Ukraine is accelerating the development of the National Energy and Climate Plan and plans to present the first draft of the document by the end of November. This is a very short timeframe - as a standard, such a document is prepared for at least 1-1.5 years. This was stated by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko during a meeting of the High Level Group on the preparation of the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).

"It has been almost three months since the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation on the National Energy and Climate Plan, and the Ukrainian side has made some progress during this time. Firstly, a team within the Government and a team of external experts was formed and started working on the development of the plan. Second, a modeling team has been established and will begin its work in September. Thirdly, we have outlined a schedule for the preparation of the NECP, taking into account that it should be synchronized with the preparation of the Ukraine Facility Plan.

We expect the first draft of the NECP document with the main scenarios by the end of November. This is a very tight deadline - as a standard, such a document takes at least 1-1.5 years to prepare. The team will have to work hard, and we will be grateful for understanding and support in this process," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to her, the final version of the document is to be approved in June 2024. Therefore, additional discussions will be held between November 2023 and June 2024. Therefore, between November 2023 and June 2024, additional discussions, clarifications and consultations will be held with all stakeholders.

It should be borne in mind that Ukraine will develop the NECP by modeling scenarios in a time of war, and thus, lack of or incomplete data. The martial law regime allows companies not to send their reports to the State Statistics Service, so the plan developers will not have much statistical data for 2022-2023 for modeling.

Another important circumstance to consider when developing the NECP is the need to combine both recovery and green transition. The development of the plan should provide an honest answer to how far we will integrate the green transition into the recovery in the next 4 years.

"In addition, we need significant financial and expert assistance from international partners. Ukraine is at war, so most of the public funds go to finance the army. Not only the development, but also the implementation of the National Energy and Climate Plan will depend on the willingness of international partners to help Ukraine finance all the initiatives outlined.

Our meeting aims to find an answer to these circumstances and help the Ukrainian team better focus the modeling of future scenarios. They should be realistic, so I urge us to talk not only about dreams, but also about clear results that we want to see in 2030," summarized Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Background

NECPs were initially developed by EU Member States within the framework of the Energy Union. These plans are intended to strengthen the governance process between the EU and its member states, ensure compliance with international climate commitments, increase transparency of member states' policies, and regulate their interaction.

As a contracting party to the Energy Community, Ukraine has also committed itself to developing its own NECP. The plan should cover the period until 2030 and contain a forecast until 2050.