“Adopting circular business models lays the groundwork for Ukraine's reconstruction, enabling the efficient reuse of industrial waste. We want to build Ukraine back better and this means build Ukraine back greener,” said Nadiya Bigun, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy.

Speaking at the World Circular Economy Forum 2024 (WCEF) in Brussels, Belgium, the Deputy Minister highlighted that Ukraine wants to adopt best practices of green and resource efficient solutions.

Assessment of 26 Ukrainian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) identified potential savings of over EUR 1.1 million from implementing Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) measures which would also lead to the introduction of circular economy practices by the selected businesses. Since 2019, UNIDO, as a part of the EU-funded EU4Environment action, has already assisted over 200 companies in five Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine) in considering circular economy principles to increase their competitiveness and to reduce their energy, material and water use.

Ukraine’s circular reconstruction was the focus of the forum’s Accelerator session, hosted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the EU's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG Near). The session demonstrated how structured knowledge and technology foresight can help scale up circularity transition through agreed pathways and practical measures. “The actual success of implementing resource efficiency activities by enterprises and support of circular transition at the national level are necessary to ensure the country's green recovery,” said Tatiana Chernyavskaya, UNIDO’s Project Manager of the EU4Environment Action. “The international best practices and available solutions can contribute to increasing circularity in selected priority sectors of Ukraine. This should also be supported by capacity-building, enabling policy and incentives as well as coordinated efforts of knowledgeable practitioners, that UNIDO has already started to build through the exploratory foresight exercise”, she added.

The Accelerator session organized on the occasion of the annual WCEF attracted over 100 online and on-site stakeholders from industry, business, government, academia, among others.

For more information:
Tatiana Chernyavskaya
Industrial Development Officer

EU4Environemnt Action website: www.eu4environment.org