Top Westinghouse executive and Ukrainian officials discussed a comprehensive program to implement efficiency and safety improvements to the country’s nuclear fleet, which provide significant energy supply and security for Ukraine. Westinghouse is the most technologically diverse global supplier of nuclear technology and has been working in the Ukrainian market since 1994, bringing diversification of fuel and equipment suppliers, global best practices and innovative technology. In December 2014, Westinghouse and the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company agreed to significantly increase fuel deliveries to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Read more at http://www.businesswire.com
According to Deputy Economic Development Minister Yuliya Kovaliv, Ukrainian government wants 11 percent of Ukraine’s power to come from renewable resources, mainly biomass, by 2020. Ukraine needs foreign investors to help it reach its target in a market worth about 16 billion euros ($18 billion), she said. Country already has about 3,650 megawatts in thermal power capacity from biomass, and can set aside about 4 million hectares of agricultural land for energy crops without any risk to agriculture. Read more at http://www.bloomberg.com
Over 63,000 foreign students, or about 4% of total number of students, are currently studying in Ukraine, Deputy Education and Science Minister of Ukraine Oleh Derevianko said at the 3rd Business and Universities National Forum. Derevianko also said that education could be considered as an economic category and a sector that has an export potential. A dynamic development of universities would start with the change of their status from budget-funded institutions to profit-making organizations, which would introduce new principles of financing.The number of universities in the country should be cut to no more than 60-70 educational institutions (today - 317) which would focus on research. Ukraine is 33rd in the 2015 Bloomberg innovative countries ranking. Expenses on education in Ukraine totaled 6.7% of the country's GDP, and expenses on research work – 0.8% of GDP. Read more at http://interfax.com.ua
Naftogaz will use the $300 million loan to tender for purchases of about 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas needed for heating season. The loan is conditional upon a programme of corporate restructuring at NJSC Naftogaz, including the creation of a supervisory board of independent and qualified directors, the introduction of internal audit, compliance, anti-corruption and risk management functions and an ownership and governance structure in line with best international practice. The EBRD’s loan to NJSC Naftogaz is a three-year revolving facility, which means that the company will be able to pay back and re-borrow this amount over the next three years, to facilitate advance gas purchases ahead of winters. Several major global suppliers have already expressed interest in providing the gas during a pre-qualification process which was completed according to the EBRD’s tender requirements. Read more at http://www.finchannel.com
The deadlines for achieving the targets have been moved from 2018-2024 to 2029-2033 years. The Energy Community also has agreed to make an exception for Ukraine and increase twofold the service life for the power units, which cannot be upgraded, to 40,000 hours. These decisions were taken by the Energy Community's Ministerial Council in Tirana (Albania) on October 16. Read more at http://en.interfax.com.ua
The government has lost access to 55 of its 90 state-owned mines and output fell 22.3 percent, leading to black- and brown-outs and energy rationing across the country., according to the Energy Ministry. Coal accounts for a quarter of electricity generation in Ukraine and is also vital for household heating and metal production. Half of coal-fired utilities are designed to burn only anthracite, found in abundance in eastern Ukraine. The government doesn’t have much choice other than to buy coal from either the separatists or Russia. Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn told reporters in September that Ukraine will be getting around 600,000 tons of coal from the east each month. Read more at http://www.bloomberg.com
Two countries have learned hard lessons after the nuclear power disasters at the Chernobyl NPP in 1986 and the Fukushima plant in 2011 and should cooperate on transition to alternative energy sources. This statement 94th Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan made during the press conference at the Ukrinform news agency. "Ukraine has great potential for transition to alternative energy sources," he said, noting that Ukraine has ample opportunity to develop safe energy due to the large territory and rich natural resources. Read more at http://www.ukrinform.net.
Just 11 MW of new renewable energy generation capacity were put into operation during 9 month of 2015, while in 2014 and 2013 the new installations capacities were 231 MW and 520 MW respectively. Weakening of "green" tariff and tax incentives, as well as still existing administrative and bureaucratic barriers are the main reasons of industry's stagnation. It puts fulfillment of Ukrainian commitment under Energy Community to reach the share of renewable power generation as 11% of total power generation in significant risk. Currently Ukraine generates only 6.4% of electricity from renewable sources. Read more at http://uaenergy.com.ua
The European Commission (EC) is finalising recommendations on heating and cooling with an intention to update EU energy legislation and possibly draft new directives. Currently heating and cooling account for around 40% of European Union energy consumption, but are only indirectly targeted by existing EU policies, which focus more on power production with renewable energy. Renewable energy already accounts for 26% of electricity production in the EU but just 16.4% of heating and cooling. EC estimates that half of Europe's heat demand is in areas where population density is high enough for district heating infrastructure, which would be more efficient than alternatives and could cover 40% to 70% of EU heat demand. Read more at http://www.euractiv.com
According to the report published by two American research organizations and called the "Meat Eater's Guide to climate change + health", meats are among most carbon intensive foods. Lamb is a leader with 39.2 kg CO2 per kilogram, what is equivalent to driving about 90 miles on the car with average gas mileage.In top ten foods with the biggest carbon footprint we also find beef - 27 kg CO2, cheese - 13.5 kg CO2, pork - 12.1 kg CO2, farmed salmon - 11.9 kg CO2, chicken - 6.9 kg CO2. Potatoes with 2.9 kg CO2 per kilogram is the only vegetable among top ten most greenhouse gas emitting foods. Research was based on life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions for each major process, from the production and application of fertilizers, pesticides and other materials used to grow crops through to the processing, transportation and disposal of unused food at the retail, institutional and household level.
In its new Ukraine Macroeconomic Update the World Bank says that despite lower GDP growth in 2015, the country’s general fiscal and budget performance has so far been better than anticipated. At the same time, the Bank projects real GDP to fall by 12 percent this year, down from an earlier projected 7.5 percent decline. The macroeconomic policies adopted by the authorities proved to be effective in mitigating a much more painful impact on the country’s economy, but the on-going conflict in the Donbass has made stabilization more difficult. Along with current unfavorable global economic environment, it has led to a much sharper contraction in the economy. To improve the economy, Ukrainian government have to increase efforts at fighting corruption and improving governance, continue reforms to reduce NAFTOGAZ imbalances and strengthen the energy sector’s capacity, and boost confidence in the banking system. Read more at http://www.worldbank.org
Over the last decade, the structure of the Ukrainian economy has significantly changed. Its obsolete Soviet "heritage" - energy and resource intensive steel production, heavy machine-building and chemical industries - is noncompetitive globally and its output and employment are shrinking quickly. In 2007, the share of agriculture in Ukraine’s GDP was just 6.6% while the processing industry accounted for 19.9%. In 2014, the figures changed to 10.3% and 11.4% respectively. Ukraine’s position in the global division of labor responded to global demand for various products that the Ukrainian economy could offer based on its natural competitive advantages. While in 2008, food exports from Ukraine constituted $10.82bn or 16.2% of $66.95bn of total exports, in 2014 the share reached $16.67bn, or 30.9% of the total of $53.9bn. Exports in the steel industry - once the main export earner – shrank over the same period from $26.5bn, or 39.6%, in 2008 to $14.6bn, or 27.1%, in 2014, and export of machine building industry decreased for the same period from 16.3% to 13.7% of total export. Read more at http://ukrainianweek.com/
According to Chairman of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, introduction feed-in tariff incentives and simplified procedure of put into operation allowed to increase significantly the usage of alternative fuels for heating. Total capacity of newly installed boilers using alternative fuels was 450 MW in 2014 and 290 MW in the first half of 2015. During the last heating season (October 2014 - April 2015) natural gas consumption for heating purposes was reduced by 2.4 billion cubic meters (12%) due to energy saving measures. Read more at http://uaenergy.com.ua
Ukrainian government issued executive order approving Intended Nationally-Determined Contribution (INDC) of Ukraine to a New Global Climate Agreement to keep greenhouse gas emissions under 60% of its 1990 emissions level. Ukraine emitted 944.4 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 1990 and 375.4 million tons in 2012, or 42.9% of 1990 level. Emission reduction was mainly achieved due to drop of GDP by 30% and decrease of population by 8 million. Recent Russian military aggression in Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts destroyed 20% of country's economic potential. Read more at http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions Ukrainian national greenhouse gas emission commitment was discussed with participation of government, NGOs and experts (https://www.youtube.com - with English translation)
‘Blue Guide’ was presented by the experts of EU-funded project “Sector Policy Support Programme to remove Technical Barriers to Trade between the EU and Ukraine” during the conference organized with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, as well as Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. Ukraine is the first EU neighborhood country to receive this document in its native language. ‘The Blue Guide’ is widely used in practice by administrators, businesses of all size, including manufacturers, importers and distributors which operate in and with European market. Experts reported about considerable progress Ukraine made in adopting EU technical regulations. Read more at http://eeas.europa.eu/
Ukrainian grain export reached 34.8 million tons per year (11% of world grain market). This makes Ukraine behind only U.S. (70 million tons, 22% of grain market) and EU (48.7 million tons, 15%), but ahead of such traditional grain export leaders as Canada, Russia, Brazil and Argentina. During last seven years Ukrainian grain export, mainly wheat, corn and barley, was increased in 3.5 times. Recently China became one of the biggest importers of Ukrainian agricultural products with share of 11.5%. Read more at http://www.unn.com.ua
