Capacities for Climate Action (C4CA)/Ukrainian Climate Office

Ukraine is at a piv­otal moment, bal­anc­ing post-war recon­struc­tion with its strate­gic goal of Euro­pean inte­gra­tion. The gov­ern­ment has placed state cli­mate pol­i­cy at the heart of recov­ery, recog­nis­ing that a green tran­si­tion is essen­tial for eco­nom­ic resilience and EU acces­sion. The adop­tion of Ukraine’s Cli­mate Law, with its com­mit­ment to cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty by 2050, increas­ing resilience and cli­mate risk reduc­tion, marks a major mile­stone. How­ev­er, effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion requires insti­tu­tion­al strength­en­ing, tech­ni­cal exper­tise, and capac­i­ty build­ing.  

The Ukrain­ian Cli­mate Office (UCO) under the Capac­i­ties for Cli­mate Action Project has become a key dri­ver of these efforts, estab­lish­ing itself as a respect­ed insti­tu­tion in cli­mate gov­er­nance. It has sup­port­ed leg­isla­tive devel­op­ments, strength­ened net­works, and facil­i­tat­ed dis­cus­sions on crit­i­cal issues such as CBAM, ETS, cli­mate-resilient devel­op­ment and green invest­ment. Mov­ing for­ward, UCO shall play an even greater role in guid­ing Ukraine’s cli­mate tran­si­tion, fos­ter­ing inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion, and inte­grat­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty into recov­ery. 

The Ukrain­ian Cli­mate Office (UCO) will be an inde­pen­dent Cen­tre of Excel­lence ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing cli­mate pol­i­cy, sup­port­ing Ukraine’s EU inte­gra­tion, and fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. The project “Capac­i­ties for Cli­mate Action/ Ukrain­ian Cli­mate Office” is work­ing on the estab­lish­ment of the UCO as a Ukrain­ian insti­tu­tion. UCO plays a key role in shap­ing Ukraine’s cli­mate gov­er­nance archi­tec­ture amid war and recon­struc­tion. 

The project pro­vides exper­tise and coor­di­na­tion in key areas, includ­ing: 

– Cli­mate Pol­i­cy and Leg­is­la­tion: Sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of Ukraine’s Cli­mate Law and align­ment with EU cli­mate acquis. 

– EU Acces­sion Sup­port: Facil­i­tat­ing com­pli­ance with EU Green Deal poli­cies, Just Tran­si­tion, and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards, includ­ing sus­tain­able finance. 

– Capac­i­ty Devel­op­ment: Strength­en­ing insti­tu­tion­al frame­works and engag­ing stake­hold­ers across gov­ern­ment, pri­vate sec­tor, and civ­il soci­ety. 

– Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Engage­ment: sup­port­ing the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Ukraine in glob­al cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions, includ­ing the UNFCCC COP process. 

– Inde­pen­dent analy­sis 

– Cli­mate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Pub­lic aware­ness 

Despite the ongo­ing war, UCO as a part of the project con­tin­ues to devel­op poli­cies that bal­ance eco­nom­ic recov­ery with ambi­tious cli­mate action, ensur­ing Ukraine remains on track for cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty by 2050 while address­ing urgent ener­gy and envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. 

Key Achievements: 

– Sup­port­ed the draft­ing and adop­tion of Ukraine’s Cli­mate Law in 2024. 

– Pro­vid­ed train­ing for inter­na­tion­al cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions, includ­ing UNFCCC COP, and facil­i­tat­ed the Ukrain­ian Pavil­ion. 

– Organ­ised coor­di­na­tion meet­ings among donor projects on cli­mate-relat­ed projects. 

– Host­ed expert dis­cus­sions on key cli­mate top­ics such as CBAM, ETS, MRV, and car­bon pric­ing. 

– Devel­oped 12 pol­i­cy and ana­lyt­i­cal papers to inform deci­sion-mak­ers. 

– Organ­ised 25 events of var­i­ous for­mats, engag­ing 2,078 stake­hold­ers to advance cli­mate pol­i­cy.

– Draft­ed four pre-fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies for busi­ness­es. 

– Car­ried out train­ing for munic­i­pal­i­ties on cli­mate risk assess­ments and access­ing EU fund­ing pro­grammes. 

– Launched a ded­i­cat­ed cli­mate web­site to sup­port infor­ma­tion dis­sem­i­na­tion and stake­hold­er engage­ment. 

Capac­i­ties for Cli­mate Action Project is imple­ment­ed by Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Cli­mate Action (BMWK) under the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI) and is co-financed by Euro­pean Union.