The Academy of Higher Education urged Zelenskyi to promise a law on the abolition of daylight saving time

The Academy of Sciences of the Higher School calls on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to veto the law on canceling the transition to summer time, which was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on July 16. About this informs edition “Newspaper”.

Lighting costs will increase

The President of the Academy Oleksandr Nakonechny noted that the light in the morning will be wasted, because at the end of June in Kyiv, dawn will already be at 3 in the morning, and dusk will be at 8 p.m. (now at 4 p.m. and at 9 p.m., respectively).

“This will significantly increase the costs of institutions, enterprises and households for electric lighting in the evening hours in the spring, summer and autumn, which will have a particularly noticeable effect in the conditions of permanent power outages due to the destruction of the energy infrastructure“, the statement says.

In addition, the scientists of the Academy emphasize that there are no authoritative studies that would confirm the serious negative impact of the seasonal change of clocks on the physiological and psychological state of a person.

“This is understandable, because tens of millions of people, traveling around the world, change time zones more than twice a year and for longer time intervals. This indeed leads to temporary discomfort, but does not have long-term negative consequences and is not a reason to refuse to travel“, scientists say.

History of seasonal time change

The Academy reminded that the idea of ​​seasonal time change was first expressed by the American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin in 1784. The practical implementation of this idea began at the beginning of the 20th century. Daylight saving time was first introduced in Ukraine from April 14 to September 14, 1919, in order to make more efficient use of the daylight hours.

Despite the introduction of energy-saving lamps, the issue of reducing energy costs for lighting remains relevant, as confirmed by the recommendations of the UN European Economic Commission.

Modern practice in the world

Scientists note that the world’s leading countries continue to practice changing the clock hands in the summer months. This is done by almost all US states, Canadian provinces, Great Britain and all EU states. Non-democratic states such as Russia, Belarus and China have abandoned the use of daylight saving time.

“With the adoption of draft law No. 4201, Ukraine departed from the practice of calculating time, generally accepted for EU countries and other states that support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and adopted an option typical of the totalitarian world. Such a decision is difficult to explain from the point of view of any political logic”, – scientists note.

Appeal to the President

The Academy of Sciences indicates that after the adoption of the draft law as a basis, no expert discussion was held until March 3, 2021, although the Academy of Sciences of Higher Education of Ukraine had already provided a negative expert opinion at that time.

“The Academy of Higher Education of Ukraine calls on you, Honorable Volodymyr Oleksandrovych, to veto the populist, harmful to the economy and anti-European draft law No. 4201, and to instruct the government to form a working group of scientists to improve the system of time calculation in Ukraine“, the scientists concluded.