Second German-Ukrainian Energy Day
The German-Ukrainian Energy Partnership was launched in August 2020 by the German and Ukrainian governments. The annual Energy Day brings together key stakeholders from politics, business and civil society.
This year's Energy Day took place as a hybrid event in Kyiv on 1 December 2021, shortly after the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26). At COP26, Ukraine had supported a number of international initiatives such as the Global Methane Pledge as well as the Powering Past Coal Alliance and announced the goal of ending coal-fired power generation by state-owned power as soon as possible. The Energy Day was thus dedicated to COP26 and focused on concrete strategies and approaches to achieve the ambitious climate protection goals of both countries.
Herman Halushchenko, Energy Minister of Ukraine, and Andreas Feicht, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy,opened the event. Both emphasized that it is time to move from planning to implementation in many areas, such as hydrogen. They also underlined the strategic importance of the energy partnership between the two countries, especially in the field of green energy exports and imports. Halushchenko mentioned how important Germany's support in the area of decarbonization and transformation of Ukrainian coal regions is for his country.
Afterwards, the first panel "Energy Partnership after its first year: Helping to achieve zero emissions by 2050"discussed results in the fields of renewable energies, hydrogen, energy efficiency and transformation of coal regions. It was noted that more B2B platforms and exchange formats for German and Ukrainian companies are needed, as well as the continuation of work to expand the dialogue process between politics, civil society and business. The main goal for 2022 must be to further expand networks and herald the start of the implementation phase.
The second panel, "Mobilizing Finance and Business for Ukraine's Energy System Transformation", addressed the question of how to attract private funds for green investments and which new business models and market instruments would favor this. The participants emphasized that, in addition to the successes Ukraine has achieved in the field of renewable energies, there are still a number of obstacles which stand in the way of improving the investment climate. For companies, planning security is crucial, including a concrete date for the coal phase-out.
The third panel of the Energy Day was dedicated to the topic "Creating tools for self-employment and empowerment of the communities". The discussion participants on the German side emphasized that their country would continue to support Ukraine, especially in overcoming transformation challenges. Public investments will flow into the areas of energy efficiency and industrial development as well as into the investment of green professions. Germany could pass on a lot of experience and knowledge to Ukraine, especially in the transformation of coal regions.
The Energy Day ended with an optimistic outlook for the coming year, in which work will continue on many energy and climate policy issues of the future within the framework of the German-Ukrainian Energy Partnership, with increased involvement of business and civil society.
Watch our video of the second German-Ukrainian Energy Day here.