The national emissions trading system will be launched in a pilot mode in 2025, while this year Ukraine will fully launch a system for monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources is currently digitising the last important element of the system - reporting by facility operators. This was announced at the International Environmental Forum "United for Nature. Agenda for Ukraine" by Ruslan Strilets, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. This is the second Forum under the United for Nature aegis. The first one was held last October by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources together with the Prosecutor General's Office.

"For Ukraine, 2024 is definitely the year of the start of the climate dialogue, as well as the preparation of Ukraine to join the EU's carbon emissions regulation mechanism at the border with the European Union - CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). Even during the war, together we are capable of adopting the necessary legislation and enabling industry to carry out the first test operations in the ETS market to understand how this market operates," said Ruslan Strilets.

According to him, Ukraine has already been granted an observer status in the Seville process. Ukraine has set a course for standardisation and implementation of the best available technologies. Now, instead of wasting time negotiating the postponement of the DCFTA for Ukraine, we need to take effective steps by 2026. For this purpose, a pilot national Emissions Trading System should be launched in 2025.

"As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, it is critical that businesses in Ukraine fulfill their part of the agreement - pay taxes, operate legally, in the black, respect their employees and not work with russia. In turn, we must create conditions for an easy transition of business to high environmental standards. The green transition should be easy and affordable," said Ruslan Strilets.

According to the Minister, this year Ukraine plans to complete the process of consolidating cooperation with Switzerland and Japan under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The purchase of Ukraine's surplus emission allowances by these countries will become an additional source of green investment for the reconstruction of our country.

On 31 January, the International Environmental Forum "United for Nature. Agenda for Ukraine" was held in Kyiv. Among the participants were Mircea Fechet, Minister of Environment, Water and Forests of Romania, Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov, Minister of Environment of Moldova, and Izabella Teixeira, former Minister of Environment of Brazil. The participants discussed the "environmental component" of Ukraine's EU accession negotiations; Ukraine's climate policy and sources of funding for the green transition; next steps in reforming water management and waste management systems, launching state environmental control reform; the importance of starting a national dialogue on decarbonising the extractive industry; and the development and preservation of the nature reserve fund.