On November 21, the two-week UN Climate Change Conference COP30 ended in Brazil. Ukraine presented its pavilion there for the fourth time and organized a trip for the national delegation. However, information about how much this participation cost remained behind the scenes.
EcoPolitic decided to find out how large the Ukrainian delegation was and how much this Brazilian "carnival" cost taxpayers.
We submitted a request to the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine, which, following the liquidation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, is now responsible for organizing our country's participation in the largest climate summit.
What we asked the Ministry of Economy
In our request, we asked for the following information:
- The approved composition of the delegation (names and positions) that will represent Ukraine at the UN Climate Change Conference COP30.
- The total cost of our delegation's participation in this conference, as well as the distribution of funds by individual items of expenditure (pavilion design, tickets, accommodation, travel expenses, etc.).
- Sources of funding for the Ukrainian delegation's participation in COP30.
Two weeks of waiting and a short reply
It took the agency almost a week to register our request and the same amount of time to provide a three-paragraph reply. It boils down to the following points:
- The official delegation from the Ministry of Economy included Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture Oleksii Sobolev as head of the delegation and his deputy, Pavlo Kartashov, as deputy head of the delegation.
- Oleksii Sobolev did not participate in COP30.
- Pavlo Kartashov traveled at the expense of international technical assistance projects. At the same time, the ministry clarified that “the funds of international technical assistance projects, for which the Ministry of Economy is the beneficiary, were not spent on the deputy minister’s trip.”
That's all the information we've been waiting for in two weeks. No amounts. No details. No mention of any other participants. Not much, to be honest, and not at all "transparent," as they like to say in the official communication channels of the Ministry of Economy.
Our two questions were completely ignored by officials. After all, "international technical assistance project funds" for Pavlo Kartashov's trip, which came from nowhere and whose beneficiary is unknown, are an answer about nothing. What kind of aid funds are these that they don't want to tell the public about? "Secret aid projects"?
So, the officials of the Ministry of Economy gave us the cold shoulder. What transparency in the ministry's activities are its officials constantly talking about? At least they did not hide behind "commercial secrets, the disclosure of which could harm the country's defense capabilities," as is traditionally done at the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine."
What the ministry is silent about
The agency that organized this trip decided for some reason to keep it a closely guarded secret. After all, it cannot be unaware of how much money was spent on it. A reasonable question arises: is there something to hide?
In addition, the response did not mention the other ministry employees who participated in COP30, whom we will name below. Did they really travel to Brazil at their own expense and during their free time?
They also decided to keep quiet about the trip to Brazil by Viktor Smali, head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Economy.
Why are officials hiding this information, thereby increasing mistrust in themselves in a society already electrified by corruption scandals?
Compared to last year, there was almost no information from the Ministry of Economy about preparations for COP30. In 2024, the Ministry of Environment even reported on which companies, agencies, and institutions were involved in creating the branding and the Ukrainian pavilion. This year, there are no details.
Photo: cop.ukrainian-climate-office.org
Why did the issue of money arise in the first place?
The main reasons for the close scrutiny of the costs of participating in COP30 this year were:
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An expensive transatlantic flight for all participants from the Eastern Hemisphere. According to the Skyscanner service, a round-trip flight from Warsaw to Belém costs from 200,000 UAH, and from Budapest – from 160,000 UAH.
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Sky-high hotel prices in Belém, which hosted the summit this year. Back in early August, several COP30 participant countries and public organizations expressed concern about excessively high prices set by local hotels and property owners – in recent months, some hotels were offering rooms at $1,400 per night.
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For Ukraine, a separate factor was the appropriateness of such increased expenses during the full-scale war.
Who was supposed to attend COP30
On November 9, President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the composition of the delegation to this year's UN Climate Change Conference. The list includes 12 people, headed by Minister Oleksiy Sobolev.
However, the decree states that the head of the delegation may make changes to the composition of the delegation, subject to prior approval by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, the composition of the delegation is not final. Initially, it included:
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Two representatives of the relevant ministry: Minister Oleksii Sobolev and his deputy Pavlo Kartashov.
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Three representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management: its chairman Oleh Bondarenko, deputy chair Olena Kryvoruchkina, and subcommittee head on climate change and air protection Lesia Vasylenko. All by agreement.
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Two diplomats: Counsellor – Envoy of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Federative Republic of Brazil Oleh Vlasenko and Head of the Sectoral Cooperation and Recovery Department at the Department of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kokhan.
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Three officials involved in energy, energy efficiency, and energy saving: Head of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine Hanna Zamazieieva, Chair of the Subcommittee on Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Utilities Sergiy Nagornyak (by consent), and Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine for European Integration Olha Yukhymchuk.
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Head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine Viktor Smal.
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Government representative – Director General of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Ilkov.
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First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Yevhen Kudriavets.
It also provides for the possibility of "involving experts, advisors, and technical staff in its [the delegation's – ed.] work in accordance with established procedures." This means that the circle of those who visit Brazil at the expense of the state budget or "international technical assistance projects" can be significantly expanded (we cannot say for sure, because the Ministry of Economy conceals this information).
For example, Anton Buldakov-Alyushin, who won the MasterChef Kids cooking competition at the age of 13, somehow became an accredited participant from Ukraine.
Photo sources: stb.ua, cop.ukrainian-climate-office.org
Who actually went
Judging by Facebook posts and photos from the conference itself, the following people definitely made it to Brazil:
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Viktoriya Kyreieva (in the photo – left) – former Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, adviser to the Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management;
Photo: cop.ukrainian-climate-office.org
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Svitlana Sushko – Head of the Reform Support and Recovery Group, Ministry of Economy (Subgroup on Environmental Issues);
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Andriy Kytura – Head of the “Green” Transition Department, Ministry of Economy;
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Olha Yushkevych – Head of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Economy;
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Mykhailo Chyzhenko – National Coordinator, Ministry of Economy;
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Margarita Zhenchuk – Senior Project Manager, Reform Support Group, Ministry of Economy (Subgroup on Environmental Issues).
Why is there no mention of all these officials in the ministry's response? How were they funded to travel to distant Brazil?
The official website dedicated to Ukraine's participation in COP30 features a program of events for each day of the conference. We did not see most of the officials listed as participants in the official delegation.
Oleksiy Sobolev and Oleg Bondarenko joined via video link, while Pavlo Kartashov and Viktor Smal were present in person. Neither Olga Yukhimchuk nor Hanna Zamazeyeva participated in the COP30 events.
We counted 35 people in the group photo taken at the opening of the pavilion. Add to that the photographer who took this photo and documented all the other days of the conference.
Photo: cop.ukrainian-climate-office.org
Undoubtedly, some of them are representatives of public environmental organizations (Ekodia, Ecoclub, Razom We Stand, Ukrainian Climate Network, Youth Climate Initiative Rozviy), but their representation is still quite large.
Given that this year even the president of wealthy Austria refused to attend this major climate summit "due to particularly high costs in conditions of limited funding," a logical question arises: "Are there no funding problems in our country? Can we easily spend millions of hryvnias on trips for dozens of people to Brazil?"
And the question here is not only about the amount of money spent, but also about its expediency. In the summary report by the Ministry of Economy, "Ukraine's results at COP30: a brief overview of the main points," we did not see any concrete results. As in most cases, all the "achievements" boil down to "discussed, held meetings, talked, talked, and talked again."
And one last question: why, even to create materials for international conferences, do journalists in Ukraine have to become investigative journalists in order to obtain information through indirect means that state bodies are required by law to provide without hindrance?
