About us
Low Carbon Ukraine started in September 2018 and was part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). It was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, based on a decision of the German Bundestag. The project ended in the spring of 2025.
Background
Ukraine’s energy sector is important for the country’s economy as it accounts for about 13 % of its GDP. Yet, Ukraine is among the least energy efficient countries in Europe, which drags down economic growth and causes high GHG emissions. Despite reform efforts in recent years, the government remains vulnerable to political pressure from energy suppliers. Moreover, Ukraine’s energy sector currently faces a number of other – often intertwined – challenges such as a longstanding investment backlog, lossmaking state-owned companies, and increasing energy cost for households.
Long-term decisions often stem from Ukraine’s international commitments, e.g. from Ukraine’s membership in the European Energy Community, a group of southeast and east European countries that agreed to adopt the EU’s internal energy market legislation. One of Ukraine’s commitments concerns the development of an Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan until 2030. Due to limited administrative resources and fragmented responsibilities, the country’s energy policies have been often not very well coordinated and only partly well described.
Goal
The purpose of the LCU project was to support the Ukrainian government to pursue an active, effective and above all sustainable energy and climate policy. The assistance aimed to enhance policy processes along three dimensions: long-term-orientation, consistency and factbasis. The ultimate goal of the policy advice was to trigger policy decisions leading on to a lower emission-pathway. A stable and sustainable energy policy is linked to sustainable economic growth, a resilient infrastructure and sustainable industrialisation.
How we worked
The LCU project was designed to work in a demand-driven, results-oriented, and open manner. Instead of offering ready-made solutions, the idea behind LCU was to identify the relevant questions together with Ukrainian decision-makers and to tackle them in co-operation with Ukrainian experts. In addition, we’ve set the course for a modern climate policy by providing the government with demand-driven analytical support and policy proposals.
We worked in close cooperation with Ukrainian decision-makers to ensures the political relevance of the treated topics, the optimal application of local knowledge, and the enhancement of political ownership. Moreover, co-creation helped strengthening analytical capacities in Ukrainian authorities and civil society on a long-term and sustainable basis.
By developing a model of Ukraine’s electricity system, the LCU project team exploreed major trade-offs, interdependencies, drivers and uncertainties in the long-term planning of energy generation and transmission capacities. This is of crucial importance for the question of how to safely increase the share of renewables in energy generation. The rigidities of a modelling framework helped to ensure argumentative consistency and hence allowed a fact-based and fruitful discussion. Regular bilateral meetings with the most important stakeholders were held to identify the relevant topics for policy making in Ukraine, ensuring that the project works in a results-oriented way.
All project-related publications can be accessed here.