The Project includes four major activities:

  1. Improvement of regulatory and legislative enabling environments for energy efficiency and clean energy;
  2. Promotion of energy planning, investments in energy saving technologies and use of renewable energy sources;
  3. Capacity building for the government and non-government organizations with respect to energy efficiency, renewable sources and emission reduction; and
  4. Enhancement of capacity for the Government of Ukraine in development and introduction of low emission development strategies.

ACTIVITY 4

UKRAINE’S LOW EMISSION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The USAID Project provided technical support to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine (hereinafter – Minecology) according to a Memorandum of Understanding and Work Plan on formation and implementation of state policy in climate change and low emission development of Ukraine.

The USAID Project provided support in formation of state policy in climate change. Two important regulatory and legal acts on climate change were drafted and approved by the Government of Ukraine during the Project:

These regulatory and legal acts for the first time since Ukraine’s independence outlined the problem of climate change at the national level and identified the ways to solve it.

In early 2015, the USAID Project, together with the Minecology, initiated development of the Low Emission Development Strategy of Ukraine through 2050 (hereinafter – the Strategy) in fulfillment of the provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. Supported by the American Center for Climatic Strategies Inc. (CCS), a global leader in formation of goals and targets for low emission development, the experts from the Minecology and experts from the USAID Project launched and implemented an inclusive and transparent process for development of the Strategy, with involvement of a wide range of stakeholders. Over the course of nearly three years, more than 700 stakeholders – representatives of the government, central executive power bodies, civil and expert communities, science and business – were involved in the work on the document. In September 2017, the long-term strategic document - the National Low Emission Development Strategy of Ukraine through 2050 was presented at the Third Conference on Low Emission Development, and it was published on the official website of the Minecology for public discussion. This is the first long-term strategic document in Ukraine that models low emission economic development through 2050.

It should be noted that the Strategy was developed in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Agreement, which the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was one of the first in the world to ratify in July 2016.

Six technical working groups were set up for development of the Strategy, they included 140 specialists in the sectors of:

  • energy supply; 
  • energy consumption in industry;
  • energy consumption in HCS;
  • transport;
  • waste management; and
  • agriculture and forestry.

An important part of the Strategy development process was modelling and forecasting of low emission development scenarios using the national model TIMES-Ukraine created by the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on the basis of the world-renowned model TIMES/MARKAL with support of the USAID.

The USAID Project implemented the following activities:

  • the Low Emission Development Strategy of Ukraine through 2050 was developed, and completed development of the Catalogue of National Policies and Low Emission Development Measures;
  • the National GHG Inventory and GHG Absorption System Enhancement Plan of Ukraine was developed, support in the preparation and development of the Annual National GHG and GHG Absorption Inventory in Ukraine in 1990-2014 is provided as well (can be found here);
  • a package of by-laws was developed for the creation of the system for monitoring, reporting, and verifying of GHG in Ukraine, including the following documents: Rules for Monitoring Reports Verification; Rules for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) – General Methodological Recommendations for the Plants; 
  • forecast scenarios developed on the Energy Sector Section developed for the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution of Ukraine to the Paris Agreement and for the Energy Strategy of Ukraine through 2035. Support provided for the process of public consultations and approval by the central executive power bodies of the draft Intended Nationally Determined Contribution of Ukraine (can be found here and here);
  • a training program implemented on the monitoring, reporting and verification system for the cement industry in cooperation with the national sectoral association “Ukrcement”, as well as a training program on GHG  monitoring, reporting and verification in three partner cities for the communal energy sector in cooperation with municipal executive power bodies;
  • the Manual on Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions developed and printed;
  • the “Manual for Technology Needs Assessment for the Municipal Sector” developed and printed;
  • materials of the relevant EU provisions regarding the monitoring, reporting and verification system developed and printed; (materials can be found here: Rules for Verification of Operator’s Monitoring Reports; Rules for Monitoring Reports Verification);
  • Methodology for calculation of GHG emissions for Bio Fuels and Bio Liquids developed according to provisions of the EU Directive 2009/28/EU, Annex V, as part of cooperation with the State Agency for Energy Efficiency; and
  • The Ukrainian electronic platform on Low Emission Development Strategy created.