Stefanishyna: Emissions trading in EU to speed up Ukraine’s ‘green’ transformation

Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, co-chair of the Ukrainian-German high-level group for economic cooperation Olha Stefanishyna said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to her, Ukraine already has an obligation under the Association Agreement to introduce emissions trading system. The course of actions of the European Commission indicates that the system of incentives for greening the economy will acquire the features of a new generation of legislation on emissions trading.

"It [legislation] will be tougher. In principle, it is a good chance for Ukraine to speed up our transformation," said the Vice Prime Minister.

According to her, the Ministry of Economic Development now drafts a policy to implement this system. If the state wants to increase trade with the EU, it will have to implement this system as soon as possible.

"We are focusing on 2024-2025 but probably [this will happen] even earlier, given the current trends in the legislative field," Stefanishyna said.

She also stated that the timeline of Ukraine's full integration into the EU energy system will take place when "the European Union wants it", while Ukraine is ready to start making efforts at any moment.

The official reminded that Ukraine had fully adapted its legislation to the conditions of the European market over the past seven years. At the end of 2020, Kyiv appealed to the European Commission with a request to start screening Ukrainian legislation and unify markets.

EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is under development as part of the European Green Deal announced in December 2019 by the European Commission. Pursuant to it, the EU plans to become climate neutral by 2050. At the same time, a gap between the efforts of different countries may emerge, and cooperation with countries outside the EU may be affected.

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