2. October 2019
After recent parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources were merged to the Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection. This transformation opens up opportunities for more ambitious climate policy, since the Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Irina Stavchuk to the post of Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection. We very much congratulate Irina to that important and challenging task. As previous executive director of “Ecoaction” and ex coordinator of the Climate Action Network (CAN) – European Caucasus & Central Asia (EECCA) she brings in a lot of experiences and competences regarding environmental and climate protection as well as the involvement of civil society in these issues. Since 2018 UfU works closely together with “Ecoaction” (and other NGOs) within the project “Strengthen Civil Society for the implementation of national climate policy”, funded by the International Climate Initiative. The aim is to strengthen participation of civil society in climate policy in Ukraine, as well as in Georgia and Colombia. Recent developments give hope, that Ukraine now takes the path towards serious climate policy, including a more ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as well as meaningful civil society involvement in the revision process!