Kyiv, 4 April 2023 // As Germany’s Minister of economy Robert Habeck visits Kyiv, Ukrainian prominent climate and anti-war advocates call upon Germany to support deployment of decentralized renewables in Ukraine to reinforce the country's energy supply in conditions of ongoing Russian attacks and to create foundations for the country's sustainable economic recovery.
“We urge Germany and the EU to support efforts to make Ukraine's energy infrastructure more resilient using decentralized renewable energy solutions, which have to be scaled up massively. Ukraine has enormous potential for deployment of renewables, whose generation potential exceeds 1000 GW. With active support from the EU we can rapidly scale up and turn them into engines of Ukraine’s economic recovery, while also contributing to both short term and long energy security and climate action. Today Ukraine is central to Europe’s energy transition”, - says Svitlana Romanko, founder and director of Razom We Stand.
Since the beginning of Russia’s terror attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector in October 2022, experts and civil society organizations are calling for renewable energy equipment, particularly distributed solar PV, batteries and heat pumps, to be included in the emergency aid and prioritized for reinforcing critical infrastructure in Ukraine.
Demonstration projects realized by NGOs, such as solar plants for hospitals in Horenka and Zvyagyl, as well as water pumping station in Voznesensk, have proved these solutions to be both cost-effective and essential to provide vital services to the population in conditions of Russian attacks on centralized energy infrastructure.
According to the latest report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) “World Energy Transitions Outlook”, which was presented at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD-2023) conference last week, global investment in energy transition technologies reached a new record of USD 1.3 trillion in 2022. Yet, yearly clean energy investments must more than quadruple to over USD 5 trillion to stay on the pathway to meet the 1.5°C Paris Agreement climate change limit. To reach that goal, cumulative investments in energy transition technologies must exceed USD 35 trillion.
Statements delivered by key Ukrainian officials in Berlin indicate that during the post war recovery Ukraine can become a major destination for these investments.
“Energy strategy of Ukraine until 2035 was envisioning a 25% share of renewables. But now, taking into account damages inflicted by the enemy to our thermal power plants and transmission grids, we need to enforce development of renewable sources of energy and accelerate the energy transition. This is a question of national security and security of electricity supply”, - stated Ukraine’s minister of energy Herman Halushenko at BETD-2023 conference.
From October 10, 2022 to April 1, 2023, the objects of the Ukrainian energy system were hit by Russian attacks 271 times, reported Halushenko in Berlin. As a result of Russian missile and drone attacks, over 40% of centralized power generating facilities, substations and power grids were damaged or destroyed.
"It is clear that European countries, and Germany in particular, are not doing enough both to help to fight off the Russian invasion in Ukraine and domestically to get rid of deadly fossil fuel dependency that enabled Russia’s brutal war of aggression. We have a unique chance to change this, because by helping to reinforce and rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure with decentralized renewables German-Ukrainian cooperation can change the game and create a showcase example for the whole world," says Oleg Savytskyi, leading energy expert and Razom We Stand campaign manager.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4 April, 2023
PRESS CONTACT: Jason Kirkpatrick, press@razomwestand.org
