The 26th Climate Conference, COP26 (Conference of Parties), lasted almost two weeks in Glasgow, Scotland, its participants agreed on measures to help stop global warming and climate catastrophe. The talks actually included three events: the 26th meeting of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and the 3rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.
The event gathered more than 30,000 participants – officials, business and NGOs leaders, journalists and experts. Very important and ambitious promises were made by the heads of states. Thus, India has announced its intention to achieve carbon neutrality (the amount of CO2 emissions will be equal to the amount of gas absorbed by the country’s ecosystems) by 2070. India is the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, the United States and the European Union. Two-thirds of India’s energy production depends on coal.
In total, more than 40 countries have agreed to stop using coal. Ukraine is among them. At times of today’s catastrophic shortage of this fuel at Ukrainian TPPs and CHPs and the approach of frosts, this sounds phantasmagoric, but God grant ‘our calf to eat a wolf’.
Declaring these and other commitments, in particular the NDC, a nationally determined contribution to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, Ukraine together with other, not very rich or really poor countries also raised the issue of financing the modernization of industrial enterprises and other measures to be taken in this aspect. At a previous climate conference, economically developed nations promised to raise $100 billion a year for these needs. However, the declared pace cannot be maintained just yet.
Meanwhile, there are areas in which Ukraine can demonstrate its leadership without significant financial infusions. We are talking about the Declaration on Forests and Land Use. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky personally announced Ukraine’s adherence to it in his speech at the Conference. In total, 110 countries, which together own 85% of the world’s forests signed the document. This is not about stopping logging at all, as some media say. It is about preserving the share of forested areas, in particular, due to afforestation of felled wood areas.
“Bill No.5650 is being prepared for the second reading. It is about preservation of self-seeding forests and new financial mechanisms for land conservation and afforestation. It also complicates the plowing of pastures and hayfields. Work continues on a bill on carbon certificates. An investor who bought arable land and grew a forest on it or bought a plot of self-seeding forests will be able to obtain a certificate confirming the amount of carbon absorbed by this area and use it for trade in international carbon markets”, the press service of the Ministry of Environment of Ukraine informed.
Indeed, the Declaration provides for the conservation of both forests and other natural ecosystems. The system of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine is aimed at fulfilling these tasks. Including its most valuable components – reserves and national nature parks (NNP). These sites are found by presidential decrees, which gives the Ukrainian head of the state a unique opportunity to personally speed up the implementation of the commitments declared in Glasgow. If he puts seven signatures just now, then seven presidential decrees will come into force. And the area of protected areas in Ukraine will increase by 51,627 hectares.
Environmentalists and leaders of a number of non-governmental organizations called on the President to sign the decrees immediately.
“The drafts of all seven decrees were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and submitted to the Office of the President for their signing by the head of the state. Thus, on December 10, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the expansion of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve in the Transcarpathian region; on February 17, 2021 – foundation of NNP “Pushcha Radziwill” in Rivne region; on March 17, 2021 – foundation of the NNP Kuyalnytsky in Odesa region; on April 7, 2021 – expansion of the NNP Vyzhnytskyi in Chernivtsi region; on April 8 – expansion of a number of reserves of national importance, on April 27, 2021 – expansion of NNP Meotyda in Donetsk region, on July 14, 2021 – foundation of NNP Kholodny Yar in Cherkasy region. Each of these territories really deserves special treatment and protection”, Oleksiy Vasyliuk, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group, said.
“We can’t wait for a long time, because Ukraine’s environment is being destroyed by barbaric management at an extremely rapid pace. We can clearly see this in the example of Polissya, especially Rivne region, where large-scale and spontaneous amber mining transforms a unique forest-swamp region with rich natural resources and the ability to mitigate climate change into a zone of ecological disaster. Huge areas of forests and swamps have already turned into areas with Martian landscapes that are unable to regenerate themselves and provide us with their unique environmental safety services”, Olga Yaremchenko, head of the ‘Polissya – Wildlife Without Borders’ project, said.
In particular, the creation of the Radziwill Forest National Nature Park in Rivne region will provide reliable protection of 24,000 hectares of extremely valuable natural areas. In the Pushcha, scientists have counted more than 450 species of plants, 12 of which are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.
Given the meticulous attention of the international community and Ukrainian society to the problems of climate change, the preservation of Polissya as a whole is gaining special importance. After all, this region plays the role of a sponge, a store of moisture. It is the swamps and other natural complexes of Polissya that feed the Dnieper largest right tributary, the Pripyat River, as well as several dozen smaller water courses.
Tens of billions are not needed to preserve them, but only political will and understanding of the situation is needed.
Oleg LYSTOPAD
Svit newspaper, № 43 – 44, November 2021
In the photo: The area after amber mining.