Mayors pushing for more energy

efficiency

ENERGY > UKRAINE

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Ukraine is effectively the leader of the Covenant of Mayors movement outside the European Union, with Ukrainian mayors increasingly committed to local sustainable energy. As many as twenty five Ukrainian cities have already become signatories of the Covenant of Mayors, the EU initiative bringing together city councils in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% through energy efficiency and renewable energy actions. Ukrainian cities are working hard to cut their consumption of fossil fuels and to become more energy efficient. This story takes us to Cherkasy, where mayor Sergiy Odarych is showing the way forward by using only firewood to warm up his house…

Text by Dmytro HubenkoPhotos by EPA©EU/Neighbourhood Info Centre

As a first step, the mayor of Cherkasy, Sergiy Odarych appointed an energy man-ager and launched the energy monitoring use in municipal facilities. Since the 1st of January 2012 the use of energy has been monitored on a daily basis in 280 municipal buildings in the city of Cherkasy. The results were astonishing: just by measuring us-age, proper targeting and keeping it under control, the city proved that it was pos-sible to save 30% of water consumption, 49% of electricity and 6% of heat. The battle for local sustainable energy was well and truly underway.Ukraine inherited quite a few problems from the Soviet Union in the field of energy management. Even now, long after the collapse of the centrally planned economy, Ukraine uses several times more energy per unit of production than European countries. For example, it uses four times more than Germa-ny. The infrastructure in Ukrainian cities is no exception on this. The central heating systems built in Soviet times are pretty inefficient. The underground pipelines that run across Ukrainian cities are overheating the environment. The buildings are poorly insulated, but their inhabit-ants do not seem to care, because the Ukrainian state heavily subsi-dises energy prices for residents. However, the price of natural gas and

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EU Neighbourhood Info Centre Feature no. 74This is a series of features on projects funded by the EU Regional Programme, prepared by journalists and photographers on the ground or the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre. © 2012 EU Neighbourhood Info Centre

N The kindling wood burns inside the boiler.

N Communal workers load trash containers on a garbage truck in Cherkasy city.

other fossil fuels is rising and this has given some of the mayors some food for thought.

Cherkasy on the road to energy independenceAmong the leaders of the energy efficiency movement is Sergiy Odarych, the charismatic mayor of Cherkasy, a regional centre of 290,000 people in the middle of Ukraine. He has an ambitious plan: to stop using natural gas to heat the city. He has started with his own house, which is now heated using only firewood. Howev-er, it is not so easy a task to switch a whole city from gas to wood. Odarych has an innovative approach towards energy manage-ment. First of all, he thinks that it is important to measure usage

and keep it under control. Second, he had local heat metering and distribution sta-tions installed in five municipal institutions, which has generated a 40% saving in heat consumption. But the mayor’s pride and joy is a boiler station using an alterna-tive fuel called kindling wood. The city has invested about €820,000 in this and has already saved about €390,000 in one year. “Moreover, the money spent on bio-fuels stays in the region while the money that used to be spent on gas was transferred to Russia, where Gazprom is a major supplier of natural gas to Ukraine,” says Odarych. The city is planning to cultivate the perennial grass of Miscanthus, a bio-fuel that can grow to heights of more than 3.5 metres in one season…

Mayors of Ukraine pulling togetherBut in his quest for energy efficiency, the mayor of Cherkassy has come up against a few obstacles. One was at state level. An environmental inspection fined the city for using bio-fuels, because, as the mayor says, “the inspectors found out that the boiler station produces too much waste…”. “It’s difficult to change mentalities. That takes time. It’s not just a matter of technology,” he adds. “Cities have to fight at different levels to become more energy efficient.” Municipalities thought that, if they joined forces, that would make their battle easier. In 2007, four mayors set up an association called ‘Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine’, whose mission was to facilitate the promotion of energy efficient principles among member municipalities. So, when the Covenant of Mayors arrived in Ukraine in July 2009, the association became its natural supporting structure. The Covenant of Mayors initiative was launched in 2008, as a priority for action at local and regional level. It consists of a voluntary commitment by city councils to go beyond the EU’s objective of a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy actions. 4,000 cities and towns in all 27 EU mem-ber states and a number of neighbouring countries, from Ukraine to Morocco, have signed it. Together, these cities represent more than 162 million people. It is no surprise then that most of the cities that have signed the Covenant of Mayors in Ukraine are also members of the Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine As-sociation. The number of signatories is growing quickly. In February 2009, ten Ukrainian cities were the first to sign the covenant and on 15 May 2012, Cherkasy became the latest and 26th Ukrainian signatory city. “The word is spreading fast. We transfer the experience we al-ready have to other cities. They realise how important it is to commit to local sustainable energy and they join in,” ex-

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre – Feature no. 74p. 2Mayors looking to make more use of bio-fuels

“The word is spreading fast. We transfer the experience we already have to other cities. They realise how important it is to commit to local sustainable energy and they join in”.

“It’s difficult to change mentalities. That takes time. It’s not just a matter of technology, cities have to fight at different levels to become more energy efficient”.

N Petro Kurlyaka - the Burshtyn city Mayor attends the conference “Implementation of the Covenant of Mayors: The path to Ukraine’s energy security” in Cherkasy

plains Sergiy Kosharuk, Deputy Executive Director of the Association. Since 2011, a newly created Covenant of Mayors East Office (COMO) located in Lviv (Ukraine) and in Tbilisi (Georgia) has started providing administrative, promotional and technical assistance to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyr-gyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Many of these countries have also signed the Covenant already: beside Ukraine (with 26 cities), there is Moldova (with 10 cities), Georgia (with 5 cities), Kyrgyzstan (with 2 cities), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus, for a total amount of over 10 million people. The COMO team leader Anatoliy Kopets is proud. Ukraine is effectively leading the Cov-enant of Mayors movement outside the European Union. “We have a unique chance,” he says, “to join the European community de facto”. “Thanks to the covenant, we have the tools as well as the methodology and the financial re-sources to fight for local sustainable energy” he adds.This commitment also sounds attractive to Petro Kurliak from Burshtyn. The mayor of this small city in Western Ukraine has already had some experience with energy management at international level. Recently he decided to join the Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine Association and, of course, he is planning to sign the Covenant in the near future. “This will give us access to grants, both Ukrainian and international. That is the way to go in order to obtain information, experience, and, why not, even financial support.”

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre – Feature no. 74 p. 3Mayors looking to make more use of bio-fuels

ObjectiveThe purpose of the project is to encourage local authorities of the Eastern Partnership and Central Asian countries to sign the Covenant of Mayors to achieve and support them in the preparation and implementation of their Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP). The key objective focuses on the significant reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions by the municipalities as well as an increase in their renewable energy use and energy efficiency measures.

To find out more

Covenant of Mayors website www.eumayors.eu

Energy Cities http://www.energy-cities.eu/

Association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” http://enefcities.org.ua/en

European Association of local authorities “Climate Alliance” www.climatealliance.org

Covenant of Mayors: signatories in Ukraine http://www.eumayors.eu/about/signatories_en.html?country_search=ua

EU Neighbourhood Info center Thematic portal: energy http://www.enpi-info.eu/themeeast.php?subject=6

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan

DurationSeptember 2011- June 2015

Supporting participation of Eastern Partnership and Central Asian Cities in the Covenant of MayorsThe project’s objective is to support the local authorities in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, to improve security of their energy supply, and to allow them to contribute more actively to climate change mitigation.

www.eumayors.eu

“Thanks to the covenant, we have the tools as well as the methodology and the financial resources to fight for local sustainable energy”.

The EU Neighbourhood Info Centre is an EU-funded Regional Communication project highlighting the partnership between the EU and Neighbouring countries. The project is managed by Action Global Communications.

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EU Neighbourhood Info Centre An ENPI project

N The conference participants visit the boiler station where the kindling wood is used as an alternative fuel.