Germany and Ukraine outline new areas of cooperation on environmental protection: Svitlana Grynchuk

Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Svitlana Grynchuk, held an online meeting with Germany’s Minister for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Carsten Schneider.

The parties discussed several issues related to continuing collaboration between the ministries, as well as potential new areas of cooperation.

Svitlana Grynchuk emphasised that Ukraine greatly valued Germany’s longstanding and comprehensive support in the environmental sphere. Germany co-chairs point 8 of the Ukrainian President’s Peace Formula, “Environmental Safety.” As the host of last year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference, Germany initiated the creation of a Green Platform for Ukraine’s Recovery and provided an initial financial contribution of EUR 5 million.

“Today, international partners have collectively committed EUR 20 million to prepare investment projects for green recovery, including in the areas of renewable energy, municipal services, waste management, and water purification,” Svitlana Grynchuk stated.

She noted that German partners were assisting Ukraine in establishing a system for monitoring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas emissions, launching a Climate Office, and conducting the first national forest inventory, which surveyed over 4,600 sites and identified 67,000 hectares of forests damaged by the war. Currently, German colleagues are supporting Ukraine in updating its Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. Additionally, last year saw the launch of two new German international technical assistance projects focused on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“We also discussed preparations for this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2025), which will take place in Rome. We are actively preparing and planning a special session on ‘Environmental Recovery’ in the context of the EU. I invited Carsten Schneider to participate. We also addressed the situation regarding the restoration of the damaged New Safe Confinement Arch following russian shelling. Carsten Schneider commended Ukraine’s prompt and transparent communication with international partners on this matter and assured continued support for Ukraine in enhancing nuclear safety,” Svitlana Grynchuk noted.