At the COP27 International Climate Conference, the Ukrainian Pavilion will be opened for the first time in order to attract as much attention as possible to the issue of green reconstruction of the country.
Experts believe that Ukraine should have a strong and unified position regarding climate goals and the impact of war on the environment, which EU countries would take into account in their future policies, reports DiXi Group.
This is what the participants of the online discussion "How Russian aggression affects the climate policy of Ukraine" said during the discussion of the impact of the war on the environment and the messages that Ukraine will take to COP27.
The discussion took place on October 27 as part of the 2022 Climate Diplomacy Weeks. Its participants were representatives of public organizations, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, individual communities, as well as the EU delegation in Ukraine.
At the beginning of the discussion, the president of DiXi Group Olena Pavlenko noted that the government and public organizations are collecting facts about the impact of the war on the climate and the environment, keeping registers and preparing information in order to one day present a "bill" to Russia.
"It is very important that the actions of all those involved in this are synchronized, because the cost of the losses that Ukraine bears will be huge. And the larger this amount will be, the more difficult the negotiations will be," she emphasized.
Svitlana Grynchuk, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources for European Integration, emphasized that the Ukrainian authorities have a unified position on post-war reconstruction. It should be "green", climate neutral and take place in a nature-friendly way.
She said that during the first 7 months of the full-scale war, additional emissions of greenhouse gases amounted to 33 million tons.
"The war directly affected the climate policy in Ukraine, changed the situation of greenhouse gas emissions", – Grynchuk noted.
She also drew attention to the catastrophic number of forest fires, which leads to a significant reduction in the ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
The adviser on the Green Deal of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Gregory Tsuris, said that it is primarily the Ukrainian society, not just the government, that should perceive the green recovery of Ukraine as the only possible one.
"Now, in the coming months, it is important to develop a plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine, taking into account the improvement of the situation with emissions into the atmosphere, the latest technologies and programs available to the country," he added.
Zoryana Kozak, senior analyst of the RAC "Society and Environment", emphasized the expediency of creating a systemic vision of climate policy and its coordination with other state policies.
"Ukraine should become one of the leaders of global climate policy. Such an ambitious strategic goal will affect both the recovery of Ukraine and its further development," she said.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets said that Russian aggression caused 31 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which has harmed the climate.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, analysts believe that at the COP27 UN climate summit, pressure on governments to detail plans will increase green transition, taking into account all the challenges.
