Strengthening Local Environmental Planning and Environmental Civil Society in Ukraine
Cities as Drivers of Sustainable Development in Ukraine The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) is organising a conference to be held on October 19-20 called "Strengthening Local Environmental Planning and Environmental Civil Society in Ukraine: Cities as Drivers of Sustainable Development in Ukraine". The event will be held in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian population face significant environmental and energy challenges. Given the current crisis in the country, the government of Ukraine is paying particularly close attention to issues of energy security, environmentally sustainable policies and practices, governance structures, and mechanisms for viable public participation in decision-making processes at local level. The REC, with a mandate from the European Commission, Ukraine and 31 other REC member states, has been providing structured assistance to Ukraine since 2014 to address environmental and resource-related challenges, and to build a community of practice for sustainable resources management through the framework programme "Strengthening the Local Environmental Planning and Environmental Civil Society in Ukraine", which the governments of the United States, Norway, the Netherlands and Japan are providing support as resource partners. The conference in Kyiv will bring together key stakeholders to build active partnerships and mobilise resources for local sustainability initiatives in Ukraine. The first day of the event is dedicated to presenting results of the one-year project "Local Environmental and Energy-Related Action Plans (LEAPs) for Sustainable Development, Energy Diversification and Civic Engagement in Communities in Ukraine", which will be presented by the mayors of the three project partner municipalities: Cherkasy, Poltava and Ivano-Frankivsk. The event will also officially kick off the "Local Initiatives for Sustainable Ukraine" (LINKing Ukraine) project. The LEAPs Ukraine project results were successful in that the primary targets were met: environmental and energy issues were integrated into the planning process; sustainable use management of natural resources were included into LEAPs document; and civic involvement and transparency in government decision making has been ensured. The follow-up LINKing project aims to strengthen local capacities to diversify sources and options for a resourceefficient economy by bringing together policy makers, businesses and civil society at local level to enable positive change in Ukraine. The project promotes good governance, energy efficiency and EU integration processes. The second day of the conference, organised in a workshop format, will address the topic of boosting investments in energy efficiency in Ukraine's urban environments. The goal of the workshop is to strengthen the capacities of Ukrainian stakeholders to apply for and implement concrete energy efficiency projects.