EU4ClimateResilience will support Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions in developing Regional Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

EU4ClimateResilience is plan­ning to sup­port Dnipropetro­vsk and Sumy regions, two front­line areas of Ukraine, to help them devel­op Region­al Cli­mate Change Adap­ta­tion Strate­gies. These are not just tech­ni­cal doc­u­ments — they are essen­tial tools for build­ing a safer, more resilient future for com­mu­ni­ties already deeply affect­ed by war. 

In places where homes, infra­struc­ture, and entire ways of life have been dam­aged or destroyed, it’s not enough to sim­ply rebuild what was. These com­mu­ni­ties face a dou­ble bur­den: the impacts of war and the grow­ing threats posed by cli­mate change — from droughts and extreme heat to floods, storms, and water short­ages. That’s why long-term, for­ward-look­ing plan­ning is so impor­tant. 

On August 1, 2025, a work­ing meet­ing took place under the EU4ClimateResilience to plan next steps for this crit­i­cal work. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Dnipropetro­vsk and Sumy oblasts came togeth­er with experts from GIZ, the Covenant of May­ors, the APENA 3 project (imple­ment­ed by Egis Ukraine), sci­en­tists, to dis­cuss how to shape a vision for adapt­ing these regions to cli­mate chal­lenges. 

Why these matters 

Ukraine is already expe­ri­enc­ing the effects of cli­mate change. Ris­ing tem­per­a­tures, more fre­quent and severe droughts, flash floods, heat­waves, and water scarci­ty are affect­ing agri­cul­ture, ecosys­tems, ener­gy sys­tems, and pub­lic health. The war has fur­ther ampli­fied the country’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty — dam­ag­ing water infra­struc­ture, dis­rupt­ing ecosys­tems, and increas­ing the risk of envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters. 

Cli­mate risks do not stop at the front­line. They threat­en food secu­ri­ty, access to clean water, ener­gy sup­ply, and basic infra­struc­ture — espe­cial­ly in front­line regions where capac­i­ty has been crit­i­cal­ly weak­ened. That’s why for­ward-look­ing, region-spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tion strate­gies are so impor­tant. 

What was discussed 

The meet­ing marked the first step in build­ing these strate­gies. Par­tic­i­pants focused on prac­ti­cal ques­tions, such as: 

— What are the main cli­mate risks fac­ing the regions now and in the future? 

— What kind of data, research, and exper­tise are need­ed to plan effec­tive­ly? 

— How can we learn from oth­er Ukrain­ian regions that have already devel­oped cli­mate adap­ta­tion plans? 

— How can adap­ta­tion be inte­grat­ed into exist­ing region­al strate­gies and recov­ery plans? 

— How do we engage local com­mu­ni­ties and experts in the process? 

The exchange of ideas, expe­ri­ences, and expec­ta­tions helped lay a strong foun­da­tion for plan­ning the next stages of work. 

A step toward EU integration 

This work is also high­ly rel­e­vant at the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­els. By devel­op­ing region­al adap­ta­tion strate­gies, Ukraine is ful­fill­ing its oblig­a­tions under the nation­al Cli­mate Law, Nation­al adap­ta­tion to cli­mate change and envi­ron­men­tal safe­ty strat­e­gy. Even more, this effort brings Ukraine clos­er to the Euro­pean Union by align­ing with EU cli­mate leg­is­la­tion, the Euro­pean Green Deal.  

What’s next 

Dnipropetro­vsk and Sumy can become a blue­print for cli­mate-smart recov­ery, with bet­ter under­stand­ing their needs and clear action plan. These regions’ expe­ri­ence in tack­ling the dual chal­lenge of war and cli­mate change will pro­vide valu­able lessons for oth­ers — show­ing how to rebuild not just with bricks and mor­tar, but with resilience, sus­tain­abil­i­ty. 

Because cli­mate adap­ta­tion isn’t some­thing abstract — it’s about ensur­ing that pop­u­la­tion has safe homes, farm­ers have water for their crops, even fac­ing cur­rent and future cli­mate risks. 

EU4ClimateResilience: Decar­bon­i­sa­tion and cli­mate resilience in East­ern Part­ner­ship coun­tries is a region­al project co-financed by the Euro­pean Union and the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Pro­tec­tion, Nature Con­ser­va­tion and Nuclear Safe­ty (BMUKN) and imple­ment­ed in Ukraine by the Ger­man gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tion Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH in coop­er­a­tion with the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD). 

This post and its con­tent are the sole respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH and do not nec­es­sar­i­ly reflect the views of the Euro­pean Union and BMUKN.