The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) actively supports investments and political decisions focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency and implementation of climate change mitigation technologies across all countries of its activity. This process is a result of the Bank’s transition to Green Economy Transition approach (GET), which was adopted in 2015 and could be defined as follows: “A Green Economy is a market economy in which public and private investments are made with a specific concern to minimize the impact of economic activity on the environment and where market failures are addressed through improved policy and legal frameworks aiming at accounting systematically for the inherent value of services provided by nature, at managing related risks and at catalyzing innovation”.
As a part of the implementation of the GET strategy, the EBRD in cooperation with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is launching “Sustainable Bioenergy Value Chain Innovations” Programme in Ukraine.
The Programme duration:
Starting – Ⅳ quarter of 2019;
Duration – 48 months.
The Programme will promote investments in innovative bioenergy technologies and practices associated with the use of agricultural residues and waste by enabling and developing sustainable bioenergy value chains leading to significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions and in support of Ukraine’s target to increase the renewable share in energy mix of the country.
The Programme components:
Political dialogue. Support legislative and regulatory framework for bioenergy value chains, including the development of:
- Strategic roadmap for supporting bioenergy contribution to national renewable energy targets;
- Biomass certification system;
- Regulations for sustainable biomass value chains.
Technical support. Support for bioenergy value chains deployment with targeted technical assistance:
- Bioenergy technical resources available to support the private sector assessments with technological roadmaps;
- Up to 20 bioenergy value chain investment projects supported with targeted technical assistance.
Financial Support. Deployment of investment products for bioenergy innovations:
- Up to 10 commissioned bioenergy investment projects supported.
Knowledge management and awareness:
- «Sustainable Agribusiness Forum» saf.org.ua;
- Instruments in place to promote the dissemination of key results and business models (website, workshops, trainings);
- Dedicated educational programme, with a specialized course on innovation in agribusiness and bioenergy practices, launched in cooperation with a Ukrainian university.
Proposed areas of project intervention to ensure the sustainability of biomass and establishing a sustainable value chain (marked in green)
The programme stakeholders:
agricultural companies, agricultural associations, representatives of legislative and executive authorities, public organizations in the energy, agricultural and environmental sectors, research institutes/universities working on sustainable development, renewable energy and agricultural issues.
The expected Programme outcomes:
- Enabling environment established for development of bioenergy innovations and technology deployment;
- Technical resources and capacity in place to support the development of the bioenergy value chain;
- Increased investment in innovative climate technologies along the bioenergy value chain;
- Awareness and knowledge of sustainable bioenergy technologies and value chain leading to replication and scaling up throughout Ukraine.
The Programme will improve the sustainability of the agricultural private sector by adding value to the waste from the baseline production through financing utilizing EBRD lending, grants from the GEF, and equity investments – which can then be scaled up further. Furthermore, the Project aims at comprehensive and effective knowledge and management activities in order to increase the replicability and thereby the overall sustainability of the Ukrainian agricultural and energy sectors.