Kyiv, 22 September 2023 – On the eve of the UN Climate Ambition Summit 2023, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, in collaboration with Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, has completed a series of workshops on local-level climate change adaptation planning as part of the EU4Climate project.

During the online segment of the workshop, 302 representatives of municipalities from over 100 Ukrainian cities and towns were given insights and guidelines on how to analyse the impact of climate factors, and classify them, as well as how to elaborate municipal climate change adaptation plans based on available sources of information.

The in-person part of the workshop was attended by representatives from seven Ukrainian cities – Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, Zaporizhzhia (which is located near the front line), and Bucha (which was under temporary Russian military occupation in 2022). 

With the assistance of leading experts from the EU4Climate, Covenant of Mayors – East and APENA3 projects, workshop participants identified priority climate change adaptation measures and integrated these measures into the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP) of each participating city.

Victoria Kyreieva, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, thanked Ukraine’s international partners for their support in implementing climate policy reforms in the country.

"Our strategic goal is a post-war green recovery in Ukraine based on the principle of 'build back better than before the war.’” she said.

“The climate component is a mandatory condition for financing such a recovery, including under the European Union's Ukrainian Facility instrument. I’m grateful to the local authorities of Ukrainian cities that are already working on this component. I’m delighted to welcome among the workshop participants the delegation from Bucha, a town that endured Russian occupation and now plans climate change adaptation measures during reconstruction." 

Chloe Allio, the head of the Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment section of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, said: “We welcome the fact that Ukraine is attaching a strong importance in preparing a green post-war recovery. Mainstreaming the environment and climate into post war reconstruction is in the interests of the citizens of Ukraine. This will require that long-term climate change effects are considered, along with adaptation measures to address these changes. The active involvement of local communities and Ukrainian citizens in adaptation planning at the local level is an important step in this direction.” 

Roman Shakhmatenko, the team leader of UNDP in Ukraine’s Energy and Environment Portfolio, emphasized that in its programmatic activities, UNDP is performing an integrator’s role by bringing together the efforts of various actors, including international organizations, donors, and government institutions, to implement the "build back better" principle at the national and local levels. "Incorporating climate adaptation measures will be one of the fundamental conditions for the reconstruction and development of Ukrainian cities in the coming decades,” he said. “We hope that the knowledge and skills acquired during this workshop will enable representatives of Ukrainian cities to become leaders in their communities in developing a low-emission and climate-resilient economy." 

Background: UNDP in Ukraine organized this training for Ukrainian cities and towns as part of EU4Climate, a regional project of the European Union. The EU-funded projects Covenant of Mayors – East, APENA3, and the Reform Support Team of Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources provided support in preparing this series of workshops.

Media enquiries: Yuliia Samus, UNDP Ukraine Head of Communications; e-mail: yuliia.samus@undp.org