Revolutions of Hope, Part 8: Sustainable Hope

Episode Topic: Sustainable Hope

 Marking the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, this panel explores the shift from an “ideology of destruction” to decentralized green infrastructure. Discover how environmental law and energy innovation are securing Ukraine’s sovereignty and the future of international accountability.

Featured Speakers:

• Diane Desierto, University of Notre Dame
• Carl Bruch, Environmental Law Institute
• Olga Degtiareva, Odesa National University of Economics
• Albina Dioba, Copenhagen Business School
• Kristina Hook '20 Ph.D., Kennesaw State University
• Natalia Slobodian, Canterbury Christ Church University 

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/572290.

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Revolutions of Hope. 

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Transcript

Welcome

Speaker 0:06

Parallel first sessions, first panels for this conference and the panel is actually quite timely, especially since we are in the 80th year of the existence of the Charter of the United Nations, the third year since the start of Russian aggression in breach of the core prohibition in the charter of the United Nations on the use of force. And in recent days, we have witnessed that there has been heavy discussions regarding the future of energy and environment in Ukraine, especially by a attempted joint minerals agreement by the president, president of this, um, current United States Administration. My name is Diane Deto. I'm Professor of Law and Global Affairs from both the law school and the Keo School of Global Affairs. We have before as a distinguished panel of experts who will take us through a really well-rounded presentation to take a look at a topographic as well as a granular. Examination of the sustainable energy environment in the future of Ukraine. To my immediate left as professor Christina Hook was a very well known community member at Notre Dame. I like to think of her as a community member. She just returns here every now and then. Dr. Hook is an anthropologist specializing in genocide and mass atrocity prevention. She has done multiple times of field work in Ukraine since 2015, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Fulbright, U-S-A-I-D, among others. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for Humanities, fellowship or for the book on her legacy, on the legacy of the Ukrainian Halor. Against the backdrop of backdrop of the Russia, Ukraine War. She is her very prominently known in this space for her analysis appearing in foreign affairs, the bulletin of the Atomic Scientists genocide prevention. International negotiations, small wars and insurgencies, foreign policy and popular news, media. Her research on the Russia, Ukraine War has won multiple awards and has also been cited at the International Court of Justice, the United Nations nato, the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe. She received her joint PhD in Anthropology and Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame's, crock Institute for International, international Peace, and she will be speaking today on the environmental impacts of the Russia, Ukraine War, as well as the impacts intent and recovery. To the left of Dr. Hook or Professor Hook is Mr. Carl Brook, who is the, I think the order changed here, who is the executive director of the international programs at the Environmental Law Institute and the founding president of the Environmental Peace Building Association. He has assisted sovereign nations around developing and implementing environmental laws and policies, is well known for his expertise in natural resource management, environmental peace studies, peace building. He holds a JD from Northwestern School of Environmental Law, has also graduate degrees in physics. And today we'll be talking about pathways for accountability for wartime environmental damage in Ukraine. Welcome Mr. Brook. To the left of Mr. Brook, we have Professor Olga Deva and her postdoc, Dr. Albina Duba, who will be talking in detail about the decentralized energy system, a hope for a sustainable and resilient energy future in Ukraine. Professor Deva is with the Odessa National University of Economics and the current affiliate of Copenhagen Business School. With well-known track record in mentoring students from bachelor's degrees to doctoral levels. She focuses on projects involving sustainable development, public administration, while also driving impactful NGO initiatives in both Ukraine and internationally. Her post-doctoral fellow is also a PhD in economics from Simon Kuznets Kaki National University, specializing in public administration and sustainable development, and she is also involved in various projects including focusing A on biodiversity conservation. My mandate today is Chair, is to engage this audience as much as possible. We hope we have wetted your appetite this morning and professor.

Speaker 2 4:50

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be back at Notre Dame. Um, it is also a pleasure and a privilege to be presenting on Ukraine and to stand with the people of Ukraine. So much of what is occurring, including in the environmental space, is simply because of Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. And so it falls to me to, um, take on this really big topic and as the first speaker to maybe offer some framing remarks that we can then engage in detail. So I structured my remarks around three issues. Um, how can we categorize very quickly the kind of layers of environmental impact that we see, um, that we have seen since I first began doing research the first year into the war in 2015. Also, for me, as a scholar of violence, what does this say about intention? How do we think about intention when thinking about environmental harm and warfare? And how should we think about recovery? So moving really quickly, um, just putting a map up. I think that this is familiar for many people. Um, but this is an older map, but it was sort of helpful for many audiences that I would speak to, to get an idea of the country, to get an idea of some of the fragile sites, and then to think about how we've seen warfare both impact those sites, or particularly if we look at the southern part of Ukraine and many other places where we've seen Russia intentionally attack fragile sites. Um, the impacts of war, we can think about them in different ways. I think about them first as arenas, and then I think about the timeframe in which this environmental harm is occurring. And then I think about victims in a couple of different ways. So first of all, with arenas, um, what is happening is just devastating, to, to this country. There are natural landscapes, forest, woodlands, fields, grasslands, steps. This is also occurring and impacting soil. So we think about soil in a couple different ways. We can think about it for food insecurity. We can think about groundwater. it is just impacting both the nature itself and then the way that that soil is used. It's also affecting water. We think about the immediate bodies of water, collected water. We can also think about runoff, um, in, in ways like that we think about the air. Um, one of the things that is very sad for me, um, is that even when Ukraine is justly defending itself, it is using kinetic military weapons that can release particulates and chemicals into the air. There's also a high degree of urban warfare, and that is something that we saw in the east of Ukraine even prior to 2022. But that has a particular impact on the environment and then also energy. I'm gonna move quickly through that'cause we have some other experts. But then how do we think about timeframes? So with another, croc Institute, alum and current faculty member here, drew Tonio, we've done some research on this, and we think about timeframes of harm. We think about the sort of dose, how do we think about the dose, how do we think about, the level of an environmental impact? And then how do we think about that over time, risk and exposure are part of that. So short-term risks can exacerbate preexisting vulnerabilities, but then there are longer term risks. And I remember it was about three weeks into the full scale invasion. And my heart just sort of breaking in a variety of ways, like everyone, but also seeing immediately the intentional targeting of buildings by the Russian Federation military. And so of course we're seeing the people, we're seeing the animals, we're seeing the fire. But also in my sort of imagination, I was seeing asbestos flying out from all of this destruction in ways like that, that that will have long-term health impacts that might not make it in the picture in an international newspaper. So these are subtle, um, damage and health impacts. It also, um, affects preexisting vulnerabilities like all of our countries have, particularly in environmental spaces. These are, for example, this is, a map from 2021. So we were into the war, but it wasn't the full scale war, but there were some issues with soil degradation and ways that we might think about environmental management. Then suddenly going out the window a little bit in the space of kinetic warfare. This impacts victims. When I'm thinking about the victims of the war, I'm thinking about first of all, the biodiversity. Something that sometimes surprises my audiences that aren't as knowledgeable about Ukraine as many in this room. But I often talk about the native zebra populations in the south of Ukraine. so really special parts of the biodiversity in Ukraine, including in areas that are under Russian occupation right now. This impacts animals. This also impacts the, um, bond between people and animals that probably most of us in this room experience ourselves. This also impacts the economy and identity. Um, so for people, our identity is often tied into the way that we interact with the landscape or into our economic practices. And with a lot of agriculture in Ukraine, this is also impacting identity and mental health. So never losing sight of that. And then also just the way that, that this impacts the world. I was interviewed, um, the first year in with just Russia's attempt to really target the Ukrainian agricultural sector and to block trade from moving through the Black Sea port. And I said, um, which I think the data shows just looking at the millions and millions of people worldwide that were impacted by that, that Vladimir Putin was one of the world's largest orchestrators of civilian suffering. so outside of Ukraine and beyond with all of these food policies. And I will say that that has gotten a bit better, but that is not thanks to Russia. That is thanks to the success of the Ukrainian military in the Black Sea and creating again, these corridors for grains to move. So again, this is also, um, things with nuclear risks. Many of us might have noticed on the opening day of the Munich Security Conference, there was damage to the nuclear sarcophagus and Chernobyl. So again, this is all just sort of happening and it affects, of course, Ukrainians, but also the world. Oh no, my clicker has gone out. We're, we're only five slides in. Uh oh. Thank you so much. So we can skip that slide. Um, and just keep moving on. I wanna talk about intent because there is this idea, and it's true in some ways that the environment can suffer collateral damage. And this can happen in subtle ways. When we look at some of these older military vehicles, for example, whether they're used by Russia, which is pulling military vehicles out of storage or older vehicles that Ukraine is using. I often think about the tires leaching into the soil. That's a sort of a collateral damage effect. I think in this particular case, it is also very important to understand that the environment itself is a targeted victim. And that's why I have a picture up of the Kakoda, which, flooded the south part of Ukraine due to the role of Russia. And so recognizing the criminal nature of environmental crimes, I'll move through it quickly just in sort of respecting the time we have together. But that's why, um, we are often talking about criminality or emerging legal norms, potentially legal categories one day, like echo side, the intentional targeting of the environment. So I think it's, again, just thinking from myself as a scholar of violence. what do I see? That is happening due to the tragic nature of warfare. And what do I see where the Russian Federation is particularly inducing very, very large scale environmental harm as part of their broader desire to destroy Ukraine. Um, one things that I often say in my remarks is that it is not a good idea. It has never been a good idea over the last three years to think about this as a, as long as it takes situation because the Russian Federation is quite content with a strategy of destroying Ukraine to draw this war out as long as they can every day of damage to Ukraine. We can think of as meeting that ideology of destruction and, and we can see that coming through with environmental harm. Um, yeah. You've moved this slide. So, the work that I've done with, with Richard Drew Tonio, also here at Notre Dame, is thinking about the environment as a trigger of conflict, as degraded, as neglected, or as a mechanism of control. And this is what we were actually working on in Ukraine during the war, but prior to the full scale invasion. And I think some of these frames have really come more sharply into play as Russia has also exerted more control over Ukraine. And so how do we think about these patterns that we see where Russia is controlling parts of the Ukrainian environment and population? Um, next slide please. Now, thinking about recovery, this is really important to me. Um, you know, I, Ukrainian resilience is incredible. I also hate that the people of Ukraine have to be so resilient. So it's a, it's a double-edged sword for me, but I think it really, um, does behoove us to think about the ways that in the midst of warfare, people are responding. I had the privilege to be in Ukraine, over the course of five months last year when I was on my, my NEH fellowship. And so these are some of the things that I've gotten a chance to see up close. things that are going on, like green energy and the way that actually green energy is being talked about in a different way in Ukraine it through a sort of lens of national security. So if you've been in Ukraine, you've been impacted by power outages probably, and that's part of Russia's, um, willful destruction of the civilian electrical grid. So diversifying that and thinking about green energy as diversifying and thinking about new ways that we think about what green energy can offer. It's also affecting city planning. And I have a colleague in the room who's an expert on this, but things with wastewater and, um, the movement of so many people displaced from their homes into cities like Aviv, which are now, um, sort of, I just came back from there. It is still beautiful Aviv, but it is also struggling with its infrastructure with accommodating so many people in the wastewater that we produce. Also thinking about reconstruction. I know that we all long to be in a place where we can just talk reconstruction and we can stop talking about victory and just move fully onto reconstruction. But it is of course happening now. People need homes now. And so thinking about the emissions that will come through, what we're having to do, um, to, to sort of foster recovery in the now and then also the long-term recovery of damage. And then also I wanted to talk a little bit about, innovation. And I see innovation in a couple different ways. I did wanna tell you the story of the top picture that I have. This is a young landscape ecologist, and she is traveling the country, um, taking samples from bomb craters and from photographs of environmental damage in national parks. And she's doing this in a way that just requires absolute bravery. These places are not secure now, and she still goes in. Um, I think a lot of this room we're all scientists and academics like imagining doing our research under this kind of fire. And it requires these trips that are close to the frontline. Um, and so she's taking these samples now, and so I just wanted to sort of recognize the dedication of environmental scientific work in Ukraine right now. And then the bottom picture is Yvette, wading through this water trying to rescue the animals that were affected by the kako of Ka dam explosion. And then finally with innovation, and I'll wrap up my remarks so we can keep going. If you can do the, um, next slide. So these are just a couple of the many organizations that are going on, but ways that we can think about environmental recovery as part of continuing to both showcase and then also foster and build on Ukrainian resilience. One that I'll just mention is a project that works too. Turn rubble that Russia has created into building code safe cement. And the project has been so successful that it is now certified as the highest grade of safety for rebuilding. You can use this retransform rubble to actually build bridges, which is one of the hardest things that get sort of certified for strength and safety. And this program is also using veterans, often veterans that are, have been wounded on the frontline. So I think I have one last slide, but Oh no. Yeah, just the inside. But I think I had a, a slide somewhere in there. Maybe it didn't make it. Um, but it was something of like where Russia destroys Ukraine rebuilds. And so I think that this is again, tying both the sort of devastation of what Russia has done and what has happened as a result of choices that Russian individuals, many, many individuals, including soldiers have made, with their destructive intent. But then also thinking about the environment as both a showcase for the resilience and creativity that exists in Ukrainian society. And ways that we as this room can kind of foster and further that together. Thank you so much.

Accountability Legal Pathways

Speaker 17:14

Thank you. Very. Thank you very much, Dr. Hook. just as a an aside, we do want to remind everybody in the audience that even under the laws of war, parties to conflict are required, if not legally mandated to ensure the preservation of the natural environment. So nothing that we're seeing right now in the deliberate targeting of civilian facilities, but especially natural resources, is at all permitted. Those are accumulated violations by the Russian Federation. Turning now to Mr. Brook.

Courts Claims and Challenges

Speaker 3 17:49

Thank you. Um, if you could advance, please. my presentation today builds on three threads of work at the Environmental Law Institute. For more than 25 years, ELI has worked to advance accountability for wartime environmental damage. This started first in the aftermath of the 19 90 91 Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait with international forces, uh, participating. And we'll circle around to that also. Starting in the 1990s, ELI has worked in Ukraine, helping civil society and government to build the environmental laws institutions in capacity. And over the last two years, colleagues and I have been supporting processes to hold Russia and Russians accountable for wartime environmental damage. Next, please. I think it's very interesting to see kind of the differences in how anthropologists categorize environmental damage and how lawyers categorize it. This is structured more around the causes of action. You know, it is illegal to target dams, nuclear power plants, and other installations with dangerous forces. It is a war crime. pollution is, as, uh, Dr. Hook said often a, um, it's a, it's an ancillary aspect to a lot of attacks. It doesn't mean that it's allowed. There are questions about, is the attack disproportionate? Or as, uh, Dr. Desierto just said, is the attack on a civilian object? We'll get to that wildfires. sometimes intentionally set, sometimes, uh, collateral damage. Then the pillage of natural resources, and we'll come to that in a moment. next, please. So there are, two fundamental types of accountability. One is criminal, the other is civil. And a lot of this gets to the intentionality that Dr. Hook was mentioning. For criminal actions, you have to show that somebody intended to do the action. Collateral damage is, um, is a, is kind of a tricky issue, but generally they had to intend to hit a nuclear power plant accident, you know, kind of a missile, being kind of hit by defense that then goes into a nuclear power plant. It wasn't being targeted. It's pretty clear that the attacks and nuclear power plants are intentional, but the point is you have to show intent for criminal liability. You have to show who intended it specifically. You can't say, oh, well this general was responsible for this region, therefore we're going to hold them accountable. They had to have either ordered the attack or known about the attack with sufficient time to say, no, you shouldn't be doing it. Makes it complicated. The, we'll, we'll get to the, but not at all impossible. it just makes it more challenging. There are a lot of different war crimes that are relevant here. One is, the, attacks that cause widespread long-term and severe damage to the environment. This is, this is kind of the standard, provision that people will talk about. It comes from additional protocol one and the Rome statue, which is the mandate for the. Criminal court, it's a really hard standard to meet because widespread is really widespread, long-term, severe. Also, these are these, this was meant as a response to us defoliation in Vietnam. That's the sort of widespread damage we're talking about. But there are a lot of other attacks that have environmental dimensions, and we're seeing prosecutors in Ukraine at the International Criminal Court and elsewhere looking at how do you use these other provisions that have, that are really on related to environmental damage. Uh, the first is, intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects. So again, this intentionality. If you say we're going to target gas stations or power plants or hospitals or apartments, those are civilian objects, and the intentional attack on those is a war crime. Second is the, uh, is pillage of natural resources. This is basically the, taking of natural resources that you don't have a right to or taking of property that you don't have a right to take. And, uh, we have seen, the, the theft of wheat, of timber, of minerals, and it's not just by the military that sometimes in in Crimea we see, minds that, private actors are now extracting illegally. And so pillage is not just a, a, an issue of an. The, of, of, of soldiers taking the resources. It's also of private actors. The next one I mentioned is the, works and installations containing dangerous forces. And, the, we have the attacks on o Skill Dam on Kada and other Dems. And, uh, we also have attacks on, um, Zoia and using Zoia as a platform for launching attacks, which is, uh, particularly, troublesome. And then there's the crime of Ecoside. this is, this is, uh, I think this, this, it's contentious within the international legal community because it's not yet an international crime. It's a crime under the national laws of Ukraine. And about 14 other countries in the Ukrainian Criminal Code, article 4 41 defines ecoside as mass destruction of flora and fauna poisoning of error or water resources, and any other actions that may cause an environmental disaster. To my knowledge, there has never been a criminal complaint, let alone a conviction under ecoside anywhere in the world. I think that Ukraine will probably be the first to do so. They're actively investigating that. Next, please. The civil causes of action are very interesting coming back to this intentionality question that Dr. Hook raised because, ah, thank you. as a general matter. One of the difficulties with a criminal is that you have all these very specific conditions to show long. You know, was the damage long term, was it widespread? Was it severe? what we saw with the UN Compensation Commission, which held Iraq liable for the damage from the 19 90 91 Gulf War, Iraq engaged in illegal, aggressive war that violated the UN charter. Iraq was therefore liable for all damages that ensued. It's not just the damage of the burning oil wells or the dumping of oil in the Gulf. It also included the damage that was ancillary to the liberation of Kuwait. The whole war was essentially an illegal war put on a Rock's tab. You don't have to worry about long term or widespread or severe. It's all damage. Colin Powell referred to this as the Pottery Barn in doctrine. You break it, you buy it. And, there were a lot of really important, learning experience coming out of this. Some of that being what happens when you have baseline damage, because Iraq was only liable for the damage caused by the war. But Iraq, uh, Kuwait had been developing oil for years before. Iraq was not liable for that preexisting damage. So what was the new damage that Iraq had caused? And if you don't have that baseline, it's like you know where you know where the damage is. It's only responsible for the baseline, the new damage. Next please. I'll also say that pillage, we've seen a lot of countries, third parties have held people responsible for pillage of natural resources during armed conflict. We've seen this in, in Netherlands, in, in Spain, in Switzerland. So this is something that you need to be alert to, that it's not just a question of, you know, the party, the countries where the conflict is happening. Next, please. So, forums one obviously is the Ukrainian courts. we've already seen, uh, notices of suspicion for, targeting of O Dam and for Koka Dam. The International Criminal Court has issued, uh, four arrest warrants for Russian, leaders that, relate to the widespread targeting of energy infrastructure. International Court of Justice. It's not criminal. This is going to be more on financial, uh, liability has, awarded damages to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for looting by Uganda. And Uganda is, has paid the third of five installments on that. and they also had another case related to a Nicaraguan incursion into Costa Rica, mentioned, uh, other courts in tribunals, in other countries. The register of damages is particularly interesting. they are collecting claims that relate to, damage caused by the war. They don't yet have the mandate to adjudicate or to award damages, but the process is under negotiation. Next, please. Okay. Well I could try, The final, series of points. I think one is the challenge of assessing impacts when you don't know that when you don't control the territory. And we're starting to do a lot of remote sensing. I mentioned the challenges of baseline. There are some real questions around military necessity, dual use, and proportionality. These are all essentially qualifiers on everything I said. So if the gas station is being used by vehicles going to the front, it arguably has a military dimension. It's supporting the military effort. It's still a civilian object, but it also is a military object, and that gets difficult under the laws of war, and proportionality. We don't have good ways of determining whether something is disproportionate. I think there are a lot of things. I, I'm happy to talk at the break. I would like to say, um, that this is a long-term process right now. Things are not nearly as hopeful as they were a year ago in terms of accountability, but I've seen so many cases where someone, uh, seems out of reach. When the International Criminal Court charged Slovic, he was in power. People were criticizing the i, the ICC or the, the ICTY for putting the effort into this. What was the point? Just two years later, he was in the dock. Politics had changed and he, you know, the Serbia wanted to. Joining the eu, we saw a similar thing with, uh, Abu. A Mohamed OU probably doesn't ring many bells. He was one of the primary agents responsible for blowing up PanAm 1 0 3 over Lockerby Scotland. It took 34 years. But there are offices with the, the f who track these people, or at least there were until recently. and this thing, these are ways that people, over a long term, they keep tracking, keep going after these people. And I, I don't think that there will be full justice, but rough justice often is a critical measure for a long-term piece that I Thank you for your attention.

Speaker 31:25

Thank you very much, Mr. Brook. In fact, um, I will follow up and just say two things, which is. One claims on the basis of international criminal liability or international civil liability can be instituted without any time limit or any restriction, which is why regardless of the length of the process, the arc of international justice will pursue those who violate international law. The second thing I will say that's live in our discussions and something to think about is that there's been prominent discussions that a, any prospective peace settlement involving Ukraine and the Russian Federation could allegedly waive these claims. That is false because international criminal and civil liability under international law cannot be waived in any peace settlement. Otherwise, that invalidates the peace settlement. With that sort of slight digression, I'm going to turn to Professor Deva. Thank you.

Speaker 4 32:27

Thank you.

Speaker 5 32:35

Oh, thank you. so today, we have the presentation, about the 10 centralized energy system and hope for sustainable and resilient energy future of Ukraine. Our presentation consists of, uh, two parts and two speakers. So the first part is mind part. Next slide please. So let's keep it thanks to Diana. She introduced me already, so let's keep it. Next slide, please. And, uh, the main driver for our research was, uh, the fact, uh, that the, according to various estimations, the destruction of the Ukrainian energy structure. is accounted to between 50 and 80%, and also the who that, uh, this situation will lead to changes in the Ukrainian energy infrastructure and to sustainable and to resilient energy future in Ukraine. And, uh, lemme, give you some idea about what is going on in Ukraine with, uh, this number. I'm economist and that's why the certain numbers and graphs. So you can see that the total energy consumption in Ukraine, was reducing, starting from the year to 2000. And now it's, uh, in, uh, in 21 it was about, Point one, tons of equal of oil equivalent. And, it dropped even more in after the 2022. actually, there are different, uh, reasons for this, uh, trend. Uh, the mo the, the most, the good for Ukrainian economy would be the, better energy efficiency. But in fact, uh, the reasons such as reducing, industrial, production and, changes in, uh, economics, in the structure of Ukraine. So the another, uh, another index like energy consumption per capacity showed, exactly how effective. is the installed energy capacity used in Ukraine. And you can see that before the war it was used approximately like 50% comparing to, uh, European countries, and, uh, dropped, 21%, even more after 2021. so the next slide, uh, showed, the fi uh, final energy consumption by sectors. And, uh, you can see that the more sectors that, uh, use, uh, energy in Ukraine are, households and industry. They change sometimes, sometimes, uh, households use, more energy, sometimes industry. But here we see, uh, actually, big potential for, the centralization of, uh, energy in, energy, system in Ukraine because, uh, of this high level of, energy usage by households. so here you can see, the total installate electricity capacity in Ukraine. So there is a graph showing that the total energy capacity was about, was more, than 58 gigawatt and by energy sources. Still, we still use, uh, mostly the fossil fuels, but there is, uh, positive tendons by using renewables. And, uh, most of them are solar energy. But, uh, let's remember this, uh, number, like the total energy capacity, equal to 55, 58, uh, gigawatts. And next slide showed you what was going on after all this air attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine. And you can see that in the summer of 24, the total energy available energy, generation was, you can see

Speaker 6 37:17

ah, is on this slide, on the right of the slide. It was, I remember it was.

Speaker 5 37:27

More, uh, than two gigawatts. So we can compare 58 gigawatt energy capacity, and only two gigawatt available after air attacks. No, of course this number changed thanks to our energy, uh, workers that repair all, fix all these things. But there were such moments when available. energy generation was so very small, and that's why Ukraine imports, uh, energy from neighbor countries such as, Slovakia, Romania, and po. so here you can see, uh, the numbers that, describing, uh, uh, the physical. the physical, attacks on energy infrastructure and, uh, the black, so generally, actually this number changed, uh, all the times. This number was, uh, is, uh, relevant, uh, for the moment when, uh, I left here. And, after that, Ukraine had some more attacks, more. And, so there are some more. And, uh, the graphs on the right, part showed that, uh, for example, this, black part is, are the attacks, uh, from, uh, on energy infrastructure. The blue one, uh, the, the blue parts are the attacks on energy and possibly, for, it'll be relevant for the. Previous previous presentation, this rose parts are, attacks, uh, with environmental damage, on Ukraine, on Ukrainian land in Ukraine. And, and what is also interesting here, so generally from, since, February, 2020, 22, there were on, no, no, not only, but there, 308 attack on energy infrastructure with such a big destruct, destruction, like, uh, up to 80%. And why It was possible because of centralized energy structure. It means if, one, uh, missile comes to some generation objects then can happen that the entire city can be without electricity. And, uh, with big sage in gen, energy generation. And that's why, uh, we believe very much that, that that centralization of energy infrastructure can lead to, uh, better resilience in the wartime and more sustainable future in after the war. here are also, um, there was a mission from United Nations, human right, human rights. And, they, declared, that this attacks on energy in instruc infrastructure. They, uh, this is, uh, acts, against, uh, humility and, uh, it's not, they are not military targets. and here you can see, the Ulema index, uh, nor normally it's used, for, uh, as in tool for policymakers and, uh, for, developing the policy to improve energy situation in the country. And, it consists of, uh, three important indicators like, energy security, energy equity, and sustainable environmental sustainability. Sorry. And, uh, it's the year 2021. according, uh, Ukraine was rated as, uh, 43 30 by World Energy. and, it means, uh, this. this balance grade, uh, means that, energy security was ranked in the a group. It means mm-hmm. To, to, a group. energy, equity was more problematic, uh, with the C group and environmental sustainability, was, in the big group, but with very positive trends like, uh, rising, in 22%. And what does it mean for our research that, uh, that debt, we believe that that debt centralization can change, can, can affect this indexes. for example, like, uh, uh, energy equity. And, ah, sorry. So here, here you can see how it does it look like in Ukraine. And, here, we believe that, uh, according to the five D five, uh, five d model of energy transition, decentralization can be put in the center of, uh, other factors like, decarbonization, uh, decreasing energy cost, digitalization, and democratization because it affects all of them. And, let me, uh, give the floor to my colleague, uh, Dr. Albina Zoba, and she'll continue with one of the mode of, uh, centralization, organizational forums called Energy Community. Thank you.

Speaker 7 43:24

Thank you. Thank you. I'll continue presentation of their special form of decentralization of energy system.

Speaker 4 43:36

And I dunno, is it like I'm, how to start my presentation here?

Speaker 8 43:50

Just click the next, so hug.

Energy Communities Explained

Speaker 4 43:52

Yeah. Oh, great. Thank you. So as, I'll just go to the next slide.

Ukraine Barriers

Speaker 7 44:12

Yeah. So I'll present, um, briefly concept of energy communities as a, as a form of decentralization. Energy system and also present like some successful case of, uh, such experience and maybe lessons for Ukraine that, uh, Ukraine can learn from European Union activities. Because our research was focused on European Union. so as, as already, and Dr. Olga and Dr. Hook mentioned that like, there, there is like really big need of rebuilding and construction of energy system in Ukraine. And like this rebuilding should be focused on modernization in a green, focusing on green transition. There is like a huge need for green transition for green sources of energy, even from grassroots initiatives. So this is like, I dunno, I I can go for the next slide. so we can see that even like activism through people that want green energy. And, uh, I'll introduce you today for the concept of energy community as a way to successfully and sustainability reach this way of, uh, sustainable reconstruction of energy as we need, like reconstruction, and to use this possibility to build new form, like next slide. And, uh, energy community form, provides this framework where when citizen could be not only passive consumer, but active consumer. And it means like we can, tax citizen not only could, uh, consume energy, but also generate and trade it. And when an energy community means the association of citizen, local businesses, local authorities, form. uh, from some company community that generate energy use and trade it. And, uh, based on, um, rescue model of energy community in Europe, there are key principles should be followed when you form this energy community. And I'll be not maybe, describe every principles, but one of like the main principles are voluntary participation that every member of community could enter the community and also democratic, uh, principles that every one, uh, decision should be made. Every citizen a member of energy community have say to say, and economic participation, it means that profits generated by energy community will go back to the community in the form of services to community or to keep, uh, operating of energy community. And if you can take care of, uh, benefits of energy community, we can, make them, frame them in three categories. But maybe the main important it's of course for Ukraine is generate energy security on the bigger level. Also equity as already Dr. Olga told. And, uh, in environmental, uh, focus, it's of course it's, uh, reduce depends of, uh, fossil fuels. And in social it's of course creating, more jobs on community level and strange. So social cohesion is also needed in Ukraine. And, um, if you come back to Ukrainian case, Ukraine has great potential to communities as, People that know energy system, a lot of expert in this field, but also capacity in terms of, uh, generating renewable energy sources. So here you have, you can see the numbers of possibilities in creating generating wind power, Ukraine. And I'll briefly introduce your successful case that I was privileged part to, participate in its, um, BKU project within eu. And I'll introduce like some small successful case in Greece for now, because in Ukraine, unfortunately, we're still in developing the phase to create energy communities. So this is like a, a case to showcase that it's possible even in a smaller, uh, scale. But it's, uh, provide, uh, a big impact for small community in Greece, for example. And it's, uh, it's interesting because it's, um. it's focused on biomass production, beer, gas from local, as we called it, waste before, but now it's, uh, source for biomass in, in Greece. So I'll go to the next slide. Yeah. And you can see like here the small community. Now's like 300 of members in this. And you can see that this community cooperate with local businesses and local, um, municipalities collecting from trip pruning in the municipality, in the forest. And also they cooperate with, uh, local cafes to collect, coffee, great coffee waste. And they, source this beer masks to special plant to create pallets that, that, at the end. Could be used to provide heat to local buildings and now as they used in kindergarten to heat to kindergarten during this winter. So in, of course, this, this project, uh, needed some, uh, needs some investment, but also they cut the support from local members. So now they have three, 300 of participants or members from the local communities. And if you'll go to, come back, yeah, this is how it looks, uh, the process, technological process, and this is the form of pilots. They are very useful and easy to use. And, um, I think why I choose even this example. I would like to show that, uh, energy community provide framework that could be adjusted to local context and be adjusted for local needs. And yeah, and if you come back to Ukrainian, um, uh, state of uh, so what I can say that we have a lot of barriers to establish more energy communities, but maybe one of them most important is, uh, legislation because for now, legislation in Ukraine allows to create energy community and generate and use it, but, uh, allows to trade their extra energy only to one buyer or owned by state. And the tariffs are not so competitive on the market. So this is like one of the most, but there are a lot of other barriers of course. And maybe I think I'll finish on this point and just, uh, would like to thank you and if you have questions we can discuss later.

Speaker 51:08

Thank you very much. Last but not the least, I'm going to apologize to Natalia Ian, who's a research fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University and Researcher and risk program at the British Academy. Very well known expert in sustainable development within the energy set. Thanks.

Audience Q&A

Speaker 9 51:28

Yeah, thank you very much. my presentation. Okay. So first of all, I wanted to say thanks, NanoVi Institute for European Studies for, this opportunity to be here and to introduce Ukrainian region of sustainable peace building. Today I'd like to focus on environmental restoration of post-war Ukraine. Oops. How does it. Okay, so it's important to stress, that the current presentation is a part of broader projects, uh, supported by the British Academy. So the title of my project is, uh, reshaping Environmental Piece, building Lessons from Ukraine's Work. And, uh, this project focuses on, um, gathering and analyzing the data, uh, developing a value-based approach to sustainable piece and proposing mechanisms of environmental reparations. Okay, so for now, I would like to focus on three, on three key points maybe. Next slide. Could you support me? Okay. so what I would like to focus today, it's, uh, three points. the impact of war on Ukrainian's life, dimensions leading to sustainable peace building, and um. What does it mean? Restora, uh, what does it mean? Environmental restoration for Ukrainians. This next slide and quickly. Next slide. So, and next slide. Yeah. So I wanted to share a couple of slides prepared. top lead, especially for COP 29. And these slides, uh, will be focused on damages, of, for, biodiversity and nature in Ukraine. So today is not easy to calculate, the total volume of damages by the end, because it's increased from day to day. But by the end of 2020 first here, Ukrainian government communicates the number up to$63 billion. So how much is it? It's almost, almost double of, double the amount spent on research and development by top technic companies in Silicon Valley. Next slide, please. so, indeed, Ukraine today have a large challenge connected with, military, with, with waste from military equipment. This chart is pretty eloquent. By the end of 2020 first year, we have good from Russian military equipment up to 1.4 million tons. What does it mean for Ukrainians? It's not only about the volume of waste, it's about the risks for public safety. It's about, uh, additional resources for utilization and recycling these waste. And it's also about the impact of environment. Next slide please. Energy, energy is a weapon. Russia said we're used to seeing, that increasing the cost and, interrupt supply ga, gas and oil. were a part of Russian weapon on however war against Ukraine opened it. Absolutely different approach, to the statement Russians attack on energy facilities and, and infrastructure. Not only additional CO2 emissions or pollutions, it's first of all about direct impact on economic situation and ability of Ukrainians to satisfy basic needs when most of us need to. Let's say, must switch on so-called survival mode. Next slide please. So actually, here is a attempt to summarize the impact of war on Ukrainians. And believe me, I may talk a lot about these data points because it's very painful for me. But what I would like to, to, to flag here, and to maybe to shape your mindset, it's, uh, the number 30% of Ukrainian, territory is potentially mining. What does it mean? 30% of Ukrainian territory? It's up to hundred 34,000 square mattress. It's florid, it's size of florid. And now please imagine that your florid is not available for visiting and not available. Long period, using for normal life, for agriculture, industry, et cetera. Next slide, please. Sorry. Despite, uh, despite in, um, despite in develop many researchers to develop methodology aiming to evaluate cons of war activity, there is still some gaps that needs additional, global expert attention. So including globally approved metrics to calculate emissions from war activity mechanisms to evaluate ecological losses, tooth for collecting environmental reparations, and so many, so many issues should be discussed and solved and incorporated into international law as soon as possible. Next slide please. And next slide please. Traditionally environmental case building used for prevention conflict, always post-conflict activity. So now Ukrainian case shows that it includes restoration of environment, even if the conflict continues going. President Zelensky, former integrated environmental protection measures in term, uh, peace building efforts emphasizing reparation for environmental harm, potentially the start of peace building dialogue with Russia can begin by addressing the environmental cons of war. so it so-called phase of avan is a problem on this track. Strengthening institutional and policy capacity through global environmental cooperation is crucial. Next, it's important to focus on deeper rising Russian, so-called, uh, environmental protection NGOs. And finally, it's important to integrate initiatives such as environmental impact assessment and e in the international law and develop rules for bringing to justice and recovering compensation. Next slide, please. so actually decarbonization is a central concept in addressing a climate change. It promises to reduce the carbon footprint by moving from fossil fuel to clean energy, and this shift is essential for reshaping the global political and business, space. What does it mean for Ukraine? For Ukraine, it's about opportunity because. First of all, it's about transition to low carbon infrastructure, promotion renewables, and, um, about decentralized all the energy system involving more talents, local communities, businesses, et cetera. What does it mean for Russia? First and foremost, its challenge esp fossil who remain a con tone of the Russian economy. Decarbonization require, requires a significant funding to reshape the economic model. And last but not least, only Gar lost their power to impact on government. Next slide, please. so gender education and culture is very important component of, um, environmental visibility. The gender factor is vital in post-conflict settings, including women's vulnerabilities. Access to and control are the basic resources, women's migration, and access to, the market, of labor. At the same time, there is increased focus on the women's like agents, not like weak teams of war, including zero roles in peace building process, education and culture remain focal point for developing the institutional capacity of environmental peace building. It should be integrated into university to focus on sustainable development in incorporate sustainability culture in business process. Next slide please. And next slide please as well. Mm-hmm. So to be honest, before full scale were, environmental issues and in our and ecological problems, were not. Were not, On the top list, between Ukrainians. So typically it was, uh, like, uh, last one. last number is a list of potential problems. However, recent survey shows these challenges are between five priorities, including demanding territory, including, uh, war waste and water scarcity. And next slide please. And it worse to stress that in time of full scale war, Ukraine did a lot for environmental protection and restoration. There is, um, actually, sorry. Um. There is gre the key initiatives on this slide from, government, from, social related climate related projects and business initiatives that were integrated in Ukraine despite the war. And despite the, uh, total aggression in this challenging time, Ukraine demonstrate that the environment matters its value even. So it's considerate as secondary issues during the conflict. So, and last slide please. And, I completed and I do wanna say, thank you very much for your interest to this discussion and I want to say thanks. American people for support us. It's indeed very important. Thank you.

Speaker 1:02:50

Thank our speakers for their very rich presentations. I'm opening the floor for questions, comments or reactions? Yes, sir. Please identify yourself as well

Speaker 10 1:03:02

from the ILI program. thank you. Um, the damage and destruction is horrific and sad and it's human nature to rush, to rebuild. And I'm just wondering what are the international mechanisms and initiatives that we could employ to help Ukraine build new instead of rebuild old? here's an opportunity as Professor Hulk remind us about asbestos pollution. Building technology has not been static. Building material has not been static. Here's a chance to leapfrog, all, all the stuff that we tried and didn't work. And if we built a new Ukraine, it, it, it could really make a big difference in their recovery for Ukraine.

Speaker 1:03:58

Thank you. I'll collect another question and leave it to the panelists. Yes, please.

Speaker 11 1:04:03

I'm

Speaker 4 1:04:04

Kathleen, he, I'm founder of KIN United Ukraine.

Speaker 11 1:04:07

one of the biggest problems Ukraine has is keeping their youth there. And if they're going to rebuild, they need to have youth to become, the residents, the leaders, and so on. Gen Z is focused on climate and environmental issues. I see. to tap women to become, change agents, not just victims. We need to tap the youth as well to participate because they care about these issues right now. And in a, in a charette with the architecture department, from Notre Dame over outside of Aviv, they met with our kids Connect children, and they said they brought up environmental issues as ways they wanted to improve their community. So I wonder if anyone has looked into, building another, developing another Greta Thornburg, you know, in Ukraine to have the youth become a part of, of changing it and therefore staying and coming back to Ukraine.

Speaker 1:05:07

Perhaps we can, ask our panelists to respond, any of our panelists to respond to either the first or the second co comment. Please feel free.

Speaker 2 1:05:16

Sure. So, um, we have also some experts in the room that Charette was mentioned. so this is something that I can just reflect. I'm, I'm also hearing a lot from Ukrainians, um, about this idea that, um, nobody wants disaster to happen, whether it's a natural disaster or a manmade disaster like we have in Ukraine. Um, and so it's this idea of taking stock of where communities are, what they want to do going forward. That's something that we heard in our reflected in our work together. Um, I do think that this is a quite a good idea of thinking about how to retain youth, diverging slightly. but thinking about areas that, due to the tragic situation, due to the circumstances, Ukraine is developing pockets of real expertise for the European continent. So I would say both in environmental rebuilding and green energy. I would also say in prosthetics, we've seen some really interesting work that Ukrainians are doing there. And so maybe thinking about ways that this rebuilding both on environmental issues and these other pockets of expertise that are developing can become hubs for the European continent or for other victims of, of conflict who need prosthetic development. And maybe that is a path to sustainable, viable employment along with I think what you're talking about also this real resonance for that generation. So those are just some initial thoughts.

Speaker 7 1:06:33

Okay. Might can maybe, uh, uh, refer to the second question. Mm-hmm.'cause exactly. You're doing research on Gen Z, they biodiversity conservation and we are collaborate also with Korean University. So from perspective of higher education, I can say that we're establishing, garden as a learning spaces to involve, you can hear me to involve now you hear

Speaker 8 1:06:58

the mic work

Speaker 7 1:07:00

so. Yeah, so we are creating guardians at, at university as a learning space. So we engage, uh, also youth and also professor staff to cooperate in one space to think about nature. And this also enhances cooperation and involve youth in this to dealing with this problem. And yeah, so this is like, and also we are sharing Nordic experience because I'm like now represented business school and now we creating a garden in Ukraine. So it's also like a place of not only study, but also like therapeutic experience, like to, to enhance mental health in the people and also involve views there.

Speaker 9 1:07:48

So I just, I just wanted to answer that. Uh, so regarding statistic,

Speaker 1:07:55

nothing works on the, on the table. Nothing works. So

Speaker 9 1:07:59

I just, I just wanted quickly to add that regarding the last, Ukrainian statistics, um, the numbers of angels when women, when women is, when women are a leader. So, dramatically increase up to 30% within, uh, last, two years. So it's against stress how environmental protection is important within the current, within the current situation and in Ukraine as well.

Speaker 1:08:28

I think we have time to also take on other comments and questions. The gentleman here and the lady at the far end of the room.

Speaker 12 1:08:38

Hi. Thanks panel. so I have a question about, or could, could you folks comment on structural governmental impediment to this? so the entrenched oligarchs who've made their money on extracting mineral resources. The proposed mineral deal by our government. and just in general, you know, that last statistic about priority of environment, how can that be addressed, pushed and partnered with the right types of thinking and so that this kind of thing can happen.

Speaker 1:09:11

Can we also get the question from the far end? Everyone? Thank you.

Speaker 13 1:09:20

Hello everyone. Thank you very much for presenting such an interesting topic to us. I'm Camila from Brandeis University and I do have several questions. First one, was for Christina Cook, but maybe everyone who wants also can join to answer first one. Uh, what do you think that average Ukrainians can do every day of their air base life that, uh, to create more, um, not just sustainable. But also help them with everyday resources like clean air, clean water, and save their energy, what they not doing now. and the other questions to, Albina job, uh, is how did you calculate the maximum capacity of Ukraine energy? Because it's changing every day because of the attacks. And what is the date when you calculate, like, how did you calculate that? And the next question is, uh, you mentioned also what the minimum of there's requirements for biomass sourcing. What does the minimum of that investing requires? Thank you.

Speaker 1:10:20

So that's four questions in total and we are at 10 15 right about to start the coffee break. But I will ask our panelists to be brief so that you could continue the discussion at the coffee break. Thank you.

Speaker 2 1:10:32

This is a speed dating version of the answer to really great questions. I will just say that I was on a panel, it was about public health and a, a colleague there was talking about why we haven't seen some of the disease outbreak in Ukraine that we might've expected under this type of level of warfare. And she said something that stuck with me, which was Ukrainian moms are the everyday heroes of there not being a disease outbreak because you've got a lot of moms washing hands in impacted areas. And so when I'm getting this amazing question about what everyday Ukrainians should do, first of all, I learn from Ukrainians every time. I'm sure there are things going on and maybe more of the good ideas that are coming out. The second is just keeping in mind that moms are a huge part of the frontline without a disease outbreak happening. So all of the habits that I experience in Ukraine, the good habits of saving energy. Or some of the projects where youth have gotten together and have like cleaned the rubble or cleaned the environment with music going on that have been in the news. Maybe just sort of cultivating these habits, and spreading them and thinking about ways that that can also support, the need that I think all of us Ukrainians and those of us in Ukraine and also as just people ha need that community. So maybe bringing in some of these everyday practices to help the environment in community with other people is that can also help other forms of healing.

Speaker 3 1:11:51

is this working okay, regarding the, uh, structural government impediments? I think, the one that I would highlight is, um, the decentralization to the Blas. That historically there's been a lot of power pushed to the Blas because of concerns about, concerns about the center, let's say. And there's a lot of value in that, but the Blas don't always have the expertise, especially with something that is as massive and as as we're facing. So I think there's a, a question about how do we navigate that? I wanted to also turn briefly to the question about international mechanisms. First is a vision, and I think that, uh, president Zelensky, uh, high level panel came out with an environmental compact that provided a vision for a green recovery. And I think that's really important that it's, um, it's leapfrogging it, it's locally owned. and I think that that's important for the international donor conferences. There's been some of that. I think there's going to be more when there is peace. The question is how much money, because a lot of money is being in Europe in particular is being refocused on military spending for defense. I think that the EU accession process. depending on how things go with the piece, we'll probably liberate money there. But the other thing that from the international side, there's a, the names change year to year, but there are these post-conflict environmental assessments that unap World Bank, UNDP do. and those are very important in identifying what are the environmental priorities that then tie into livelihoods, economic recovery, public health, and so forth.

Closing Thanks

Speaker 7 1:13:38

I'll maybe, um, start with the question also, maybe continue question the first question after us about government system because maybe it's, it's very relevant to our study with Olga because we're now studying how to communicate with local authorities Exactly in the case of decentralization. So we are like, from my perspective as behavioral economists, how to communicate what message they value or they value, like legislative registra, uh, regulation or maybe they value sustainability crisis. So we're just in the process of the research for now. And regarding the second question about energy capacity of, uh, Ukraine. So I was using, in this presentation, open source data from our national academy in Ukraine. They investigate in, uh, the research. Their research was focused only on wind energy source and it was only calculating solar. There like biomass that I was presenting today. And regarding the second, your question about investment in total Zia for such kind of project. Am I right? I understand biomass sourcing. So, as a techn technological process was like establishing for years for this energy community to have this, concrete, um, wood pills and green, uh, coffee pallets. A coffee, coffee waste combination to, to make the most efficient. So this is their technology. If you are interested, I could maybe share with you and ask them because I dunno this technology exactly. But thank you for the question.

Speaker 1:15:10

Thank you very much to everybody. I apologize we are five minutes over the time. It is an engaging discussion. May I invite everybody to continue the discussion over the coffee break, but first and foremost to thank our speakers for their presence and expertise and for.