Last month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Ukraine signed a two-year joint work programme to help the country’s energy system recover from the destruction caused by Russia’s invasion and “lay the foundations” for its transition to a secure and sustainable energy future.
The agreement was signed at the IEA’s Paris headquarters following a meeting between IEA’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol and Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, German Galushchenko. Both sides discussed Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to restore heat and power to its citizens in the wake of Russian attacks, and explored pathways to further deepen institutional ties after Ukraine became an IEA Association country in July 2022.
“The IEA continues to stand firm with Ukraine, which is part of the IEA Family – and central to both European and global energy security,” said Dr Birol. “I’m happy to be signing this new joint work programme, which reinforces and underlines the IEA’s support for Ukraine in its immediate needs as well its post-war reconstruction efforts.”
As stated in a press release by IEA, the joint work programme focuses on key Ukrainian short- and long-term energy priorities, with an emphasis on energy security, the clean energy transition, and Ukraine’s recovery plan. Work streams outlined in the programme include power-system security, hydrogen, renewables, biogas and collaboration on data and statistics.
“The transition to carbon-free energy is the cornerstone of the recovery of Ukraine’s energy sector after our victory,” said Minister Galushchenko. “Even as the war rages on, we are not discarding our original plans to develop renewable energy and contribute to the global push towards a green transition. Our Joint Work Programme with the IEA will help engage the top-notch expertise, best international practices and a widespread deployment of the cutting-edge technologies to rebuild Ukraine’s modern energy system.”
The two-year programme builds on the IEA’s past cooperation initiatives with Ukraine, which began in 2007. Since then, IEA has conducted four in-depth policy reviews and organised policy events and energy data capacity building in Kyiv and Odesa.
The Agency has worked closely with Ukraine through the European Commission’s EU4Energy programme. Ukraine officially joined the “IEA Family” as an Association country in July 2022, opening up a “new chapter in their longstanding partnership”.
The IEA’s Association framework, which was established in 2015, enables the IEA to “work closely and deepen cooperation” with partner countries by sharing analysis, data and best practices. Ukraine is now the IEA’s 11th Association country, joining Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand. Along with the 11 Association countries, the IEA comprises 4 Accession countries and 31 Members, representing around 80 per cent of the global energy demand.