Ukrainian scientists urge Zelenskyy to veto the law. They believe it was passed without proper expert evaluation, ZN reports.
The public organization “Academy of Sciences of Higher Education of Ukraine” has called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to veto the law on the cancellation of daylight saving time. The corresponding appeal from scientists and the head of the academy, Oleksandr Nakonechny, was published by “Novynarnya.”
Scientists point out that bill №4201 was passed with merely formal expert opinions from ministries, but without in-depth expert evaluations from the scientific community, including specialized institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, leading universities, and others.
According to them, there are currently no authoritative studies recognized by the global scientific community that demonstrate a serious negative impact of seasonal clock changes on the physiological and psychological state of a person.
As an example, experts point out that tens of millions of people, regularly traveling around the world, change time zones not just twice a year, but much more frequently, and not by just one hour, but by a larger time interval.
“This indeed causes some temporary discomfort, but it does not lead to long-term negative consequences and is certainly not a reason to avoid traveling outside one’s time zone,” the appeal states.
Scientists note that leading countries in the world practice adjusting clocks during the summer months, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and EU countries. In contrast, Russia, Belarus, and China have abandoned this practice.
“Thus, with the adoption of bill №4201, Ukraine has deviated from the time calculation practice commonly accepted by EU countries and other states that support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and has adopted a variant characteristic of the totalitarian world. Such a decision is difficult to explain from the perspective of any political logic,” the experts note.
Moreover, according to them, the transition to standard time would mean that by the end of June in Kyiv, it would start to get light at 03:00 and get dark at 20:00, significantly increasing the costs for institutions, enterprises, and households on electric lighting in the evening hours during spring, summer, and autumn. This will have a particularly negative effect given the constant power outages caused by the destruction of the energy infrastructure.
The Academy of Sciences of Higher Education of Ukraine is a national scientific organization founded in 1992, uniting over 450 leading scientists, doctors of sciences, and professors working in all scientific centers of the country and representing all fields of knowledge.
As early as 2018, the European Union announced its intention to abandon the switch between standard and daylight saving time. During a survey, the majority of EU residents supported the cancellation of clock changes. At that time, the Ministry of Economic Development of Ukraine initiated a change in the time calculation order in the country.
In 2000 and 2001, Estonia did not switch to daylight saving time, but as this caused communication problems with the EU, the transition to daylight saving time was restored in 2002.
Tags: Ukraine Ukraine government
