Just transition, which aims to ensure decent living conditions and livelihoods for all workers and communities affected by the transition to climate neutrality, is one of the key principles of international climate policy. In Ukraine, this approach is gradually being introduced, primarily through the State Target Programme for the Just Transition of Coal Regions until 2030.
At the same time, we would like to draw your attention to the fragmented nature of the just transition policy in Ukraine, which is reflected in several aspects:
- It is largely equated with support exclusively for coal regions, namely those with coal mines or thermal power generation facilities, as well as several surrounding communities.
- It is only partially reflected in strategic policy documents, including the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
- It does not cover the majority of communities and sectors that are already experiencing, or are likely to experience, negative socio-economic impacts of decarbonisation.
Our network believes that achieving a full and successful decarbonisation of the national economy requires broadening both the scope and the understanding of just transition beyond its current focus on a single category of regions.
Other carbon-intensive and mono-industrial communities — including those dependent on the extraction of oil, gas and other fossil resources, as well as on fossil-fuel-based industries (such as metallurgy, chemical and petrochemical sectors) — that may face a decline in activity or full closure should also be covered by government’s just transition policies.
At the same time, the full-scale war is accelerating these processes. russia is deliberately targeting key sectors of Ukraine’s economy by intensifying attacks on energy infrastructure and industrial facilities. As a result, many communities are already facing the challenge of rapidly transforming their local economies to preserve economic resilience and social security.
Recognising this, the Ukrainian Climate Network calls for expanding the official definition of just transition in national strategic documents by establishing clear criteria for the communities and sectors it should cover, beyond the coal sector and coal regions.
Just transition should cover all communities and population groups that may experience negative socio-economic impacts because of climate policy. In particular, just transition needs to be better and more systematically integrated into Ukraine’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
Particular attention should also be paid to national-level documents that shape the country’s economic policy, as well as to strategies for regional development and education (such as the State Regional Development Strategy, the National Economic Strategy, and the Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in Ukraine). Their upcoming updates create opportunities for better integrating just transition measures for carbon-intensive and mono-industrial communities.
Experts of the Ukrainian Climate Network are confident that expanding both the understanding and the practical implementation of just transition is a necessary condition for the success of Ukraine’s climate policy. Without a comprehensive, socially oriented approach, the decarbonisation process risks deepening regional social inequalities and undermining public support for the European integration decisions required to implement it.
The position has been endorsed by the member organisations of the Ukrainian Climate Network:
NGO “Ahentstvo Ekonomichnoho Rozvytku”,
NGO “Ahentstvo Spryiannia Stalomu Rozvytku Karpatskoho Rehionu ‘FORZA'”,
NGO “Ahentsiia Staloho Rozvytku ‘Synerhiia'”,
NGO “U-Cycle”,
NGO “Biuro Ekolohichnykh Rozsliduvan”,
NGO “Holos Pryrody”,
NGO “Hromadianska Merezha ‘OPORA'”,
NGO “Dytiacha Ekolohichna Asotsiatsiia – Zelena Kraina”,
NGO “Dytiachyi Nezalezhnyi Ekolohichnyi Tsentr ‘Romantyk'”,
NGO “Eko Misto Chernihiv”,
NGO “Ekoclub”,
NGO “Ekolohichnyi Klub ‘Eremurus'”,
NGO “Ekolohichno-Humanitarne Obiednannia ‘Zelenyi Svit'”,
NGO “Ekopark Osokorky”,
NGO “Ekosens”,
NGO “Ekosfera”,
NGO “Ekspertno-Doradchyi Tsentr ‘Pravova Analityka'”,
NGO “Yedyna Planeta”,
NGO “Forest Initiatives and Communities”,
NGO “Merezha Ekostantsii Ukrainy”,
NGO “Molodizhna Klimatychna Initsiatyva ‘Rozvii'”,
NGO “Zero Waste Lviv”,
NGO “Plato”
NGO “Suspilnyi Proekt ‘Ekoltava'”,
NGO “Razom We Stand”,
NGO “Zero Waste Society”,
NGO “Ukrainska Ekolohichna Asotsiatsiia ‘Zelenyi Svit'”,
NGO “Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group”,
NGO “Ukrainskyi Ekolohichnyi Klub ‘Zelena Khvylia'”,
NGO “Flora”,
NGO “Khmelnytskyi Enerhetychnyi Klaster”,
NGO “Center for Environmental Initiatives “Ecoaction”,
NGO “Tsentr Mizhnarodnoho Spivrobitnytstva i Vprovadzhennia Proektiv”,
NGO “Chornomorskyi Zhinochyi Klub”,
NGO “Vsesvitnii Fond Pryrody Ukraina” (WWF-Ukraine),
NGO “Ekoterra”, ICO “Environment – People – Law”,
NGO “Nash Dim – Maniava”,
Natsionalnyi Ekolohichnyi Tsentr Ukrainy,
Ukrainske Tovarystvo Okhorony Pryrody,
NGO “EkoPravo-Kharkiv”.