Interactions between civil society, business and government for environmental sustainability

The article examines the essence of civil society and reveals its main components in cooperation with business and government. The place and role of civil organisations and public are considered in the context of modern environmental requirements. An analysis of national features in the formation and development of civil society is provided. Trends in interactions of civil society, business and government in Ukraine have been revealed through the comparison with other countries. An attempt was made to understand the national civil movement as a prerequisite for the formation of civil society in Ukraine during the years of independence. Tools for assessing the sustainability and general viability of the civil society sector are classified according to various criteria. Global indicators of trust in various institutions of society and its institutional activity are analysed. There was carried out an analysis of the dynamics of the sustainability index for Ukraine. Guidelines for the institutional transformation of the interactions between domestic civil society, business, government have been worked out in order to substantiate the information and analytical provision.


Introduction
The peculiar situation of Ukraine, whose territory has been under the influence of destructive military actions for 10 years, reinforces the need to form such a national policy that would consider environmental and climate challenges.
The European Commission [1] has estimated that €260 billion of additional annual investment is needed to achieve climate and energy targets by 2030.According to the data of the State Environmental Inspection, as of January 2023, during the 11 months of military aggression of the russian federation, the damage to the ecology of Ukraine already exceeds UAH 1 trillion 743 billion, or $47.6 billion [2].
Taking into account the interest of the world economy in the supply of grain from Ukraine, investing in the ecological restoration of the affected territories will obviously appear as a global problem.Russia's invasion is causing catastrophic environmental consequences not only for Ukraine, but also for 1269 (2023) 012036 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1269/1/012036 2 the entire world.The civil society of Ukraine and the world in the context of modern environmental requirements can be formed as a powerful tool to influence the best government and business decisions.
Since 2014, Ukrainian civil society has faced numerous new challenges due to Russia's war against Ukraine.Civil society organisations had to reorient their activities to meet the needs of the time.The first years of resistance to aggression were marked by a rapid increase in the number of citizens, the creation of voluntary public associations involved in charitable and volunteer activities, monitoring and analytical practices [3].Evidently, the system of indicators for assessing the sustainability of civil society needs some adjustment regarding the understanding of the conceptual foundations and the role of civil society, interactions between public, business and government in times of social transformations.
Contemporary environmental global crises provoke a reaction not only from government institutions, but also from business and public organisations.The role of interactions between civil society organisations, private and governmental sectors are constantly growing.They could act as independent negotiators, agents of social learning, and link biophysical conditions with the political sphere at both local and global levels.
The goal of the paper is to study the institutional development of civil society organisations, interactions between civil society, private and governmental sectors in order to determine the theoretical foundations of provision for environmental sustainability society.
To achieve the set goal, the following scientific tasks are defined: to reveal the essence of civil society and its components; to determine the place of civil society institutions, the mode of interactions between civil society organisations, business and governments in the crisis periods; to analyse the stages of civil society formation and modern dimensions of its development in Ukraine; to provide recommendations on assessing the sustainability and development of civil society in interactions with other institutions and determining the institutional needs of civil society organisations dealing with environmental issues.

Material and methods
Our research is based on a comparative analysis of the development of civil society organizations and their partnerships with other stakeholders of society to ensure environmental sustainability.Analysing the increase or decrease in the number of formed and legalised associations of citizens and other public formations, it is possible to assess the state of civil society formation in Ukraine.
The enactment of the Law of Ukraine "On Association of Citizens" in 1992 certainly contributed to the activation of public self-organisation and the creation of public associations of various organisational and legal forms.If in 1991, 324 public organisations were registered in Ukraine, then in 1996, the number of registered public organisations (including local branches) reached 3,548 [4].In Ukraine, at the beginning of 2005, there were 2,384 citizens' associations (a 3.3-fold increase compared to 1996), 125 of which were political parties and 2,259 non-governmental organisations (respectively 5.2% and 94.8 % in the total number of associations) (Figure 1).Source: [5].
From the Orange Revolution of 2004-2005 to the Revolution of Dignity, the process of institutionalisation of civil society in Ukraine was characterized by a gradual increase in the total number of officially registered public organisations of various directions (Table 1).Source: [5].
Figure 2 visualises a tendency to a gradual slow increase of various types of Ukrainian civil society institutions in the years since 2014.Since the beginning of 2015, the processes of formation of charitable organisations have gained active development showing an increase of 48% as of June 1, 2021.In 2022, Ukraine entered the TOP-10 countries in the world according to the index of charitable assistance (according to the World Giving Index 2022, which contains data from surveys of people from 119 countries).This indicator in Ukraine was 49%: 75% of Ukrainians helped strangers, 49% donated money, 24% engaged in volunteer activities [6].The increase in the level of charitable assistance is noticeable thanks to the work of charitable organisations and volunteer foundations.At the same time, the level of personal participation and involvement of the social environment is high.Cases of charitable assistance appear quite often in social networks.86% of Ukrainian residents became philanthropists during 2022 (by 19% more than in 2021 and by 26% more than in 2019) [7].Currently, the trends in the development of civil society in Ukraine are commensurate with similar processes in other countries of Eastern Europe.Democratic governance and government cooperation with civil society institutions in the early 1990s were complicated by the inertia of the Soviet legacy.In the 1990s, this was also sometimes observed in other countries of Eastern Europe.However, communication and involvement of non-governmental organisations in the processes of policy formation and implementation has been changing over time.Research proves that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, non-governmental organisations in the EU countries gradually took an increasingly The OECD report provides comparative data on the number of charitable organisations and the population.For example, in France there are 4.2 thousand charitable organisations for the population of 66.9 million, in Italy there are 98.2 thousand for the population of 60.4 million.In Ukraine, there are as many as 202.6 thousand charitable organisations for the population of 41.7 million.The number of charitable organisations in Ukraine is higher than the number of such institutions in France, Italy, Canada, Argentina, Australia, etc.; compared with Ukraine, there are more charitable organisations only in Germany, where there are 600,000 charitable organizations for the population of 82.9 million [4].

Results
The current Constitution of Ukraine adopted in 1996 does not have a clear definition of civil society, although there was a third chapter "Civil Society and the State" in the draft Constitution of Ukraine, revised on July 1, 1992.Instead, Ukraine proclaimed the objective of building a legal democratic state, a mandatory element of which is civil society.Part 1 of Art.36 of the Constitution of Ukraine [8] guarantees its citizens the right to freedom of association, including in public organisations, to exercise and protect their rights and freedoms and satisfy political, economic, social, cultural and other interests.In 2007, the Concept of the promotion of the development of civil society by the executive power bodies was adopted, and there was approved the Procedure for the promotion of public examination of the activities of the executive power bodies.The following governmental acts are defined by civil society institutions: public organisations, trade and art unions, employers' organizations, charitable and religious organizations, bodies of self-organisation of the population, non-governmental mass media and other non-business associations and institutions legalised in accordance with the law.Thus, the institutions of civil society were also regulated as a system of subjects endowed with rights and obligations to defend their legitimate interests in the process of further development of civil society in Ukraine and participation in the management of national affairs, in particular, in the formation and implementation of national legal policy [9].
European Governance -A White Paper gives the following definition civil society as a diverse concept that encompasses a wide range of non-governmental, non-profit, and voluntary organizations and groups that play a vital role in society [10].Thus, according to EU norms, civil society includes labor market participants, i.e. social partners (trade unions and employers' organisations), organisations representing social and economic players in a broad sense (e.g., consumer organisations), public organisations (non-governmental organisations) and organisations at community levels, through which citizens can participate in municipal life (e.g., youth organizations or parents' associations), etc.
In 1997, the Civil Society Organisations Sustainability Index (CSOSI) Report [11] was introduced to analyse the development of civil society in Central, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.Today, the report covers 74 countries.The CSOSI indicator is considered a tool for assessing the strength and overall viability of the civil society organisation sector.Annually, analysing 7 dimensions that have been identified as extremely important for sustainability, the Index monitors the strengths and problems in the development of civil society in a specific country of the study region, and conducts a comparative analysis of the development of such organisations in the geographical and temporal plane.The rating scale ranges from 1 to 7, where 1 indicates a very high level and 7 means the lowest level of development; points from 1 to 2 characterise the sustainability of the civil society development, from 3 to 5 -the development of sustainability, 6 and 7 -the emergence of sustainability.
In Ukraine, the sustainability index changed from 3.5 in 2010 to 3.2 in 2021, and since 2014 there have been minor fluctuations (Table 2).
The sustainable development of civil society is evaluated according to the following categories: legal environment; organisational capacity; financial viability; civil representation (advocacy); provision of services; sectoral infrastructure; public attitude.As Figure 3 shows, in 2021 in Ukraine, the sustainability level of civil society as a whole remained mostly unchanged, but several of its indicators slightly improved.According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine [5], as of January 1, 2022, 96,543 nongovernmental organisations, 2,071 associations of public unions, 26,915 religious organizations, 28,792 trade unions, 318 art unions, 20,498 charitable organizations and 1,730 bodies of self-organisation of the population were registered in Ukraine.
The results of the survey of environmental civil society in Ukraine showed an increase in the network in environmental protection topics (up to 11% in 2019 in Figure 4).Source: [12] Currently, there are about 10 networks of civil society organisations in Ukraine that are engaged in solving environmental problems (Table 3).[13].
Among the main obstacles in the activity of Ukrainian Environmental organisations (NGOs), there can be mentioned the lack or absence of permanent funding and dependence on donors; pressure from the government and business; government irresponsibility, abuse, corruption; passivity of the population regarding the solution of environmental issues.Though the representatives of civil society organisations initiate public consultations/hearings, political debates and events of different formats, the level of influence of public organisations at this stage is insufficient.
In Ukraine, there is low demand from government structures for products that could be provided by environmental organisations (NGOs): policy analysis, monitoring of the implementation of environmental protection legislation, expertise and consultations on environmental issues.An urgent problem that needs to be solved is the creation of a mechanism for the authorities to use all levels of the potential of civil society organisations to monitor the implementation of regional environmental protection programs, carry out expert evaluation of economic projects regarding compliance with environmental standards and possible anti-corruption risks related to environmental problems.
Since the beginning of 2022, the importance and role of the public in the protection of the environment and ecological safety has been increasing in Ukraine.After all, the problems of threats to the environment during the war in Ukraine are unprecedented and require new approaches to their definition and elimination.The activity of the public organisation "Ecodiya" (EcoAct) appears an example of operational work under war conditions, which records threats to the environment since February 24, 2022 as a result of aggression, in particular, fires at oil depots and landfills, shelling of nuclear plants, seaports, and hazardous waste warehouses.
An example of interaction between the government, business and the public is the development and implementation of the special application "EcoZagroza" (EcoThreat) used by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the usage of which allows every citizen to transmit data on environmental damage caused by russians.
The sustainability index data show that Ukraine is at the stage of constructing civil society.In addition to the sustainability index, a significant indicator of the development of civil society is the level of trust in the activities of its institutions.So, according to sociological research, 39% of respondents trusted civil society organisations in 2020.According to another survey, in March 2021, 53% of respondents trusted domestic civil society organisations.
The level of citizens' trust in civil society institutions corresponds to similar trends in other European countries: non-governmental organisations are often more trusted than governmental bodies.According to the Edelman Trust Barometer [14], in 2019 and 2020 in EU countries, there was observed an increase in trust in non-governmental organizations in 21 out of the 26 countries covered by the study.
Table 4 presents trust indices calculated in about 30 countries of the world in 2019-2021 for civil (non-governmental) organisations, business, government, and the media.Moreover, an indicator of more than 59% means the trust of the respondents in the object of the study, from 50 to 59% of the respondents' answers showed a neutral attitude and less than 50% represent mistrust.[14].
Table 5 shows the results of the respondents' evaluation of the institutional activities of nongovernmental organisations, business, government, and the media; confidence in carrying out their functions.The highest indicators are in business (more than 50 points means strong activity, the institution copes with its tasks; less than 50 shows weak activity, respectively).
The environmental protection is considered a task for civil society organisations equivalent to the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens and the fight against poverty and diseases.
Analysing the indices of trust in institutions in 2020-2021, it should be noted the impact on global trust indicators of crisis phenomena such as the Covid-19 pandemic, economic recession, and political instability.The Edelman Trust Barometer 2022 showed, on the one hand, a trend of widespread mistrust of civil society institutions and leaders around the world and, on the other hand, growing trust of respondents in business and government.
Added to this is an insufficient ecosystem of trust that is unable to withstand the unstoppable "infodemic", leaving four institutions -business, government, non-governmental organisations and the media -in the environment of information bankruptcy and obligations to restore trust and forge a new way forward [14].Source: [14].
Note that the formation of civil culture and society in Ukraine is controversial and does not always match European trends.Ukrainian civil society is not only non-governmental organisations and associations, but also socially active, caring citizens, volunteer self-organised networks.According to the results of the National Survey on Public Engagement 2022 [15] in Ukraine during 2021, 24% of Ukrainians took an active part in the life of their communities; 15% participated in the activities of nongovernmental organisations, lack of interest is no longer a decisive reason for refusal to participate; 72% of citizens donated funds to support the fight against Russian aggression, and 59% participated in volunteer activities for the benefit of the army, IDPs and other victims of the war.Participation in the activities of civil society organisations also increased significantly: 15% of respondents indicated that they were actively involved in the activities of civil society organisations compared to 4% in 2021, while 32% participated occasionally (29% in 2021).At the same time, fewer people say they did not participate because they were not interested (12% compared to 41% in 2021).One of the obstacles that can affect the involvement of citizens is the lack of trust as 45% believe that non-governmental organisations cannot be trusted [15].

Conclusion
Civil society in Ukraine is at the stage of its development, experiencing ups and downs associated with overcoming the consequences of the soviet legacy, on the one hand, and defending national borders under the conditions of waging war with a powerful aggressor, on the other hand.Indicators of civil society measurement, such as stability index or the number of civil society institutions and their members, the amount of financing of these institutions, trust indices, are not sufficient to assess the state of civil society and interactives between NGOs, private and governmental sectors.To assess the sustainability of civil society, it is advisable to involve other indicators that reveal the activities of citizens for the benefit of society (volunteer activities of citizens and businesses and their volumes, Environmental Initiatives as Environmental Justice, Circular Economy, Environmental Education, Plastic Pollution Reduction, Green Infrastructure etc.).
At the same time, it is worth taking into account the national and historical features of the formation of the state, society, geopolitical circumstances, and not only the world and European trends.The activities of public institutions are aimed at satisfying the needs and interests of the members of society, which reflects the pan-European tendency to strengthen the role of non-profit non-governmental organisations in the world.
The problems of threats to the environment during the war in Ukraine can be solved by creating a mechanism for the authorities to use the potential of civil society organizations at the national, regional and local levels.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Thematic areas of activity of civil society organisations in 2019.Source:[12]
prominent place in social development, civic education, cooperation with authorities, business, and society in general[4, p. 9].

Table 2 .
The CSO Sustainability Index in Ukraine in 2010-2021.

Table 3 .
Networks of CSOs in Ukraine and environmental problems.

Table 4 .
Index of Trust in Civil Society, Business and Government in 2019-2021, in %.