Energy ministry forecasts approval of updated energy strategy until 2030 by government in November

Kyiv, October 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine has predicted that the Ukrainian government will approve the updated energy strategy of Ukraine for the period until 2030 in November 2012.

Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Makukha gave the information at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on October 12, 2012.

"We’ve almost completed the preparation of the document. The final document will be submitted to the cabinet within a week. We hope that in November the strategy will be finally approved by the government," he said.

In turn, Senior Project Manager of the Foundation for Effective Governance Roman Rubchenko said that after the public discussion of the draft updated strategy the document had not been changed radically.

"There are no radical changes compared to the version [initially presented for public discussion]… Some sections were written in more detail, and some figures appeared," he said.

The share of renewable sources of Ukraine's energy balance foreseen in the document did not change, despite criticism from a lot of experts, Rubchenko said.

As reported, after the publication of the draft updated energy strategy representatives of the European Commission, the U.S. State Department and the World Bank called on Ukraine to revise it, taking into account more realistic macroeconomic forecasts, the necessity to fulfill liabilities taken by the state and to increase the role of renewable energy sources and more ambitious goals in energy saving. Foreign experts said that the draft strategy could stop the development of Ukraine, and the country will lose an attractive area for foreign investment.