Ex Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Iryna Stavchuk shared the achievements of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine for 2.5 years, during which she held this position.
Iryna Stavchuk spoke on Facebook about environmental reforms, integration of the environmental component into various sectoral policies and involvement of a number of international partners in cooperation.
Climate change:
- Updated National Defined Contribution until 2030 approved.
The updated NVB has more ambitious climate policies for industry, business and all relevant ministries - the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance.
"The only way for Ukraine's development is to modernize the energy and industry sectors, energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources," Stavchuk said.
- The first draft of the Action Plan for the implementation of the IER for the period up to 2025 has been prepared on the basis of agreed key 32 transformations in various sectors of the economy.
Developments should be transformed into principles and action plans for the green recovery of Ukraine, as measures to abandon Russian fossil fuels have become even more relevant.
- A law has been adopted and a system for monitoring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions has been put into practice.
This is the first step towards launching a greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine team was also able to receive state funding for additional staff for the sustainable operation of this system.
- A process of stakeholder consultation and modeling has been launched to plan a greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system.
Ukraine has been preliminarily selected into a major World Bank project to develop market-based carbon control instruments.
- A strategy and operational action plan for adaptation to climate change have been adopted.
"The World Bank is involved in the first comprehensive modeling of climate change in the history of Ukraine according to IPCC scenarios by the end of this century," Stavchuk wrote.
This will allow us to explore the local effects of climate change in Ukraine and open up opportunities for new research.
- A draft framework law on climate change has been prepared.
The Law prescribes all legal norms on the implementation of the EU Energy and Climate Governance regulations binding on Ukraine in the third energy package of the Energy Community.
- Practically all legal acts on the implementation of the Law of Ukraine on Economic Activity with Ozone Depleting Substances and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases have been adopted, funds have been raised for the preparation of analytical materials and economic calculations for accession to the Kigali Amendment.
The process of preparing an action plan to reduce methane emissions for the implementation of the US-EU Methane Initiative, which Ukraine has joined, has begun.
- Ukraine's interests were defended in the Article 6 decisions in Glasgow, which strengthened Ukraine's support for energy.
- Preliminary negotiations have been held to raise funds from the Swiss Klik Fund to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in some projects.
Amendments to the regulations regulating the issues of cooperation with MFIs have been developed and agreed with the Ministry of Finance with the obligatory inclusion of information on the impact of projects on climate change and preliminary calculations of expected reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
European integration and strategic issues:
"During my stay as Deputy Minister for European Integration, according to the Pulse Agreement, the implementation rate increased from 47% in 2020 to 61% in early 2022," said Stavchuk.
- Annexes 30 and 31 of the Association Agreement with the EU have been revised and draft amendments with updated and new regulations and directives have been prepared.
Although the war has halted this process, new prospects for EU membership will require an even more ambitious environmental reform agenda.
- The National Action Plan for Environmental Protection until 2025 has been adopted.
- A package of documents for the ratification of the Second Amendment to the Espoo Convention has been prepared, passed all approvals and sent to the Office of the President. The next step is to submit the documents to Parliament.
- Work has been done to comply with the requirements of a number of cases in the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention. All consultations on the construction of KhNPP-3,4 and at the final stage all procedures for the continuation of other nuclear power plants have been completed.
- Regulations for the implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive in Ukraine in the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine and the Ministry of Agriculture have been prepared and adopted.
Environmental finance
There are no full-time units in the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine to work on environmental finance reform.
- A draft resolution on the procedure for selecting and supporting green bond projects has been developed.
- Joint work has been launched with the OECD to prepare a full review of the environmental finance situation in Ukraine.
- The concept of introduction of the Ukrainian Climate Fund as a separate legal entity for strengthening the financing of environmental projects in Ukraine has been prepared. Political support was received from the EU and the German government to raise funds for such a fund.
- A draft resolution on the introduction of the categorization of environmental expenditures on the basis of international CEPA and SREPA has been prepared, which should replace the outdated and confusing resolution 1147. A number of measures that are considered environmentally friendly abroad are currently lacking.
- The process of Ukraine's accession to the EU's environmental fund LIFE has been launched.
"There was a lot of other things, but I am most proud of how many useful activities we were able to implement with the KFW project, which I have officially coordinated by the Ministry since mid-2020," said Stavchuk.
She also stressed that all these achievements are a joint result of the work of the Ministry's team, the Office for Reform Support, the Verkhovna Rada Eco-Committee, external experts and technical assistance projects.
"I plan to stay around the topics of green reconstruction of Ukraine, the fight against climate change and green financing," said Stavchuk.
We will remind, The Cabinet of Ministers has appointed three new deputy ministers environmental protection.
As EcoPoliticа reported earlier, the new Deputy Minister of Ecology got into a scandal.
