Supporting Ukraine towards ambitious and integrated climate policy (GreenUkraine)

The project deepens the Ukrainian-German climate cooperation for achieving progress in the implementation of climate and biodiversity goals. It supports the 2025 NDC update that needs to be assessed in the context of the Russian war of aggression and must reflect the consequences of the war across sectors. Given that the environment and natural resource base have not been spared by the war, the project strengthens monitoring and management capacities of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine for biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, the Ukrainian Climate Office is enabled to implement the climate policies laid down with e.g. the updated NDCs. In its function as IKI interface, the project supports networking and specifically the cooperation between German und Ukrainian policy makers through analytical or data driven contributions for decision-making.

Project data

Countries: Ukraine
IKI funding: 10,000,000.00 €
Duration: 04/2024 till 04/2029
Status: open
Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Political Partner: Ministry of Economy and Environment of Ukraine
Implementing Partner: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

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State of implementation/results

The Ukrainian government adopted its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in October 2025 and submitted it to the UNFCCC.
The updated 2035 NDC sets a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 65%.
The project supported all stages of the update, including scenario modeling, stakeholder dialogues, and the presentation at COP30 in Brazil.
From May to October 2025, the IKI-Interface project organised a series of events to engage relevant stakeholders to develop a realistic climate goal until 2035, considering the impacts of the war, Ukraine’s climate neutrality goal by 2050, and the EU accession process.
At COP30 in Belém, the Ukrainian Climate Office (UCO) supported MinEconomy in organising and hosting two high-level side events.

The project highlights the topic of biodiversity in wartime and published the study How Nature Conservation Brings Ukraine Closer to the EU.
It supports the development of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP) and the establishment of a biodiversity monitoring program, as well as the compilation of a full list of known animal species, to create a solid scientific basis for the protection and restoration of the country’s natural heritage.
The project supported Ukraine’s first-ever compilation of a comprehensive inventory of all known fauna. Based on the work conducted by the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 33,400 animal species have been identified and verified in Ukraine. Of these, around 32,500 are invertebrate species and around 900 are vertebrate species.
The project supports the implementation of bird and grassland butterfly indices in Ukraine including field monitoring and reporting.

The UCO supports aligning Ukrainian legislation with the EU acquis in climate and environmental policy.
Consultations were provided on the transposition of nine EU directives, and tables of concordance covering 23 EU regulations under Chapter 27 (Environment and Climate) were prepared.
In June 2026, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the Resolution establishing the regulatory and institutional framework for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The framework, developed with technical and legal support from the UCO and other partners, enables Ukraine to participate in international carbon markets.

The UCO supports the development of green criteria for sustainable finance. Under a memorandum of cooperation with the Independent Bank Association of Ukraine, the project organised a webinar series for 120 bank employees on ESG standards.
In December 2025, the Sustainable Finance Platform (SFP) was launched as a national coordination mechanism for sustainable finance policy, green recovery, and EU accession, hosted by the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers under the auspices of the Office of the President and supported by the UCO.

To support Ukrainian communities, a study tour to Regensburg was organised in cooperation with the Covenant of Mayors project for 10 municipalities and 12 universities.
In August 2025, a Youth Climate Innovation Hackathon was held with the Kyiv School of Energy Policy, engaging 30 students from five universities to develop solutions on decarbonisation, resilient energy systems, and renewable energy investment.

The online course “Climate Policy Mainstreaming in Ukraine for Public Sector Employees,” developed with the “Green Deal Ukraїna” project at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, was launched in September 2025 on the Prometheus platform and reached nearly 1,000 participants.
The UCO is also developing a green knowledge repository: The project website hosts regularly updated databases on funding opportunities, donor-supported Climate Projects , and analytical publications on key climate policy topics (Library).

Latest Update:
09/2026