Амбітність Планів дій сталого енергетичного розвитку та клімату українських громад

More than 250 communities in Ukraine have pledged to reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption as signatories of the Covenant of Mayors. This report provides an analysis of the climate commitments of communities and their role in national climate policy.
An analysis of activities for the development of RES, an analysis of Ukraine’s obligations, according to the nationally determined contribution, regarding the reduction of emissions and a comparison of this information with that contained in the SEAP and SEСAP have been made. The specific indicators of emissions and energy consumption, and typical mistakes in the development of measures in the field of renewable energy have been determined.
To analyze their goals, many signatories of the Covenant of Mayors have chosen the base years, during which the largest number of emissions was recorded. This approach leads to the fact that in certain localities the expected amount of greenhouse gas emission reductions has already been achieved, therefore it is unambitious for them. Only a few municipalities used in the calculation of liabilities not of the base year, but of the base level - the emission
dynamics scenario.
Covenant of Mayors signatory commitments cover about half of total emissions from the sectors: electricity and heat generation, commercial/public buildings, residential buildings, road transport and waste. Thus, the absolute value of emissions for 163 municipalities (with a population of 20 million people) in 2019 amounted to 71.16 million tons of CO2-eq. According to information from the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory of Ukraine for 2019, it is 47.6% of total emissions in the above sectors (148.7 million tons of CO2-eq).
Ukraine’s obligations under the Second Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement are more ambitious than the total obligations of the signatories of the Covenant of Mayors in the respective sectors. According to the information in the SEСAP, in 2019 the amount of emissions in absolute terms is 18.4 million tons, and the projected amount of emissions in 2030 is 11.1 million tons, i.e. an overall reduction of 17.8% is assumed. At the same time, the projected total amount of emissions in the respective sectors at the national level will be reduced from 148.7 to 117.2 million tons of CO2 , i.e. by 21.2%.
In total, more than 150 SEAPs (Sustainable Energy Action Plans) and SEСAPs (Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans) from 268 Covenant of Mayors signatories were surveyed. The data for the study was collected prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although the situation of the communities has changed radically, the authors of this report hope that a significant part of the data and conclusions obtained can be used in the development or updating of climate plans during the period of post-war reconstruction.
The action plans of the municipalities also aim to reduce specific emissions and energy consumption. Currently, specific emissions are in the range of 2-3 tons of CO2 eq. per person per year, as shown by calculations based on SEСAP data from the nineteen largest communities.
Analysis of indicators of 1099 measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions shows that the unit cost of reduction varies by several orders of magnitude within the same sector.
In the methodology of the Covenant of Mayors, it is necessary to clearly define the term «renewable energy sources», since now the signatories indicate the use of peat, municipal solid waste and waste heat as renewable energy.
Measures to increase the use of RES are presented in most action plans. In total, these measures are designed to reduce only up to 4% of emissions.