According to Urinform, the Ministry of Environment reports.

The agreement was reached during an online meeting between Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Roman Abramovsky and World Bank Regional Director for Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine) Arup Banerjee, Head of World Practice for Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy for Europe and Central Asia by Ksenia Lvovski and World Bank Infrastructure and Sustainable Development Program Leader in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Baher El-Hifnavi.

“The World Bank is a reliable partner of the Ministry of Environment in a number of projects, and we hope for their successful continuation and expansion, especially in creating an effective climate fund. It is a new financial institution that will co-finance the decarbonisation and modernization program through transparent procedures. It is very important for us to get such a reliable partner in the development of climate finance, which accumulates the experience of world countries in creating and optimal algorithms for such funds, “said Abramovsky.

The Minister acquainted the representatives of the World Bank with the steps already taken by the Ministry in the context of the main priorities related to climate change – climate policy, forest industry development, waste management and nature reserves.

“And this is only part of a major reform that involves changing the forest management system,” the statement said.

First Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Bohdan Borukhovskyi informed about the reform of the forest sector and the latest important decisions in this area, in particular the forest inventory; introduction of 100% sale of commercial timber through open auctions; adoption in the first reading of the bill № 5650 on the preservation of self-seeding forests; development of a bill on attracting investment in afforestation; adoption of a resolution on the restriction of continuous felling in the Carpathians; developing a forest management strategy until 2035.

“The World Bank welcomes Ukraine’s success in climate policy and the implementation of sustainable forest management. We are pleased to state that the agenda that Ukraine is following is extremely important. Today we have effective and promising cooperation and plan to launch new projects, assist in the legislative process with expert assistance, “Lviv said.

According to her, it is important for the World Bank that changes and reforms take place in the field of environmental protection, and then the bank will provide technical and advisory assistance, credit funds.

According to her, there can be many areas of cooperation, “but now the priorities where we can share experiences are climate finance, forestry, waste management, industrial pollution prevention and biodiversity development.”

As a result of the meeting, they agreed to cooperate in the preparation of an analytical report on climate goals and economic development. This document will be a thorough study of the effect of the implementation of climate protection measures on the economic development of countries. Ukraine has become one of the 25 key countries for which such a report will be prepared. It was also agreed to prepare a partnership strategy between Ukraine and the World Bank, which will consist of short- and long-term projects for the next 5 years. It is important that the priority areas of Ukraine’s environmental agenda are reflected in this document. First of all, it is climate policy, forest reform, waste management, development of nature reserves and biodiversity conservation.

An agreement was reached on the establishment of the Ukrainian Climate Fund; on conducting technical discussions on a number of bills and continuing joint analytical and legislative work; development and implementation of large-scale institutional reform of forestry.