ADVISORY BOARD-2023: FINDINGS AND WAYS FORWARD
The traditional meeting of the RECP Centre and all stakeholders on the industrial development projects implementation in Ukraine took place online on March 9, 2023.
Thus, all participants – the RECP Centre, representatives of the relevant ministries (Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Economy of Ukraine) and manufacturing enterprises, experts, associations – joined the meeting organized by the Centre. The event focused on presenting the implementation results of the “Circular Economy and New Growth Opportunities” component of the EU-funded EU4Environment Action in Ukraine and the RECP Center’s activities, as well as identifying areas to cooperate on industrial development issues with government and international organizations, industrial enterprises and other stakeholders. This year, the outcomes of this meeting were determined by the current situation in Ukraine – the consequences of Russia’s full-scale aggression.
In her welcoming speech, Ms. Olena Maslyukivska, National Action Coordinator, EU4Environment Action, emphasized that in the face of large-scale destruction caused by the war, the circular economy has a great chance to gain momentum for development. This applies primarily to the recycling of huge volumes of concrete waste after the infrastructure of Ukrainian cities and villages was shattered. The destroyed energy sector needs to be repaired and backed up by alternative green energy that will also be a priority to stabilize energy demand. National enterprises need help as supply chains have been disrupted, logistics destroyed, etc. It is difficult to overestimate the role of the RECP Centre, which promotes circularity principles in industry and helps companies survive in difficult times and become more resource efficient. More than ever, the importance of the circular economy for the country’s recovery will be the key to its reconstruction and sustainable development.
Mr. Andrii Vorfolomeiev, the Director of the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Centre held the keynote speech by summarizing the results of the Centre’s work on all projects implemented in 2022 (industrial waste mapping, studying the product environmental footprint, supporting green industrial recovery and relocation of enterprises, working with manufacturing enterprises: implementation of RECP options and monitoring, development of an I-GO Assistant resource efficiency self-assessment and navigation tool, etc.).
The Advisory meeting also focused on its main goal, i.e. collecting efficient proposals from its participants to find promising areas of the Centre’s activities for 2023 within the framework “Circular Economy and New Growth Opportunities” component of the EU4Environment Action in the current situation. It should be noted, that all the participants were very active in the three working groups and very quickly compiled a list of recommendations, which were then presented to all participants.
In general, the meeting can be considered very efficient, as a number of valuable proposals were developed, including: elaboration of principles and incentive policy mechanisms for the environment, replacing power sources for enterprises and using renewables (including energy storage), arranging consultations on energy security, attraction of private financing for the recovery of industrial enterprises, mainstreaming the recycling processes, using the RECP Centre’s expertise in recycling construction waste, etc.
Over 50 participants (47% women) attended the event.
*The “European Union for Environment” (EU4Environment – Green Economy) Action helps the Eastern Partner countries preserve their natural capital and increase people’s environmental well-being, by supporting environment-related action, demonstrating and unlocking opportunities for greener growth, and setting mechanisms to better manage environmental risks and impacts. It is funded by the European Union and implemented by five Partner organizations – OECD, UNECE, UNEP, UNIDO, and the World Bank.
For more information about the Action, please visit: www.eu4environment.org
For more information about RECP in Ukraine, please visit: www.recpc.org