German-Ukrainian Energy Day 2023

The Russ­ian war has severe­ly impact­ed Ukraine’s ener­gy sec­tor, dam­ag­ing crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture and caus­ing dis­rup­tions in ener­gy sup­plies. Whilst the sys­tem has shown remark­able resilience, the war has high­light­ed the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of Ukraine’s cen­tral­ized ener­gy sys­tem, empha­siz­ing the need for imme­di­ate action to decen­tral­ize ener­gy sup­ply and diver­si­fy the ener­gy mix. Tran­si­tion­ing to renew­able ener­gy sources would enhance ener­gy secu­ri­ty, resilience, and envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty, posi­tion­ing Ukraine for a sus­tain­able future as an EU mem­ber.

The annu­al Ger­man-Ukrain­ian Ener­gy Day with­in the frame­work of the Ger­man-Ukrain­ian Ener­gy Part­ner­ship strength­ens the part­ner­ship between Ger­many and Ukraine, facil­i­tat­ing strate­gic engage­ment, knowl­edge exchange, and busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in the ener­gy sec­tor. This year’s event was held in Berlin on the 25th of Octo­ber.

Dur­ing the event, Robert Kirch­n­er, Team Leader of the Low Car­bon Ukraine project, par­tic­i­pat­ed in a pan­el on “Strength­en­ing Frame­works for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment and Mar­ket Inte­gra­tion of the Ukrain­ian Ener­gy Sec­tor”. The focus was on the fur­ther inte­gra­tion of Ukraine into the Euro­pean ener­gy mar­ket, what instru­ments and reg­u­la­tions should be estab­lished for this pur­pose, as well as pos­si­ble path­ways to devel­op the green gas indus­try. Dur­ing the pan­el, Mr. Kirch­n­er high­light­ed the con­tin­ued sup­port of the Low Car­bon Ukraine project to the Gov­ern­ment of Ukraine, includ­ing recent analy­ses on ener­gy mar­ket reforms, decen­tral­ized small-scale renew­ables, and the eco­nom­ic ratio­nale behind build­ing back bet­ter.