On December 16, 2010, MAMA-86 Ukrainian National Environmental NGO, jointly with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and in cooperation with the Civic Expert Council within the Ukrainian part of the EU-UA Cooperation Committee, with support of the Swiss Embassy in Ukraine, the European Program of Renaissance International Foundation and Heinrich Boll Foundation held international conference “Green Economy — the European Choice of Ukraine”.

The conference gathered together about 90 participants and was attended by representatives of Ukrainian and international agencies, businesses, CSOs and academic facilities — i.e. representatives of stakeholders whose mainstream activities incorporate “greening economy” issues, and who may influence the process of Ukrainian economy greening or are direct beneficiaries of the process. High interest in the topic makes the organisers hopeful that the initiated dialogue will be continued and extended outside the narrow expert community onto the whole society and political circles.

The main aim of the event was to raise awareness of both public officials and members of the general public of Ukraine on basic contents of the green economy concept and to conduct an inter-sectoral discussion on prospects of “green growth” of the Ukrainian economy. The discussion was based on the UNEP Green Economy Concept, the background of EU Strategy 2020, “Green New Deal for Europe” Report of the Green European Foundation and focused on the environmental component of European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership Initiative.

The Conference was opened by Christophe Bouvier, the Regional Director of UNEP European Office. The welcome addresses were made by Ivan Makarenko, the deputy Minister of Environment of Ukraine, Oleksandr Matviychuk, the Chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy, Yevgen Bystrytskiy, the Executive Director of Renaissance International Foundation, and Kyrylo Savin, the Chief of the Ukrainian Office of Heinrich Boll Foundation.

In the course of the plenary session, Makhir Aliev (UNEP ROE) highlighted the global green economy concept, and Kyrylo Savin presented report “New Green Deal for Europe. Towards Modernisation Despite the Crisis” (the report was published by the Green European Fund in 2009, MAMA-86 now finalises the Ukrainian translation of the report). Zoryana Mischuk (the Institute of Sustainable Development) presented special comments on the report pertaining to Ukrainian realities. Volodymyr Bilokon, the Chief of the Environmental Policy and Strategic Planning Dept. of the Ministry of Environment of Ukraine presented prospects of Ukrainian economy greening, emerging after approval of the Strategy of the National Environmental Policy of Ukraine.

In the course of the first session — Ukrainian Economy Greening as a Modern Challenge — issues of development of green economy in Ukraine were presented (Tetyana Galushkina, Doctor of Sciences (Economy), the Institute of Market Problems and Socio-environmental Studies of the National Acad. Sci.), as well as opportunities for economic restructuring in Ukraine (Ildar Gazizullin, ICPS) and greening coal mining in Ukraine (Andriy Demydenko, Shaminder Puri, Diana Sukhinina, EuropeAid Coal Sector Policy Support Program). Gunnar Boye Olesen (INFORSE-Europe) highlighted advantages of low-carbon society and Ukraine’s potential for shifting towards green energy technologies, Taras Bebeshko (the International Environmental Security Committee) presented the idea of environmental balance index application as a key tool for global economy greening.

The second session — Green economy: main obstacles and incentives — was dedicated to discussion of opportunities for EU-Ukraine cooperation for mobilisation of finance assistance and green investments (Viktoriya Gumenyuk), main trends in Ukrainian legislation on energy efficiency matters (Polyna Zagnitko, Mykhaylo Schitka, the European Business Association, the Fuel and Energy Committee, Vasil Kisil & Partners), development of agriculture and rural sector of Ukraine on the way for transition to green economy (Tamara Malkova, “Green Dossier” ICO ) and prospects of “green growth” in Ukraine (Tetyana Tymochko, the All-Ukraine Environmental League).

The third session was dedicated to economy greening from the point of view of key stakeholders. In particular, Leida Rijnhout (ANPED) explained why social components are of so high importance in the sphere of green economy, while representatives of the business community Rodion Kalyshko (an advisor of the Ukrainian Confederation of Employers) and Tetyana Rabchak ( the European Business Association, the Fuel and Energy Committee, CMS Cameron McKenna) described potential capacity of business organisations of Ukraine for making development of Ukrainian businesses environmentally sound and importance of “greening” for an industrial company, respectively. Olena Turos (the Centre of Medical and Environmental Problems and Risk Assessments) presented her report on “Health Risk Assessments as an Item of the Greening Economy Agenda”, highlighting the link between health and environment and its importance for the whole economy. Chris Church (ANPED) summed up the session by his report on “Green Economy Development and City and District Levels: Opportunities and Lessons”.

In the course of the fourth session, economy greening was considered in the context of sustainable consumption and production. Janis Brizga (Green Liberty, ANPED) highlighted aspects of measuring green economy aspects that are traditionally left “outside” GDP. Gennadiy Marushevskiy (the National Environmental Centre of Ukraine) focused in ethical aspects of economy greening.

Ganna Golubovska-Onisimova, the President of MAMA-86 UNENGO, presented manuals of Action Town project specially translated from English into Russian — “Assessing the Impacts of Consumption and Production”, “Measuring Performance towards Sustainable Consumption and Production”, “Sustainable Consumption and Production Policies Instruments”. “For the first time, these unique and easy to understand publications provide Russian readers an opportunity to get insight into a broad range of tools for introduction, monitoring and measuring SCP activities, that are already used in the EU but still remain almost unknown beyond, — Ganna Golubovska-Onisimova said — In order to ensure further knowledge dissemination and application of greening development policies instruments in Ukraine, it is necessary to establish a firm conceptual framework and agree associated terms — therefore, development of an English-Ukrainian dictionary of Modern Environmental Policy Terms is rather urgent now”.

The Conference participants were provided with translated materials in electronic format, these materials, as well as presentations made by the participants, will be posted for free access on MAMA-86 web-site.

Contact details: UNENGO “MAMA-86”, Oksana Maiboroda, (+38044) 456-13-38.

Annexes:

• Concept of Green economy inception conference
• Agenda of the conference
• Green economy: the global concept, Mahir Aliyev, UNEP RoE
• Presentation of report “New Green Deal for Europe”, Heinrich Boll Foundation, Kyiv office/ tailor-made comments, Zoriana Mishchuk, ISD
• New National Environmental Policy Strategy of Ukraine — paving the way for Green economy, Volodymir Bilokon’, Head of Environmental Policy department, Ministry of Environment of Ukraine
• Perspectives for development of green economy in Ukraine, Tatiana Galushkina, D.Econ.Sc, Institute for Market Problems and Economic-and-Ecological Research of National Academy of Science of Ukraine
• Structural re-building of Ukrainian economy: fantasy or reality? Ildar Gazizullin, ICPS
• Law-carbon society: why to strive? Gunnar Boye Olesen, INFORSE
• Greening Coal Mining in Ukraine: what to do about risk of environmental impact?, Andriy Demydenko, Shaminder Puri, Diana Sukhinina, EuropeAid Coal Sector Policy Support Programme
• Index of environmental balance as a tool for greening economy, Taras Bebeshko, International environmental safety committee
• Present and future opportunities for EU-Ukraine cooperation for drawing financial support and green investments, Victoria Gumeniuk, expert
• Basic legislative trends towards energy efficiency, Polina Zagnitko, Mykhailo Shchitka, European Business Association, Fuel & Energy Committee, Vasil Kisil & Partners
• Agriculture and rural sector of Ukraine on the way to transition to green economy,Tamara Malkova, ICO “Green Dossier”
• “Green growth” perspectives in Ukraine, Tetiana Tymochko, VEL
• Why does social component have great significance in green economy? Leida Rijnhout, executive director of ANPED
• The capacity of business-organisations in Ukraine to provide for “greening” of domestic businesses, Rodion Kolyshko, adviser to Ukrainian Employers Confederation
• What “greening” can mean to an industrial company? Tetyana Rabczak, European Business Association, Fuel & Energy Committee, CMS Cameron McKenna
• Human health risk assessment as a component of “greening economy”, Olena Turos, D.M.Sc, Center of Environmental Health and Risk Assessment
• Developing the Green Economy at city and district level: opportunities and lessons, Chris Church, ANPED
• Beyond GDP — Measurements for Green Economy, Janis Brizga, Green Liberty
• Ethical aspects of greening economy, Gennadiy Marushevskiy, NECU
• SCP policy and CSOs role, MAMA-86, EC FP7 “Action town project” (presentation of three Guidelines on SCP, Russian translation)

Photos ftom the conference please see in our gallery