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The article determines that at the present stage of human development, the economy acquires the importance of a factor of direct impact on the natural environment, and that this situation has arisen as a result of economic development focused on meeting the needs of mankind under conditions of ignoring the need to ensure environmental neutrality of production and consumption, which, with the inconsistency of natural and economic resource cycles and limited natural resources, determines significant negative qualitative and structural changes in the environment. The article presents the results of a study on substantiation of promising directions for the development of the circular economy, where it is considered as a certain stage of economic evolution and an integral part of the real anthropogenic and natural resource cycles. The use of this approach along with the conceptual provisions of the circular economy contributed to the developing of: a system of defining features of certain types of economies; a cyclic-resource model of the anthropogenic environment; a complex of theoretical and methodological support for substantiating the directions of development of the circular economy. The peculiarities of the practical application of theoretical and methodological provision for the identification of promising directions for the development of the circular economy are disclosed on the example of solving the problem of reducing the negative anthropogenic impact on the environment, namely carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in Ukraine, by types of economic activity in compliance with other conceptual provisions and restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is concerned with assessing and analyzing the energy efficiency of the Ukrainian economy by types of economic activity. The study analyzes the place of Ukraine among other countries according to international rankings (indices): the Energy Transition Index, the Trilemma Index of the World Energy Council (WEC), the International Energy Security Risk Index. It is found that Ukraine’s positions in international rankings determine a number of interrelated problems of energy, economic and environmental development of the country, among which one of the major ones is the high energy intensity of GDP. The dynamics of energy intensity of GDP in some countries of the world and in Ukraine is analyzed. A matrix for estimating the energy efficiency of economies of countries (groups of countries) according to the criteria of direction and intensity of changes and the level of energy intensity of GDP is proposed. It is examined what structural changes occurred in the energy sector and economy of Ukraine by the type of continuity of the production process and the level of energy intensity in the final consumption of fuel and energy resources (FER) and production output. The specific weight of characteristics of groups of foreign economic activity of Ukraine in the final consumption of FER and production output is analyzed. The related indices are computed and directions of structural shifts in foreign economic activity in final consumption of FER and production output are determined. A general characterization of consistency of structural shifts in final consumption of FER and production output due to foreign economic activity and their groups in Ukraine is formed. The carried out study allowed to determine that the high energy intensity of Ukraine’s GDP is a consequence of the peculiarities of the structure of the national economy, shifted towards more energy-intensive industries and technological lag of most sectors of the economy from the level of developed countries. It is determined that, in general, in the structure of the economy of Ukraine there were coordinated minor changes in the final consumption of FER and production output. However, in parts of the group of foreign economic activity related to industries with a continuous type of production process with high and medium energy intensity, there were significant uncoordinated negative structural changes both in the final consumption of FER and in production output. Some increase in energy efficiency of the national economy was caused by a reduction in production volumes in highly energyintensive industries with a continuous production cycle. Thus, despite the high rate of decline in the energy intensity of GDP in Ukraine, its energy intensity remains one of the highest in the world (exceeding the world average by 2.1 times), which determines the unsatisfactory energy efficiency of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]