Phasing out energy-intensive industries and the use of fossil fuels is critical to climate change mitigation efforts — both in Ukraine and globally.
Decarbonization is an urgent necessity to curb temperature rise. In 2021, the Government of Ukraine approved a new climate target: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. This became Ukraine’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
In 2020, the National Program for the Transformation of Coal Regions was announced, which includes a coal industry reform project. Its goals are to reduce coal consumption in the energy sector, diversify the economies of coal regions, create new economic growth hubs, and compensate for lost revenues from coal enterprises.
The foundation of the coal regions transformation program is fairness. That’s why local stakeholders — miners and their families, local authorities, trade unions, and businesses — are directly involved in the program’s development.
“The phase-out of fossil fuels will be gradual and carried out in parallel with the just transformation of coal regions. For us, the social dimension is paramount — retraining people, ensuring employment, and treating with fairness those veterans who have worked in mines their entire lives,” — stated German Galushchenko, Minister of Energy of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s partners in this process are the United Kingdom and Germany, both of which have successful experience in coal region transformation.
The transformation of coal regions will create new opportunities for mining communities through the retraining of miners, investment in the development of new enterprises, and improvements in the environmental conditions of the regions.
