Hello, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to today's hearing and for all of the support Canada has given the people of Ukraine.
I represent the International Institute for Sustainable Development, working from Geneva, where since last year I have led work on a sustainable recovery of Ukraine. I also represent Ukraine’s largest environmental NGO, the Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction, as a board member and one of the founding members. I’m a Ukrainian myself, with a background in energy and environmental policy, and it’s these two topics of energy and environment that I would like to touch upon in my short statement today.
A few days ago, Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said that we are preparing for the worst winter in our history. Ukraine is a big country, and protecting the highly centralized energy system and all the power plants from Russia’s terrorist attacks is a complicated task, especially without sufficient air defence. This is a matter of our survival.
There is another mid-term perspective we should also be looking at: ways to transform the Ukrainian energy system into a more decentralized and more resilient one to avoid big future disruptions. Recently, 50 Ukrainian municipal leaders signed a letter to the U.S. government requesting support for communities in Ukraine, especially in the form of renewable energy technologies.
Indeed, we see through our work that many Ukrainian cities consider solar panels, storage systems, and heat pumps as effective solutions to improve local energy security. The first pilot projects of this kind, mostly implemented with the support of NGOs and international partners, started appearing around the country in autumn last year. Communities are, of course, giving priority to modernizing the energy systems that are supporting critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, water supply systems, schools and so on. However, the financial mechanisms available to implement such projects are limited for the moment, and this is where some Canadian support would be most valuable.
This transformation of the energy system, which is also embedded in the new energy strategy of Ukraine by 2050, goes beyond decentralized energy production. It’s also a way to decarbonize the economy, create new jobs and support local production of green technologies and materials, which are required for the energy transition not only in Ukraine but also worldwide.
Since 2017, together with colleagues from Ecoaction, we have been working with coal-mining communities in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, on their just transition away from coal. Most of them were keen to see their economies diversified and transformed into more sustainable ones. The city of Vuhledar, with enough coal to last for decades, provided impressive leadership in these debates. Vuhledar now lies in ruins, completely destroyed by Russia, with its coal mines flooded, just like many neglected mines in Ukrainian territories controlled by Russia since 2014. Flooding of coal mines leads to grave consequences, including soil and water pollution.
The Ukrainian government estimates the overall cost to the environment from the war to be more than $70 billion Canadian, and this is only since February 24 of last year. The scale of the damage is enormous, and substantial resources are of course needed to analyze, monitor, and remediate the pollution and to deal with many other types of damage to the environment. Ukraine will need significant support with this throughout the years to come.
Finally, the Kakhovka Dam destruction in June 2023 became one of the most consequential events in terms of the scale of its impact on people and the environment. The destruction resulted in flooded cities, hundreds of thousands of people with limited access to fresh water, mines and pollution washed into the sea, and an increased risk to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia. This is an ecocide. The area where the Kakhovka reservoir used to be is now becoming a huge young forest. This is incredible. Researchers are calling for a careful examination of options that are needed for reconstruction of the dam to make sure that we don’t repeat mistakes of the past and do build back better.
Ukrainians want to build back better. They want to rebuild, and they started rebuilding as soon as the first cities and regions were liberated at the end of last year. We want to build a more sustainable future. Since Canada is already planning to assist Ukrainian communities in making an inclusive recovery, attention should also be given to ways Ukraine could transition to a green economy. Only a strong and prosperous Ukraine could provide security for its people and Europe.
I thank you for your attention, and I will be glad to answer any questions.