IKI Ukraine Workshop 2026: Supporting Ukraine’s resilience and green recovery on the pathway to EU accession

The IKI Ukraine Work­shop 2026 took place in Berlin at the end of April. Organ­ised by the IKI Inter­face Ukraine project, the event brought togeth­er over 120 par­tic­i­pants, includ­ing gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Ukraine and Ger­many, as well as from the EU. Experts and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from IKI projects and imple­ment­ing part­ners also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the work­shop.

The work­shop focused on key issues for Ukraine’s green recov­ery and EU inte­gra­tion: cli­mate, envi­ron­ment and bio­di­ver­si­ty pol­i­cy imple­men­ta­tion and gov­er­nance, and ener­gy resilience through ener­gy effi­cien­cy and renew­ables. Bilat­er­al meet­ings between Ukrain­ian and Ger­man gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives also pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to align pri­or­i­ties and define con­crete steps for future coop­er­a­tion.

Dr. Heike Henn, Direc­tor Gen­er­al Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Action at the Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Nature Con­ser­va­tion, Nuclear Safe­ty and Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion, reaf­firmed Germany’s com­mit­ment to Ukraine’s recov­ery, not­ing:

Sup­port­ing Ukraine is a key pri­or­i­ty for the Ger­man gov­ern­ment. Russia’s war of aggres­sion is caus­ing severe eco­nom­ic, human, and envi­ron­men­tal dam­age. There­fore, our engage­ment is focused on Ukraine’s future in Europe — a future that is sus­tain­able, peace­ful, eco­nom­i­cal­ly sound, and in har­mo­ny with nature.

On the Ukrain­ian side, the focus remains on syn­chro­niz­ing these efforts with EU stan­dards. Olek­san­dr Kras­no­lut­skyi, Deputy Min­is­ter of Econ­o­my, Envi­ron­ment and Agri­cul­ture of Ukraine, point­ed out:

Such work­shops pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for gov­ern­ment, inter­na­tion­al part­ners, and civ­il soci­ety to engage in dia­logue. We hear dif­fer­ent opin­ions on the same chal­lenges, and it is impor­tant to find com­mon ground that enables progress in the right direc­tion. For Ukraine, that direc­tion is Euro­pean inte­gra­tion.

These two days demon­strat­ed the impor­tance of mul­ti-lev­el coop­er­a­tion — from inter­gov­ern­men­tal dia­logue between Ukraine, Ger­many and the EU to the prac­ti­cal work of IKI projects on the ground. Through this col­lab­o­ra­tion, we are not only exchang­ing expe­ri­ence, but also grad­u­al­ly shap­ing more coher­ent and effec­tive solu­tions for Ukraine. This coor­di­nat­ed effort brings us clos­er to our shared goal — a green, restored, and resilient Ukraine with­in the EU, sum­marised the out­comes of the two-day work­shop Gabriel Sauer, Project Direc­tor of IKI Inter­face Ukraine.

Ger­many, through the IKI, sup­ports Ukraine with a broad range of projects focus­ing on three pri­or­i­ties: ambi­tious cli­mate and bio­di­ver­si­ty pol­i­cy, green recov­ery and EU acces­sion – e.g., by sup­port­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of inter­na­tion­al cli­mate goals (Nation­al­ly Deter­mined Con­tri­bu­tions) and of the envi­ron­men­tal and cli­mate acquis, or by prepar­ing for green invest­ments which will be key in the green recov­ery process. This includes sup­port to the intro­duc­tion of an emis­sions trad­ing sys­tem and of the EU Car­bon Bor­der Adjust­ment Mech­a­nism (CBAM). Our col­lab­o­ra­tion also strength­ens Ukraine’s ener­gy resilience through ener­gy effi­cien­cy improve­ments and the expan­sion of renew­able ener­gy sources.

The annu­al IKI Inter­face work­shop serves as a plat­form for coor­di­na­tion among IKI projects in Ukraine, fos­ter­ing dia­logue and strength­en­ing syn­er­gies across ini­tia­tives.

🎞️ Watch the video to find out how Ger­many, through the IKI, sup­ports Ukraine.

The IKI Ukraine work­shop 2026 was organ­ised by the project “IKI Inter­face: Sup­port­ing Ukraine towards Ambi­tious and Inte­grat­ed Cli­mate Pol­i­cy (Green Ukraine)”. The project is imple­ment­ed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Nature Con­ser­va­tion, Nuclear Safe­ty and Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion (BMUKN) under the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI), in coop­er­a­tion with the Min­istry of Econ­o­my, Envi­ron­ment and Agri­cul­ture of Ukraine.