Following the Marrakech Climate Change Conference experts and officials emphasize importance for Ukraine of staying in line with international obligations as well as of increasing share of renewable energy.
Ukraine needs to be gradually giving up coal and nuclear energy and switch to renewable energy sources. Otherwise it is going to lose its positions not only in the context of climate changes in the world but also in business environment and, respectively, will lose prospects of international investments. This viewpoint was presented by Oksana Aliyeva, Program Coordinator of the “Climate Change and Energy Policy” program within the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Office, at a press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. Issues of the climate changes and challenges that the countries are facing in this regard, were discussed in the global context of the Marrakech Climate Change Conference held on November 7-19 and attended by the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It came as the first meeting of the countries signatories of the Paris agreement that came into force on November 4. Ukraine is among the 20 countries that first ratified the agreement.
“In the above period there were three important events. First one is the 22nd Session of the conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol as well as the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement,” noted Svitlana Hrynchuk, director of Department on Climate Change, Atmosphere Protection and Preserving the Ozone Layer at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Meetings of working groups were part of the conference agenda. Ukraine’s representatives were taking part in all negotiation groups and working meetings. “Paris Agreement is completely different from the principles stipulated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and by the Kyoto Protocol. It suggests a totally different differentiation of countries as well as uniting the efforts of everyone,” emphasized Hrynchuk.
Oleksiy Ryabchyn, member of the parliament, Batkivshchyna faction, noted that the climate issues need not become populist. It will be difficult for Ukraine to transform without respective changes. “We started renewing the positions that were lost,” he said. Business needs to realize that it makes no sense investing in nuclear power, as the entire progressive world switches to renewable. They are cheaper and more ecologically friendly. “More and more international financial institutions are saying that they are taking their investments out of the coal and are investing into renewable energy. In some countries renewable energy is already competitive in the economic sense,” confirmed Iryna Stavchuk, expert of Ukraine’s National Ecology Center. Ukraine’s energy strategy development is underway. Otherwise, according to Hrynchuk, it would be very difficult to make a forecast as to its contribution and make it more ambitious without an internal strategy including the economic strategy as well. They need to be