The Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, together with six other ministries (the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Regional Development) and the Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, began developing a roadmap for key transformations for the implementation of the Updated Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement (NDCs ).
“Today, one of the main tasks of the Ministry of Environment in the field of climate change is to develop an operational plan of measures for the implementation of NDCs in order to strengthen internal coordination and monitoring of the implementation of climate goals, as well as to expand cooperation with international financial organizations and partners,” the ministry’s press service quoted Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine Roman Abramovsky as saying.
According to him, the government and international partners must understand how Ukraine will fulfill its climate goals and what kind of support is needed for this.
The concept presented by the minister states that, according to the decision of the NSDC (the National Security and Defense Council), the Cabinet of Ministers must, by January 30, 2022, develop and approve a plan of measures for the implementation of NDCs, the concept of attracting financial resources, as well as the concept of compliance of projects and programs financed from the central and local budgets with the climatic goals of NDCs.
As reported, in accordance with NDCs, Ukraine must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% from 1990 levels by 2030. This goal was set and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers decree of July 30, 2021.
Ukraine is in the process of the next stage of evacuation from Afghanistan, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“The civilian sector of the Kabul airport has stopped working. The private plane, which Ukraine has agreed on, was the last civilian plane that took off from this airport before it closed a few days ago, just on August 23. But the military part of the airport is working, and we are now in stages of the next stage of evacuation, I cannot disclose the details yet, but there will be news soon,” Kuleba said on the air of the Ukraine 24 television channel on Friday.
The foreign minister said the Kabul military airport should also be closed by August 31. According to him, after August 31, the evacuation from Afghanistan will continue, “but it will no longer be necessary to negotiate with the Americans and the British, who currently control the military airport, but directly with the Taliban or those countries that the Taliban define as mediators for this process.”
Kuleba said that now Ukraine does not and cannot have relations with the Taliban, because in most countries of the world this organization is recognized as a terrorist one.
“We do not maintain diplomatic ties with them, but, surely, for the sake of the life and safety of citizens, for example, if there is a Taliban checkpoint in front of the airport, and we need to bring a car with Ukrainian citizens to the airport, then, of course, there are working channels, on which we are resolving these issues with the Taliban. But this in no way testifies to their international recognition,” he said.
Kuleba also recalled that about 90 Ukrainian citizens are awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan.
United States President Joseph Biden has ordered the allocation of financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $60 million from the Pentagon for defense, according to the White House website.
This is reported in the Memorandum signed by Biden on August 27.
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority to direct the drawdown of up to $60 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown,” the president said in the memorandum.
MAIN TRADE PARTNERS OF UKRAINE IN % FROM TOTAL VOLUME (IMPORT FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO UKRAINE) JAN-MAY 2021
MAIN TRADE PARTNERS OF UKRAINE IN % FROM TOTAL VOLUME (EXPORT FROM UKRAINE TO OTHER COUNTRIES) JAN-MAY 2021
Oxford Economics has downgraded the forecast for Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2021 to 4% from 4.4% in the July forecast, and the risks of further lockdowns and expectations of tightening fiscal and monetary policy led to a deterioration in the forecast for economic growth in 2022 from 4.2% to 3.5%.
The disappointing Q2 data prompted us to cut our 2021 GDP growth forecast to 4% from 4.4% last month. And with Ukraine’s vaccination rate being one of the lowest in Europe, the COVID-19 infection rate may rise sharply again, according to the forecast of Oxford Economics for August.
According to the analysts, due to the lack of vaccines and hesitation regarding vaccination, the proportion of fully vaccinated is kept at less than 7% of the population. These factors pose significant downside risks to short-term growth forecasts.
Oxford Economics expects inflation to average 9.2% this year, with further declines to 6.7% and 5.4% in 2022 and 2023. At the same time, the hryvnia exchange rate on average in 2021 is projected at the level of UAH 28.4/$1, in 2022 – UAH 29.3/$1, in 2023 – UAH 29.4/$1.
As for further cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the resumption of the Stand-By Arrangement this year, Oxford Economics considers it unlikely, since the government manages the proceeds from two issues of eurobonds. The upcoming peak public debt repayments will help cover $ 2.7 billion from the new IMF SDR allocation.
In 2022, Ukraine will have to pay $ 6.5 billion on public debt. This year, Ukraine may miss the chance to receive a new tranche of the IMF due to lack of political will. In this case, the resumption of cooperation with the fund next year remains probable, the forecast says.
