IKI Ukraine Workshop: Cooperation for Ukraine’s Climate and Biodiversity Future

The Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive sup­ports projects in Ukraine that help to build a resilient, cost-effi­cient, and sus­tain­able ener­gy infra­struc­ture, as well as bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion and restora­tion in times of war. 

On 5 March 2025, the IKI inter­face work­shop “Ukraine’s Nation­al­ly Deter­mined Con­tri­bu­tion (NDC) 2035: Invest­ments in a Sus­tain­able, Cli­mate-Bal­anced, and Bio­di­verse Future” was held in Krakow. The city in Poland was cho­sen for the meet­ing between the Ukrain­ian and Ger­man part­ners because it lies halfway between the two coun­tries.  

The work­shop brought togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the gov­ern­ments of Ukraine and Ger­many, experts, and IKI part­ners to dis­cuss Ukraine’s cli­mate pol­i­cy, green recov­ery, and bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion.

Ukraine’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) update 

The key item on this year’s agen­da was the NDC update, which is due this year with­in UNFCCC’s glob­al call to mem­ber states to sub­mit their new NDCs before UNFCCC COP 30. That is why this is one of the most impor­tant cli­mate top­ics in Ukraine today.  

The NDCs serve as the main tool for imple­ment­ing the Paris Agree­ment. In light of this, a cen­tral objec­tive of this work­shop was to pro­vide an overview of the sig­nif­i­cance of updat­ing Ukraine’s NDC and analysing why it is cru­cial for Ukraine’s sus­tain­able future.  

The key top­ics dis­cussed at the event were:  

— how to strength­en the enabling envi­ron­ment to dri­ve sec­tor-wide trans­for­ma­tion; 

— decen­tral­ized renew­able ener­gy solu­tions in Ukraine for ener­gy resilience, how bio­di­ver­si­ty dri­ves cli­mate adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion, and 

— what strate­gies exist for effec­tive pri­vate sec­tor par­tic­i­pa­tion in Ukraine’s green recov­ery. 

Over­all, the work­shop high­light­ed very clear­ly that, for Ukraine, imple­ment­ing the Paris Agree­ment is essen­tial for both eco­nom­ic and cli­mate sta­bil­i­ty, as well as for suc­cess­ful Euro­pean inte­gra­tion, and that pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty at the same time goes a long way towards sup­port­ing cli­mate resilience and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment.  

Oth­er impor­tant aspects cov­ered at the work­shop were IKI´s pri­ori­tised field of action on ener­gy tran­si­tion and how to engage pri­vate investors in green infra­struc­ture, renew­able ener­gy, and bio­di­ver­si­ty-friend­ly devel­op­ment to ensure a resilient and cli­mate-pos­i­tive recov­ery. 

Working together for climate action and biodiversity conservation in times of war 

The cli­mate and bio­di­ver­si­ty crises are, with­out doubt, inter­linked and addressed simul­ta­ne­ous­ly with­in the frame­work of the IKI. The bio­di­ver­si­ty in Ukraine is unique in Europe, which is attrib­ut­able to the coun­try’s var­ied geog­ra­phy. The land­scapes range from the Carpathi­an Moun­tains, (primeval) forests, (for­est) steppes, pas­tures, (salt) mead­ows, and marsh­lands to the coasts of the Black Sea. The coun­try, which only amounts to six per­cent of Europe’s sur­face area, har­bours 35 per­cent of the con­ti­nen­t’s bio­di­ver­si­ty. 

With this in mind, anoth­er focus of this work­shop was to address the crit­i­cal impor­tance of bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion with­in Ukraine’s cli­mate strat­e­gy and high­light how pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty can sup­port cli­mate resilience and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment goals. 

The work­shop offered space for rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Ukrain­ian and Ger­man Min­istries, as well as Zukun­ft-Umwelt-Gesellschaft (ZUG) GmbH’s IKI Office, to intro­duce the cur­rent IKI Strat­e­gy and oth­er rel­e­vant updates and to inter­act with and get to know the dif­fer­ent actors in the organ­i­sa­tions imple­ment­ing the IKI’s projects. 

Comments from German and Ukrainian government representatives and the Project Director of the IKI Interface on the meeting in Krakow 

The Ger­man gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives were deeply impressed by the great efforts Ukrain­ian part­ners and imple­ment­ing organ­i­sa­tions make under the most dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances of the Russ­ian war of aggres­sion, which has been ongo­ing for three years, to main­tain the work of all projects and even expand the IKI’s activ­i­ties in Ukraine. The Ger­man offi­cials rec­og­nized the com­mend­able con­tin­ued efforts by Ukraine in cli­mate and bio­di­ver­si­ty action.  

Ukrain­ian part­ners expressed their sin­cere grat­i­tude for the con­tin­u­ous, reli­able Ger­man sup­port in this most dif­fi­cult time. Project staff pre­sent­ed the work of their projects, e.g., demon­strat­ing how decen­tralised renew­able ener­gy solu­tions with pow­er stor­age can secure crit­i­cal ener­gy resilience for hos­pi­tals, schools, preschools, and local admin­is­tra­tion offices. 

Dr Philipp Behrens, Head of the IKI Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK):  

We are hap­py to see that our Ukrain­ian part­ners are tak­ing the NDC efforts very seri­ous­ly and are work­ing hard on the new NDC. The new NDC can show a clear way to a decen­tralised and decar­bonised econ­o­my with renew­ables and a green, recon­struct­ed Ukraine. If pri­vate stake­hold­ers are aware that there is a clear path­way towards a decar­bonised Ukraine and a clear, ambi­tious NDC with a sec­toral approach, then all of these actors will know that they can invest in renew­ables and green jobs and they will help to cre­ate invest­ment plans that the coun­try needs.

Jürgen Keinhorst, Head of the Regional Division for Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection (BMUV): 

We are ful­ly aware of the pri­or­i­ties Ukraine is fac­ing in this cur­rent war sit­u­a­tion. We believe in Ukraine, and we believe in the future of Ukraine. In this regard, we ini­ti­at­ed from the Ger­man side togeth­er with Ukraine the Plat­form for Action on the Green Recov­ery of Ukraine, which is deal­ing with envi­ron­ment, cli­mate and ener­gy to pave the way for Ukraine into the future and to the EU acces­sion.

Elke Steinmetz, Head of Division for International Cooperation on Biodiversity, BMUV: 

We must com­mend the enthu­si­asm of Ukrain­ian part­ners, who, despite the tur­moil at home, are work­ing relent­less­ly to chip in their own con­tri­bu­tions towards achiev­ing the goals and tar­gets of the Kun­ming-Mon­tre­al Glob­al Bio­di­ver­si­ty Frame­work. We are more com­mit­ted than ever to sup­port­ing Ukraine in this endeav­or. In this regard, the BMUV has opened a ded­i­cat­ed fund­ing win­dow for Ukraine to the tune of 1.5 mil­lion Euros with­in the Bio­di­ver­si­ty Finance Ini­tia­tive (BIOFIN II). More­over, the min­istry will be fund­ing a new project with the Ukraine Nature Con­ser­va­tion Group on map­ping pos­si­ble spheres for bio­di­ver­si­ty action in Ukraine. 

Viktoriia Kyreieva, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine:

The results we have achieved through such meet­ings (IKI Work­shops) are that, togeth­er with our part­ners, we define our goals. We clear­ly out­line where we are head­ing and how we should achieve it. That is why this is tru­ly one of the best tools avail­able. I would like to thank our part­ners — the Fed­er­al Repub­lic of Ger­many, IKI, and GIZ — because this sup­port is extreme­ly impor­tant for the Ukrain­ian gov­ern­ment. In fact, by 2025, we will not only be talk­ing about our goals but also clear­ly defin­ing what we have already achieved.

Gabriel Sauer, Director of the IKI Interface Project (GreenUkraine), GIZ:

The biggest chal­lenge is uncer­tain­ty. Beyond that, two key points stand out: financ­ing — where it will come from and the role of the pri­vate sec­tor in Ukraine’s green rebuild­ing — and the need for skilled peo­ple to imple­ment ambi­tious strate­gies. These chal­lenges also present great oppor­tu­ni­ties for Ukraine.

Background information: IKI Interface Workshop 

The annu­al inter­face work­shop is designed to pro­mote dia­logue between the IKI projects in Ukraine and to facil­i­tate the exchange on cur­rent issues in the fields of cli­mate action and bio­di­ver­si­ty. This work­shop, attend­ed by 15 imple­ment­ing organ­i­sa­tions and near­ly 70 par­tic­i­pants from Ukraine and Ger­many, pro­vides unique net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for insti­tu­tions and organ­i­sa­tions involved in the imple­men­ta­tion of IKI-financed projects — bilat­er­al, region­al, and glob­al in Ukraine. Par­tic­i­pants had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to high­light the work of the projects, dis­cuss the insights and chal­lenges relat­ed to their project activ­i­ties, and iden­ti­fy syn­er­gies and estab­lished con­nec­tions in their work. 

The IKI Work­shop was held with­in the frame­work of the project “Sup­port­ing Ukraine on the Path to an Ambi­tious and Inte­grat­ed Cli­mate Pol­i­cy (GreenUkraine).” 

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) is imple­ment­ing the project “IKI Inter­face: Sup­port­ing Ukraine towards Ambi­tious and Inte­grat­ed Cli­mate Pol­i­cy (Green Ukraine)” with­in the frame­work of the Ukrain­ian-Ger­man cli­mate coop­er­a­tion on behalf of the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Cli­mate Action (BMWK) and in coop­er­a­tion with the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources (MEPR).