A very needed debate took place in the Polish Cultural Institute in Berlin, on October, 9th on topics such as energy security, the impact of war on green initiatives, cross-border cooperation between Poland, Germany and Ukraine and sustainable and green reconstruction of Ukrainian energy sector.
The audience was welcomed by Jacob Riemer (Austausch e.V), Adam Balcer (College of Eastern Europe), Agata Gontarczyk, (Europe and International Politics and Heinrich Böll Foundation Warsaw Office) and Karolina Golimowska, (Polish Institute Berlin).
Julia Kahrl, Deputy head of the Department of Energy Foreign Policy at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered a keynote speech. Mrs. Kahrl underlined the key importance of Western support for Ukraine in all spheres, including in the field of green transformation. The discussion with the guests: Szymon Kardaś, Henriette Weser and Anastasia Bondarenko moderated by Irina Bukharina focused on changes in energy strategies and green initiatives across the region caused by ongoing war in Ukraine and how to shape post-war reconstruction efforts.
Henriette Weser, energy and climate policy analyst at Berlin Economics, raised the issue of energy aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine directly and against the EU indirectly even before the war. However, nowadays this confrontation brings up the opportunity to rebuild the Ukrainian energy sustainably and with a focus on renewables.
Anastasia Bondarenko, expert on ecology, Kyiv, head of the program “Climate and Environment” at Austausch e.V. In her speech, Mrs. Bondarenko touched on the problem of demining Ukrainian territories and the struggle to maintain the key energy infrastructure operational enough to allow the sustainable reconstruction to begin.
Poland and Germany are also facing the need to broaden their renewable energy infrastructure as they progressively resigning from usage of fossil fuels. Szymon Kardaś underlined that the transformation of Polish energy sector in unavailable and will benefit the country in the long run.
The debate stressed the role of cross-border cooperation in driving green transformation. Germany’s advancement in renewable technologies and Poland’s key role as the regional hub should play a crucial role in Ukraine’s green transformation. To achieve this goal there is the need to coordinate policies, make financial investments and share the know-how, especially, that the war poses many obstacles pose to a full-scale realisation of the potential of green energy in the region.
The debate was co-organised by College of Eastern Europe, Austausch e.V, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Office Warsaw and Polish Cultural Institute in Berlin within the framework of the initiative titled „German-Polish Roundtable on the East”.
