Ukraine’s New Nationally Determined Contribution Amid Challenges: Key Takeaways from Discussions Among Experts, Business and International Partners

On May 27, a high-lev­el dis­cus­sion took place in Kyiv on Ukraine’s updat­ed Nation­al­ly Deter­mined Con­tri­bu­tion (NDC) until 2035. The event was orga­nized by the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources of Ukraine with the sup­port of the IKI Inter­face and EU4ClimateResilience projects, imple­ment­ed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH as part of the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI).

The event brought togeth­er over 190 par­tic­i­pants, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of min­istries, busi­ness­es, civ­il soci­ety, and inter­na­tion­al part­ners, to dis­cuss the draft of Ukraine’s new NDC.

The new NDC rep­re­sents a cru­cial cli­mate com­mit­ment by Ukraine under the Paris Agree­ment. It will not only out­line updat­ed green­house gas emis­sions reduc­tion tar­gets but also define the path­ways to achiev­ing sus­tain­able recov­ery amid wartime con­di­tions. It is a com­pre­hen­sive doc­u­ment that spans actions in ener­gy, indus­try, agri­cul­ture, forestry, and waste man­age­ment.

As it devel­ops the NDC 2035 sce­nar­ios, Ukraine seeks to ensure an inclu­sive dia­logue involv­ing all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers. This event served as an open plat­form for such a dia­logue, enabling par­tic­i­pants to exchange views on key issues such as:

• Mod­eled sce­nar­ios for decar­boniza­tion and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment;
• The impact of the war on cli­mate pol­i­cy, the econ­o­my, and the envi­ron­ment;
• Finan­cial instru­ments to sup­port the green trans­for­ma­tion.

Speak­ers includ­ed Jan Dusik, Deputy Direc­tor-Gen­er­al of the Euro­pean Commission’s Direc­torate-Gen­er­al for Cli­mate Action (DG CLIMA); Dr. Philipp Behrens, Head of Divi­sion at the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Cli­mate Action (BMWK); Olga Yukhym­chuk, Deputy Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources of Ukraine; and Roman Andarak, Deputy Min­is­ter of Ener­gy of Ukraine.

Jan Dusik praised Ukraini­ans’ resilience and com­mit­ment to cli­mate action despite Russia’s ongo­ing aggres­sion. He also empha­sized that the NDC is a cru­cial bench­mark for Ukraine’s EU acces­sion path and out­lined the char­ac­ter­is­tics the cli­mate com­mit­ment should embody:

The upcom­ing NDC is also a crit­i­cal test for Ukraine’s ambi­tion to join the Euro­pean Union and imple­ment a gen­uine green recon­struc­tion. Of course, the tar­get needs to be achiev­able and real­is­tic, tak­ing into account the harsh eco­nom­ic and demo­graph­ic cir­cum­stances that are cur­rent­ly affect­ing Ukraine’s econ­o­my and soci­ety. On the oth­er hand, the tar­get needs to ful­ly fac­tor in the notion of green recon­struc­tion and to real­ly get to the ambi­tion and the poten­tial that we believe is very sig­nif­i­cant for Ukraine to thrive in a car­bon-less world.

Dr. Philipp Behrens high­light­ed Ukraine’s ongo­ing cli­mate efforts to align its poli­cies with those of the Euro­pean Union, despite the war. He also stressed that the NDC is not only a cli­mate com­mit­ment but also a pow­er­ful invest­ment tool:

An ambi­tious NDC — which of course should be well aligned with a long-term low-car­bon devel­op­ment strat­e­gy and the goal of cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty by mid-cen­tu­ry — is not only guid­ing nation­al poli­cies, but it can also serve as a ref­er­ence for pub­lic and pri­vate invest­ment deci­sions. There­fore, the devel­op­ment of Ukraine’s new NDC is not only a cli­mate com­mit­ment, but also a strate­gic oppor­tu­ni­ty to align post-war recov­ery with sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and ener­gy secu­ri­ty, as well as the Euro­pean inte­gra­tion process.

Olga Yukhym­chuk empha­sized the EU inte­gra­tion dimen­sion of Ukraine’s cli­mate pol­i­cy and the impor­tance of align­ing the NDC with Euro­pean pri­or­i­ties:

All our cli­mate goals must cor­re­spond to Ukraine’s path toward EU mem­ber­ship. By 2035, we envi­sion Ukraine as part of the Euro­pean Union. There­fore, the mea­sures we plan to achieve under the NDC must be syn­chro­nized with EU cli­mate pol­i­cy. We must demon­strate to the world that even in wartime, Ukraine remains a respon­si­ble actor and ful­fills its oblig­a­tions.

Gabriel Sauer, Direc­tor of the IKI Inter­face project, which sup­port­ed the event, not­ed the inclu­siv­i­ty of the NDC devel­op­ment process and stressed the impor­tance of bal­anc­ing ambi­tion with real­ism:

“Ukraine is demon­strat­ing trans­paren­cy and open­ness in shap­ing its cli­mate pol­i­cy, even under wartime con­di­tions. Engag­ing a wide range of stake­hold­ers not only enhances the legit­i­ma­cy of the new NDC but also ensures bet­ter con­sid­er­a­tion of com­plex eco­nom­ic and ener­gy real­i­ties. At the same time, it’s cru­cial to main­tain a bal­ance between ambi­tious goals and the real­is­tic means to achieve them — this will deter­mine both the out­comes and the trust of inter­na­tion­al part­ners and Ukrain­ian soci­ety.”

The event served as a plat­form for open and inclu­sive dia­logue among all stake­hold­ers. All par­tic­i­pants empha­sized the impor­tance of cross-sec­toral coop­er­a­tion among gov­ern­ment, busi­ness, civ­il soci­ety, and inter­na­tion­al part­ners.

Look­ing ahead, the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources of Ukraine plans to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on the draft NDC — first through sec­tor-spe­cif­ic expert meet­ings, fol­lowed by a final broad stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tion before the NDC is offi­cial­ly adopt­ed.

The event is orga­nized at the ini­tia­tive of the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources of Ukraine with the sup­port of the IKI Inter­face project and EU4ClimateResilience (co-found­ed by Euro­pean Union), imple­ment­ed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy and the Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Action, Nature Con­ser­va­tion and Nuclear Safe­ty with­in the frame­work of the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI).