Expert and founder of the Women Leaders For Ukraine movement Iryna Papusha said that Ukraine can become a flagship for the whole world in sustainable development.
For this, post-war reconstruction should be based on the principles of maximum safety, technology and environmental friendliness, in particular according to the principles of the European Green Course, she said at presentations of the forum "International Sustainable Development Forum".
She noted that Ukraine faces large-scale challenges, in particular regarding victory in the war, achieving energy independence, implementation of EU legislation, combating climate change, etc. And while the war continues, it is necessary to prepare to overcome these challenges.
Papusha emphasized that Ukraine has already become the best in the world in several areas of development. Sustainable development can become one of these areas.
She added that the recovery plan should be linked to the country's long-term development. Although each region will have its own challenges and reconstruction plans, a public policy with common principles and approaches is needed.
The expert named 3 large-scale tasks that need to be worked on now:
- sustainability in economic, social and ecological systems;
- fastest recovery;
- modernization according to the principle of "rebuilding better than it was".
"We have the opportunity not to rebuild and improve, but to build "from scratch" using the most advanced and modern technologies that have not even been implemented yet," she said.
According to her, there is a close connection between reconstruction plans and results in the medium and long term.
"The foundations we are laying now will affect our lives for many years," Papusha said. – We should focus on the concept of green sustainable development. Without a national policy in this direction, we will not be able to follow this principle."
She added that this concept is aimed not only at overcoming environmental disasters from the consequences of Russian aggression, fighting climate change, but also at the direction of development. After all, it is sustainable development that unites the state, society and economy. However, it should be transparent, involving the public in decision-making. This, among other things, will make it possible to improve the ecological quality of life and develop the economy, while reducing the anthropogenic load.
"We should talk about decarbonization, decentralization of the agro-food complex, circular economy. The main thing is that we have to create conditions for green investments, green innovations and new green jobs," the expert said.
She emphasized that the most important condition for achieving these goals is political dialogue.
Papusha also added that the initial high costs of the green transition will allow the transition to a qualitatively different standard of living. For example, the transition from wired phones to modern gadgets was also quite expensive.
Serhiy Porovskyi, an expert on financing and energy efficiency policy of the UNIDO Project, noted that the sustainable development and reconstruction of Ukraine will require significant investments. And for them to be systemic, it is important for investors to have a clear legal framework.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that during the post-war reconstruction, emphasis will be placed on the implementation of green projects, and Ukraine is ready to become one of the European hubs of modern green energy, in particular renewable gases.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, analyst of the resource-analytical center "Society and Environment" Zoryana Kozak stated that the green recovery of Ukraine should be considered as necessity of a deep transformation of the country on the way to a green and climate-neutral economy.
