15:12 17.03.2023

UNEP expected to work in Ukraine for at least four years to rebuild country - Executive Director

3 min read
UNEP expected to work in Ukraine for at least four years to rebuild country - Executive Director

Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), expects her team to be present in Ukraine for at least four years to help the government overcome the negative consequences of the war.

"We have just arrived. And so the largest thing that we need to do is to listen and to understand. We did not have a presence in Ukraine up until now. Now we do. So what we have done so far has been to support from afar. Now we will work very closely with the Ministry of Environment to help them get the kinds of skills that they need to deal with this very catastrophic situation. From an environmental point of view," Andersen said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We will expect to be here for at least four years and to have an office and a presence here. Then we will expect to be able to provide all of the technical support, and the technical know-how that the government will need to enable a sound and sustainable recovery," she said.

"In particular, it is important that reconstruction and construction be carried out using cleaner and greener methods to ensure that the environmental pollution that was existing prior to the conflict will be abated and not exist subsequently. So there's a lot of work also to be done to ensure that the right regulatory settings are in place as reconstruction happens. And that's an area that we will definitely be supporting," she noted.

"Here the primary issue is dealing with the training of the inspectors, inspectors who are throughout the country will be able to assess environmental damage, to make sure that they have the skills. That is our first objective. And that is what we have been doing. In October, we had the first team sent to Switzerland to move through the training. And now the team will come here and continue training … They are Ukrainians, 25 people. It was the first batch, but in the country you will have hundreds," the official added.

"Ukraine has played an active role within Europe. Ukraine has signed most of the environmental agreements, whether it is on biodiversity and nature, whether it is on climate change, or whether it is on chemicals and waste. Right now, this is not the priority, the priority is the people and the health and well-being of the people of course," she stated.

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