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Dear
Friends!
In nature,
dark days are followed by brighter days by
design. Winter holidays and the new year fall at
this time of transition from long nights to
sunnier days – always a time to see hope for the
future, hope for change, restoration, renewal.
UWEC Work Group wishes you a Merry Christmas and
a Happy New Year. We wish you and your loved
ones peace, mental strength, and
health.
The past
year of full-scale war in Ukraine was marked by
many environmental disasters and difficult
events. The explosion of the Kakhovka
hydroelectric power station, protracted
hostilities in the east of Ukraine, fires in
Askania-Nova Nature Reserve. Despite these
challenges, conversations about Ukraine’s
restoration have been gathering energy, as many
begin to anticipate ways for Ukraine to develop
after the war. We take a look back at some of
UWEC Work Group’s top stories in
2023:
As always
at this time of year, the world gathers to
participate in the UN conference on climate
change. This year COP28 took
place in Dubai, where there was less talk about
the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, Ukraine’s
pavilion focused on the environmental impacts of
Russia’s full-scale invasion, and Ukrainian
experts presented their research. Ukrainian
NGO Ecoaction conducted an
event in the pavilion devoted to CO2 emissions
during military operations:
The
challenges of Ukraine’s “green”
restoration were also an active topic
of discussion in Dubai. Returning to Ecoaction’s
analytical report, roughly 56% of war-related
emissions will occur during the recovery period.
So, from the perspective of the climate agenda,
the processes of decarbonization of industry and
transportation are extremely important. In this
day and age, they must be a focus:
Our
ongoing coverage shows that the process of
rebuilding Ukraine is complex and far from
simple. Different interest groups seek to
influence the planning process and the ongoing
dialogue is naturally quite complex. Power
engineers are in favor of restoring the
Kakhovka hydropower plant and
reservoir, while environmentalists categorically
oppose its reconstruction. Civil society members
united forces to establish Kakhovka
Platform, an association focused on
promoting sustainable and nature-oriented
restoration:
The
environmental disaster can also be turned to
other purposes, including Russian
propaganda. This past fall, the UWEC
team came across a document in which Russia
boldly attempted to place responsibility for the
consequences of the Kakhovka dam’s destruction
on Ukraine. However, even the most passing
examination shows, once again, that Russian
propaganda distorts facts to serve its own
interests:
As
December draws to a close, we gathered experts
for a conversation dedicated to Ukraine’s
“green” recovery. The video of the webinar will
appear soon on our YouTube
channel. Be sure to
subscribe to our social networks and join the
conversation.
We
continue to follow the environmental
consequences of the invasion on our website,
on Twitter (X),
on Facebook and on
Telegram.
We wish
you strength and peace!
Alexej
Ovchinnikov, UWEC Work
Group | 
