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Climate Action
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Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central
Asia
Digest of news on
climate change and energy
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Climate chronicle of the war
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A Ukrainian hospital damaged in a Russian
missile attack has been turned into a clean-energy
model for the future of the country's
infrastructure, even as the war in the country
rages on. The destruction of the small hospital in
Horenka, a village on the outskirts of Kyiv,
happened in the first month of the Russian
invasion. Shelling from a missile strike hit the
hospital grounds, leaving the building's windows
shattered, its exterior damaged, and an erosion of
the electricity supply. The aftermath turned the
hospital that once catered to a population of
10,000-12,000 patients from four different
villages into an example of the brutalities of
Vladimir Putin's war and left it with a €56,000
repair bill for heating reconstruction.
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued
an arrest warrant on 17th March against
Vladimir Putin, leader of the world’s largest
energy exporter (Russia), accusing him of the war
crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children
from Ukraine. Five days later, China’s President
Xi Jinping – recently confirmed for an
unprecedented third term — said
he was ready to 'stand guard over a world order
based on international law' as he met President
Putin in Moscow. “International law” seems to have
different interpretations, and the ICC evidently
does not have a monopoly on what passes as
international law in the concert of nations.
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Ukrainian enterprises will be able to
receive loans for $150,000 for the implementation
of energy management and energy efficiency
measures. Also, small and medium-sized businesses
will be able to receive micro-grants, Anna
Zamazeeva, head of the State Agency for Energy
Efficiency and Energy Saving, reports on Facebook.
She held a meeting with representatives of the
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO), where they discussed a joint project to
support businesses in the implementation of energy
efficiency measures and energy management
systems.
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Of all the aftershocks from Vladimir
Putin’s attempted military takeover of Ukraine,
one of the least likely could prove the most
significant: a decisive global shift toward
greener energy. The trend had been building even
before the Ukraine war, as businesses, investors,
and political leaders began positioning themselves
to reap the benefits of an economic future based
less on fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal,
than on clean energy sources like wind, the sun,
and hydrogen. But the pace was nowhere near fast
enough to reach the climate target that
environmental experts say is needed to avoid the
worst effects of global warming – limiting the
Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius
(2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
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The Ukrainian energy company DTEK hit a
milestone in the war-torn nation’s audacious bid
to remake its energy economy and become a clean
power hub for Europe. It announced a dozen
turbines had been built and brought online under
some of the most challenging conditions anywhere
in the world, just 60 miles from the front lines
of the war with Russia. The project in the
Mykolaiv region is now helping generate
electricity for the area’s beleaguered residents
and the broader power grid. The plan is for it to
ultimately grow to several dozen turbines,
creating enough energy to power as many as a
half-million homes.
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Xi Jinping used two days of talks in
Moscow to firmly align with Russia against the US.
But the Chinese leader held back from offering
Vladimir Putin something he’s been looking for: A
commitment to buy a lot more gas. The visit
by Xi, his first to Russia since Putin invaded
Ukraine just over a year ago, marked a political
win for both leaders. Xi saw an opportunity to
push back at the US and buttress his image as a
global statesman after helping to broker a
Saudi-Iran
deal. | |
Regional and world
news
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The Sixth Assessment Report, the so-called
Synthesis Report, will form the basis for
political action to combat climate change. It also
consolidates and summarizes the findings of
previous reports published by the IPCC during the
current cycle, which began in 2015. IPCC experts
have previously warned that human-induced climate
change is observed in all regions of the planet,
and this process is becoming more intense, and
some of the emerging trends are already
irreversible. The IPCC report, which is based on
the latest scientific research from around the
world, shows that climate change is happening at
an unprecedented rate and that human activities,
notably the burning of fossil fuels, are the
primary cause of this change. The report also
highlights the risks and impacts of climate
change, including rising sea levels, more frequent
and intense heat waves, and increased frequency of
extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods,
and wildfires.
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The
leaders of Georgia's ruling party have been
pushing a seemingly paradoxical allegation: that
Western-funded NGOs supported what the party calls
a Russia-sponsored protest movement against the
construction of the Namakhvani hydropower plant
(HPP) in western Georgia. After the protests mired
the project in controversy in mid-2021 the Turkish
investor pulled out and it was shelved. It was
a setback for the Georgian Dream government, which
had argued that the dam would have served to
secure the country's "energy independence,"
reducing reliance on Russia.
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In 2023, a pilot project will be developed
for the Velikomostiv mine in the Lviv region
Deputy Minister of Energy Yaroslav Demchenkov said
that it is possible to create clusters of
sustainable energy at closed coal mines, in
particular in Lviv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
This will accelerate the transformation of coal
regions, create new high-quality jobs, and also
allow the use of the existing infrastructure of
enterprises, the Ministry of Energy reports on
Facebook. This happened during consultations on
the topic "Just transformation: opportunities for
Lviv region" within the framework of the project
"Supporting Structural Changes in the Coal Regions
of Ukraine".
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EU countries on Thursday reached a
preliminary agreement to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions in the maritime sector by increasing the
use of renewable fuels on ships. The deal aims to
put maritime transport on the path towards meeting
the EU's climate goals in 2030 and 2050, by
increasing reduction targets for emissions from
energy used on ships and introducing measures to
encourage the use of so-called renewable fuels of
non-biological origin. "The agreement will make
sure that fuel suppliers, ships and maritime
operators will have sufficient time to adapt for
the new conditions so the maritime sector will
deliver on the climate targets," Swedish
Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson said in a
statement.
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Citizens affected by climate change are
suing the governments of more than 30 European
countries in three separate cases before the
European Court of Human Rights, alleging that
state inaction has violated their human rights.
They are the first such cases to be heard before
the Court in Strasbourg, France, and could result
in orders for the governments involved to cut
carbon dioxide emissions much faster than
currently planned. The first case being heard next
Wednesday focuses on the health impact of climate
change-induced heatwaves, in a case brought by
thousands of elderly Swiss women against the Swiss
government as part of a six-year legal battle.
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Environmental activists, including Greta
Thunberg, are suing the Swedish state for
insufficient action on the climate crisis. The
lawsuit was initiated by youth climate activists
in November last year. On Tuesday 21 March, it was
given the greenlight by a Swedish
court. “The court has now issued a summons
and the process is in full swing. Now the state
must respond to the lawsuit,”
an Instagram post announcing the action reads.
“Climate action is a legal duty!” Nacka District
Court in Stockholm County has given the Swedish
government three months to submit its
response.
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Governments will continue to discuss
whether to call for a phase-out of fossil fuels
ahead of the Cop28 climate talks, the Egyptian
Cop27 president told reporters after a gathering
of 50 climate ministers in Copenhagen today.
Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said that
there will be “consultations and deliberations” on
whether to call for a phase-out of fossil fuels
when governments gather in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) in November. The issue bitterly
divided governments at the Cop27 climate talks he
chaired last November.
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