Russia’s waging of a full-scale war created a great many major challenges for Ukraine, with some of those challenges being the need of rebuilding multiple regions, restoring critical infrastructure and affected ecosystems, and ensuring the country’s energy security.
At the same time, the effects of the climate crisis are still there, with some of them aggravated by Russia’s warfare. Numerous studies show Ukraine’s vulnerability to climate change. Natural calamities such as droughts, floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters have their impact on every sector of the economy, all the while posing a threat to public health and safety. All those manifestations of climate change require urgent actions that could ensure the Ukrainian communities’ adaptation to the new reality, especially the communities whose vulnerability was aggravated by the Russian aggression. Adapting to climate change can reduce those impacts by ensuring a more sustainable development, which also contributes to improving public health and safety. Communities need their infrastructure to be rebuilt with consideration for climate aspects, and the strategic documents for those communities, along with the post-war reconstruction plans, have to reflect such adjustments.
The 2030 Strategy on Environmental Security and Adaptation to Climate Change was adopted in October 2021. This document, along with the Action Plan, should be the impetus for systematic and long-term work on adaptation to climate change, however, due to the war, not every measure planned for 2022 has been implemented. While Ukraine’s Post-War Recovery and Development Plan presented by the National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine from the Consequences of the War contains the Environmental Security section offering some guidance regarding adaptation to climate change, the overall climate policy lacks integrity throughout the documents in question.
Now of all times, with many war-affected communities starting to develop their recovery action plans based on the updated version of the Law On Amendments to Specific Statutes Regarding the State Reginal Policy and Recovery Policy for Regions and Territories, is the perfect moment to design the reconstruction of those communities with allowances made for climate change. Therefore, it’s an opportunity to rebuild communities to be more sustainable, resilient, and prepared to face new challenges, based on the build back better principle, which must be the touchstone in the recovery efforts. This principle is also the foundation of the so-called Green Reconstruction, a sustainable recovery plan based on the best available technologies and practices to ensure the preservation of the environment, and climate change adaptation.
To make the adaptation to climate change a common thread in the National Recovery action plans in Ukraine, it is necessary to prioritize the following steps:
- Improve the consistency of approaches and the methodological coherence of provisions regarding climate action, with their further incorporation into Ukraine’s Post-War Recovery and Development Plan. The Plan should make allowances for the goals adopted by Ukraine in the Adaptation Strategy, as well as goals of the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal, which is crucial for further legal approximation of Ukrainian legislation to EU acquis in terms of Ukraine’s European integration.
- Given the infrastructure’s, the national economy’s, and the communities’ vulnerability to climate change, the Recovery Plan for Ukraine should make allowance for climate change, covering a variety of possible scenarios of global warming, and include action-oriented proposals regarding arrangements for integrating climate issues into the post-war recovery processes for communities and territories.
- Develop and lay down a uniform national methodology for the evaluation of risks and the communities’ vulnerability to climate change.
- Ensure that prevention of human-induced climate change and climate change adaptation are made inherent parts of developing any action plan for post-war recovery of communities and territories, which should be translated into Methodologies for Drawing Recovery Plans and Projects; include a mandatory chapter on vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change in every regional development plan.
- Provide charge-free access to transparent information on hydrometeorological and climate change data necessary for evaluation of the communities’ vulnerability to climate change; ensure smooth exchange of such data between state institutions and local authorities; have a mechanism for obtaining such data included in Methodologies for Drawing Recovery Plans and Projects.
- Ensure public access to state registers containing information on the state of the environment, as prescribed by the Law of Ukraine On Access to Public Information. Such access is necessary for shaping the ecology and climate components in the communities’ recovery plans.
- Propose amendments to the current State Building Standarts, or develop an updated version of said Standarts with consideration for the current climate indicators and potential future effects of climate change, as provided by the Adaptation Strategy and the National Action Plan for Environmental Protection.
- While implementing recovery plans and projects, ensure compliance with current environmental requirements and standards, which involves the full implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment procedures and Strategic Environmental Assessment, and consideration for the climate component in particular.
- Allocate financing from the National and local budgets for adaptation measures in the recovery of territories, specifically by introducing a procedure of allocating monetary assets from Environmental Protection Funds to cover the cost of climate change adaptation measures.
- Every infrastructure recovery project must include climate and ecological components, while the financial support that will be allocated for post-war reconstruction must be directed, in particular, to climate change adaptation measures in the affected communities.
Ukrainian communities face a complex task: on the one hand, they need to ensure post-war recovery using the best available technologies, and on the other hand, they have to prepare themselves for climate change. The aftermath of hostilities poses additional challenges, reducing the possibilities for adaptation, both due to ecosystems and infrastructure being affected, and due to the lack of resources, be it financial, human, etc. To ensure climate adaptation, local recovery planning has to be done with consideration for the following principles and approaches:
- Recovery planning should be based on the principles of transparency and participatory approach, through involving the public, specifically local residents, in decision-making regarding the recovery of territories, drawing and implementing of recovery projects. Such participation should be achieved by holding public consultations/hearings and creating task teams (rebuilding destroyed facilities, urban infrastructure renewal, etc.).
- Climate risk and vulnerability assessment should be one of the initial stages of recovery planning, to understand what additional threats may arise due to climate change and how this may affect the recovery and development of the area.
- Adaptation measures proposed based on the vulnerability assessment should be incorporated into the recovery and development plans of territories.
- Every community recovery plan should be based on a long-term strategic vision, providing a foundation for future community growth and helping implement comprehensive solutions.
- In cities and communities, both environmental departments (if applicable) and specialized NGOs must be brought into process of developing post-war recovery plans.
- The recovery must be carried out using the best available technologies and the highest standards of energy efficiency, while climate adaptation needs must be considered at the initial stage of construction of residential buildings and infrastructure.
- While drawing recovery plans for communities and territories, it is crucial to prioritize nature-based solutions (NbS) that allow adaptation to climate change through protection, sustainable management, and recovery of natural ecosystems.
- Planning adaptation measures in terms of recovering territories affected by hostilities must necessarily include solutions for creating urban green spaces, specifically, developing a Comprehensive Urban Greening Program along with recovery plans.
- While drawing recovery plans for communities and territories, it is crucial to utilize the principles of the circular economy and to prioritize decisions according to waste management hierarchy, specifically, promote the reuse of materials from the demolition waste as much as possible.
This Position is supported by the undersigned organizations:
NGO Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction
NGO Ecosense
NGO Ecoclub
NGO Center for Social and Media Initiatives
NGO Ekoltava
NGO Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group
NGO Our Home – Manyava
EHA Green World
NGO Razom We Stand
NGO Plato
NGO Zero Waste Society
NGO Khmelnytskyi Energy Cluster
NGO “Ecological News” (Kherson)
IG Mariupol Zero Waste
NGO Zero Waste Lutsk
NGO Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine
NGO FORZA
NGO Сenter for cooperation and projects implementation (Сenter for CPI)
NGO Forest Initiatives and Society
NGO Dzyga
NGO Сlub of Active Fishers-Guardians of Nature (CAFGN)
NGO Black Sea Women’s Club
This article was prepared in the framework of the project “Closing the loop: a just energy transition designed by capitals and regions” with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of NGO Ecoaction and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
