Kyiv has joined the partner cities of the USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project in Ukraine which approved their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). On 17 May, the deputies of the Kyiv City Council supported the approval of Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) through 2020. The document was developed with support of the USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project in Ukraine (USAID Project).

SEAP is a document developed by the signatories of the Covenant of Mayors (the leading initiative of the European Union, which involves local and regional authoritiesfor fulfilling voluntary obligations to reduce CO2 emissions by 2020 by at least 20%, thus contributing to the development of environmentally oriented economy and quality of life improvement.

The Kyiv SEAP envisions comprehensive energy efficiency measures, identified and included into the document as a result of energy audits, conducted in major sectors of the municipal infrastructure by MERP experts in cooperation with specialists of the city administration and communal utilities. Together, the team of experts had developed a list of investment project proposals and presented expected results from SEAP investment projects implementation.

It is expected that realization of Kyiv SEAP measures in full will reduce CO2 emissions through 2020 by 444 thousand tons per year or 34% of the baseline year (2013). Implementation of the projects included in the SEAP will result in energy saving at 488 GWh / year, while the annual amount of energy from alternative sources will increase by 27% (557 MWh) from the baseline. As a result, Kyiv will significantly reduce excessive energy resource consumption and will improve the environmental situation.

Working with Kyiv since 2013, the USAID Project MERP experts had been providing advisory support and capacity building assistance for municipal authorities and utilities. In addition, the project had been actively engaging with Kyiv residents to improve their awareness in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and encourage them to implement energy efficiency measures in their apartment buildings.

 USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project in Ukraine