Protecting the Environment in Ukraine

From managing forests and preserving the fragile ecosystem of the Black Sea, to transforming inefficient and polluting factories, the Ukrainian government has its hands full when it comes to protecting the environment.

In the past decade Ukraine grappled with the legacy of Soviet industrialization at a time of economic transition and institutional stress.

Paradoxically, economic difficulties have had some environmental benefits: the shutting down of decrepit and dangerous factories helped reduce carbon emissions. But economic woes and bureaucratic hurdles also severely limited the Ukrainian government’s ability to adopt and enforce environmental regulations during this period.

A Top Objective

The World Bank has made environmentally sustainable development one of the top objectives of its Country Assistance Strategy for Ukraine for the period 2004-2007.

In the past, the World Bank has helped Ukraine build its institutional capacity to design and manage environmental policy changes through two grants from the Institutional Development Fund. One of these grants specifically targeted local management in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's worst polluted region. 

The World Bank is also committed to pursuing the Millennium Development Goals approved at the United Nations in September 2000. These goals, which aim to cut by half the number of people living in poverty by 2015, also include environmental targets (see box on right).

Safe Drinking Water

Ukraine made progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals by adopting a national program on safe drinking water in March 2005.

It took steps to control air pollution and replace obsolete and inefficient equipment in its factories. Like other ex-Soviet Republics, Ukraine remains one of the least energy-efficient countries in the world.

As the spread of the radioactive cloud following the Chernobyl meltdown of 1986 made clear, the quality of the Ukrainian environment has not only local but regional and global repercussions. Air pollution, climate change and biodiversity are considered global goods that deserve concerted international action. For this reason, Ukraine, like many other countries, has benefited from grants made by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), a fund set up by international donors to protect the planet’s shared resources.

Protecting the Ozone Layer

Thanks to a $23.2 million GEF grant, the Ukrainian government working with national companies recently completed a program to phase out the production of substances that harm the ozone. Modern ozone-safe technologies were introduced for refrigeration and the production of aerosols, solvents and halons. In the long run the Ozone Depleting Substance Phase-out Project (1998-2004) will benefit not only the environment but also help Ukrainian enterprises meet international standards and compete on world markets. A follow-up project to phase out the production of Methyl Bromide is being prepared by the World Bank.

Managing Climate Change

A National Strategy Study for Climate Change was completed in 2003 to help Ukrainian authorities analyze the issues and opportunities presented by potential international markets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. The Bank is actively involved in helping Ukraine take advantage of the Kyoto Protocol. Two related projects include the Biocarbon Fund Afforestation Project and the Hydropower Rehabilitation Project. Both are currently under way.  

Preserving Biodiversity

Other projects have included a Danube Biodiversity Project (1994-1999), aimed at improving conditions on the Ukrainian banks of Europe’s largest waterway delta, and a Transcarpathian Biodiversity Protection Project (1993-1997) which served to introduce the principles of environmental protection in Ukraine.

The Azov-Black Sea Corridor Biodiversity Conservation Project has run aground for now [1]. But the World Bank remains committed to helping protect the waters and diverse fauna along the Ukrainian coastline of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, which stretches over 1,000 km. The seas function as a globally important feeding ground for migratory waterbirds and other species. (Visit the Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project website for more information.)

A World Bank project to improve waste water infrastructure along the Black Sea coast is under consideration. Microbiological contaminants constitute a threat to public health and in come cases hinder the development of sustainable tourism and aquaculture.

In the agricultural sector, a project to reduce the usage of agricultural pollutants may help address the issue of nutrients which enter the Black Sea and compromise the natural habitat of its diverse wildlife.

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[1] Since implementation of this project has been considerably behind schedule from the very beginning and its development objectives cannot be achieved before the project's scheduled closure at the end of 2006,  the undisbursed balance of the grant has been cancelled.