-oriented adaptation, combining rapid labour productivity growth with negative trade balances, whereas large enterprises were positioned closer to the niche-exporter profile, supporting the balance of payments but showing signs of slower productivity growth. Medium-sized firms occupied a transformation zone, indicating unresolved adjustment pressure and continued dependence on trade restructuring. These findings suggest that enterprise-size heterogeneity can serve as an analytical basis for differentiated recovery policy. The results are relevant for trade-dependent sectors, including agri-food and food-processing systems, where recovery depends on technological upgrading, export capacity building, and the more effective conversion of imports into future export potential.

Organic farming in the European Union is strongly shaped by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support, yet participation durability remains less examined than supported organic area or organ-ic–conventional comparisons. This study assesses whether the length of participation in CAP-supported organic farming is associated with the organizational, production, and economic out-comes of organic farms in Poland. It applies a two-level approach: CAP support trajectories based on ARMA data for 2008–2025 and organic production duration based on Polish FSDN data for 2008–2022. The results show that organic farming in Poland is highly CAP-dependent and follows an unstable trajectory, with expansion up to 2012–2013, subsequent decline, and renewed growth after 2019. Longer participation is associated with differences in land resources, supported organic UAA, ANCs conditions, production organization, and livestock presence, indicating both adapta-tion and structural selectivity. FSDN data show that fully organic farms have lower land and labor productivity than conventional farms, but persistent fully organic farms achieve similar income per hectare when subsidies are included; without subsidies, their income remains much weaker. The findings indicate that the evaluation of organic farming support should move beyond benefi-ciary counts and certified organic area to include participation durability, production-system co-herence, economic viability, and territorial embeddedness. More differentiated instruments are needed to strengthen durable, knowledge-intensive, and territorially embedded organic farming systems.

Technology is increasingly central to sustainability, yet frameworks built around the environmental–social–economic (E–S–Ec) triad and ESG disclosure regimes do not fully capture the governance problems created by interconnected digital and cyber–physical infrastructures. In this conceptual paper, Tech4.0 is used in a deliberately narrow working sense, focusing on AI-mediated decision systems, data/platform/cloud infrastructures, software dependency chains, and cyber–physical control environments in which opacity, infrastructural dependence, interdependence, and cascading failures create distinctive problems of governability and resilience. Against this background, the paper examines whether making the technological dimension explicit adds analytical value within sustainability architecture. It examines the case for treating Technological Sustainability (T) as a distinct analytical dimension/pillar insofar as it foregrounds system properties of the Technosphere that tend to be diluted when distributed across environmental, social, and economic categories. The paper then discusses the hierarchy T → Corporate Technological Responsibility (CTR) → Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) as a possible corporate-level operational pathway and outlines an exploratory measurement agenda structured around exposures, capabilities, and outcomes. Rather than offering empirical proof or a validated reporting architecture, the article provides a conceptual research program for later empirical inquiry into technological accountability under Tech4.0 conditions.

The EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) introduces a new regulatory framework in which the agri-environmental characteristics of production become a prerequisite for access to the European Union market. In this paper, the EUDR is conceptualized as a regulatory framework that renders pre-existing agri-environmental risk drivers economically relevant and, in cases of non-compliance, may translate them into financial risks for agricultural businesses through identifiable transmission channels. The study aims to identify these risk drivers and to assess the institutional and technical readiness of Eastern European countries to implement the Regulation’s requirements. The methodological approach combines an analysis of trade exposure to the EU market, an assessment of countries’ spatial and digital capacities, and the construction of an Institutional and Technical Readiness Index for EUDR implementation. The results indicate an asymmetric impact of the Regulation across the region, driven by cross-country differences in the availability of geospatial data, the maturity of digital traceability systems, and the effectiveness of institutional coordination. The findings further show that broad indicators of digital trade facilitation are insufficient to explain variation in readiness to comply with EUDR requirements. Overall, the study identifies the key institutional and technical constraints shaping EUDR implementation readiness and demonstrates how these constraints translate into financial risks along agricultural supply chains.

Agriculture in the European Union is a large energy user, dependent on fossil fuels and energy-intensive inputs. Farm incomes are vulnerable to volatile energy prices and climate risks, which threaten their economic resilience. The reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduces eco-schemes as a central instrument that may reduce energy intensity and dependence on fossil-based resources. This review examines how CAP instruments—and eco-schemes in particular—are analyzed as drivers of farm energy use, energy intensity, and economic resilience. It maps the literature within a three-pillar framework (energy indicators, CAP instruments, income/resilience outcomes) and identifies where the intersection of these dimensions remains weakly exploredand income/resilience outcomes) and identifies where the intersection of these dimensions remains underexplored. We classify publications by combinations of these three dimensions and by the main groups of CAP instruments. The results reveal a narrow three-pillar core, a dominance of studies that link CAP to income and resilience without explicit energy indicators, and only fragmentary evidence on the energy effects of policy instruments. Research on eco-schemes focuses predominantly on environmental effects and institutional design, while the energy dimension is integrated only to a limited extent. Drawing on this evidence, we propose a conceptual framework linking eco-scheme design, the structure of on-farm energy costs, and the resilience of farm incomes.

Achieving sustainable development in the low-carbon transition requires securing critical raw materials (CRMs) while reducing environmental burdens and strengthening industrial resilience (SDGs 7, 9, 12, 13). This review synthesizes 2016–2025 evidence on how the European Union’s policy package—the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), the Batteries Regulation, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) with Digital Product Passports (DPPs), and the recast Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR)—shapes markets for secondary supply in battery-relevant metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, aluminum, and rare earths. We apply a structured scoping review protocol to map the state of the art across policy instruments (EPR, ecodesign/DPP, recycled content mandates, recovery targets, shipment controls) and value chain stages (collection, preprocessing, refining, manufacturing). The analysis highlights benefits, including clearer investment signals, improved traceability, and emerging opportunities for industrial symbiosis, but also identifies drawbacks such as heterogeneous standards, compliance costs, and trade frictions. Evidence gaps remain, especially in causal ex post assessments, price pass-through, and interoperability of MRV/DPP systems. The paper contributes by (i) providing an integrative framework linking policy instruments, value chain stages, and investment signals for secondary CRM supply, and (ii) outlining a research agenda for rigorous ex post evaluation, improved MRV/DPP data architectures, and better alignment between EU trade rules, circularity, and a just energy transition.

Climate change is intensifying droughts, heatwaves, dust storms, and rainfall variability across Eastern Europe, undermining yields and soil stability. In Ukraine, decades of underinvestment and wartime damage have led to widespread degradation of field shelterbelts, while the adoption of agroforestry remains constrained by tenure ambiguity, fragmented responsibilities, and limited access to finance. This study develops a policy-and-technology framework to restore agroforestry at scale under severe fiscal and institutional constraints. We apply a three-stage approach: (i) a national baseline (post-1991 legislation, statistics) to diagnose the biophysical and legal drivers of shelterbelt decline, including wartime damage; (ii) a comparative synthesis of international support models (governance, incentives, finance); and (iii) an assessment of transferability of digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) tools to Ukraine. We find that eliminating tenure ambiguities, introducing targeted cost sharing, and enabling access to payments for ecosystem services and voluntary carbon markets can unlock financing at scale. A digital MRV stack—Earth observation, UAV/LiDAR, IoT sensors, and AI—can verify tree establishment and survival, quantify biomass and carbon increments, and document eligibility for performance-based incentives while lowering transaction costs relative to field-only surveys. The resulting sequenced policy package provides an actionable pathway for policymakers and donors to finance, monitor, and scale shelterbelt restoration in Ukraine and in similar resource-constrained settings.