Archive: November 2024

On November 13-14, 2024, the 5th international forum "ReBuild Ukraine" took place in Warsaw. The forum gathered more than 5,500 participants from 30 countries and about 500 companies from 18 countries, including more than 60 from Ukraine. In addition, heads of ministries, international programs, financial organizations and more than 30 communities from Ukraine took part.

The NGO "Vision Zero" became a co-organizer of the discussion "Green reconstruction of Ukrainian communities: key lessons from the reconstruction projects of 2023-2024". Ukrainian public organizations that are already involved in community reconstruction took part in the discussion. Representatives of the NGO "Ekoklub", "Vision Zero", "Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation" and "CEE Bankwatch" talked about the experience of reconstruction in communities and emphasized the need to attract direct financing for "green" reconstruction projects.

Along with the public sector, large-scale organizations in the field of restoration took part in the panel - the director of the "Energy Efficiency Fund of Ukraine" Yehor Farenyuk and the senior advisor of NEFCO in Ukraine Yuliya Shevchuk. The discussion was moderated by Anna Ackermann, a representative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development IISD (Switzerland). The discussion gathered about 150 international and Ukrainian listeners, including several mayors from Ukraine.

The non-governmental organization "Vision Zero " shared conclusions from monitoring the reconstruction of bridges in Ukraine. As an educational example, the organization cited the bridge on the approach to the city. Chernigov (M-01 highway), which was completed in October 2024. This 628-meter-long bridge is the largest known reconstruction project in the transport infrastructure, its expected budget was 5 billion hryvnias.

"As a result, this bridge has four traffic lanes, that is, it is twice as wide as the one that existed before. The new bridge is designed for 20,000 cars per day, there was no such flow here even before the full-scale war," said Viktor Zagreba, head of the NGO "Vision Zero".

According to him, the construction of such an excessive object means excessive consumption of materials and excessive emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and therefore, this project cannot be called "green restoration". In addition, the project took place without a tender and without an environmental impact assessment. All this raises questions about accountability, transparency and rationality.

"If this bridge were rebuilt as it was, the state could repair several dozen or even hundreds of small and medium-sized bridges throughout Ukraine with the saved funds, because more than 25% of bridges in our country are in a state of emergency," added the speaker.

NGO "Ekoclub" from Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Riven has been helping communities install solar power plants (SPPs) for critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water utilities. During this time, more than 34 SPPs were installed, and at least 10 more are planned to be built by the end of the year.

"Communities have a great demand for green reconstruction projects - dozens of projects have been implemented, and thousands are needed. Communities are especially interested in the development of renewable energy. At a time when the enemy is shelling the country's energy system, it is important to provide critical facilities with a backup stable power supply," said Nataliya Lytvyn, project coordinator of the Ecoclub and the Energy Transition coalition.

The "CEE Bankwatch" network during the war promotes the need for the availability of funds for reconstruction at the municipal level. Current procedures and policies need to be changed, and the organization is working to make them more accessible.

"Effective investment in local reconstruction is needed, which will ensure sustainable development for a long period of time. From the experience of communities, we see: projects financed by banks must have a guarantor from a state institution. This can significantly slow down the process of obtaining funds by the community," comments Maria Luk'yanova, CEE Bankwatch green investment specialist.

The charity Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation has been working since the beginning of the war and is strengthening the energy security of critical infrastructure by installing solar power plants for schools and hospitals.

"During the occupation, many educational institutions were damaged. Lyceum in Gostomel was significantly destroyed. After de-occupation, thanks to international partners, our foundation installed a hybrid solar power plant for the facility. SES solves the problem of frequent power outages, thanks to its work, children can study without interruptions," reports Alina Suchych, Partnerships Manager of the Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation.

In order to increase the number of such projects, the foundation advises local self-government bodies to turn to more experienced communities or public organizations and implement projects together.

"Ekoklub" NGO believes that it is necessary to create convenient financial instruments so that communities can receive funds directly. But they used them transparently.

"Today, most international financial organizations provide funds that are managed by the ministry or regional councils. This needs to be changed, this approach takes a lot of time, central authorities do not know all the needs of communities. The funds should be managed by municipalities that better understand the situation on the ground and know the specifics of project implementation in their regions," Nataliya Lytvyn emphasizes.

NGO "Vision Zero" believes that in order for future bridge projects to be green and rational, systemic changes are necessary at the state and local level.

First: it is necessary to apply planning, before starting to design and build, because now these tools are either not used at all, or are used purely nominally (for example, feasibility studies).

The second: to finally move to the design of bridges according to Eurocodes, and not according to DBN.

"Ukraine has been allowed to use these international design methods since 2013, but in practice there is still not a single bridge designed according to Eurocodes. As a result, the Ukrainian market of bridges is inaccessible to engineering companies from EU countries, which are able to design more economical, modern, climate-friendly and more economical bridges," Viktor Zagreba emphasized.

And the third point: rational and well-founded decisions should be made regarding the spending of public funds for the implementation of bridge projects in accordance with clear criteria and calculations, and not subjective political decisions.

Draft law No. 12172 , developed by a group of people's deputies together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Patrol Police of Ukraine and experts of the Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law within the framework of the "For Safe Roads" Campaign, was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The draft law increases responsibility for repeated violations of traffic rules, providing, in addition to fines, the possibility of revocation of a driver's license for the third violation recorded during the year. The purpose of the changes is to reduce the number of road accidents and save lives on the roads, as the current system of fines is ineffective against systematic drivers.
 

People's deputy Oleksandr Gorenyuk , one of the initiators of this draft law, says that these changes will allow for a simplified mechanism for so-called "recidivist offenders": "The draft law concerns road traffic safety and aims to introduce the idea of "penalty points" for drivers who constantly commit dangerous violations of traffic laws, they will be severely fined or deprived of the right to drive," Goreniuk emphasized.

The bill proposes a progressive system of fines for the most dangerous violations, such as:

• crossing pedestrian crossings, not giving preference to pedestrians at unregulated crossings;
• driving at a prohibitory signal of a traffic light or gesture of the traffic controller;
• traffic rules at the intersection;
• overtaking and oncoming departure.

This list was not chosen by chance: these violations are considered among the most dangerous in international practice. For example, in Poland, where the system of penalty points operates, for such violations as running a red light, violating the rules of crossing pedestrian crossings or overtaking, the driver will receive 15 points out of the 24 permissible per year - that is, for two such violations, the driver's license will be taken away from the violator.

According to the proposed changes, the first violation will remain unchanged — the driver will pay a fine of 340 to 510 hryvnias. However, if he violates again within a year (any of the four defined rules), the fine will increase to 1,020 hryvnias. For the third violation within a year, the National Police will be able to go to court to impose a fine of 2,550 hryvnias and to revoke the driver's license for a period of 6 to 12 months. These changes will apply only to those who regularly ignore the rules, including impudent drivers, who will now face a real threat of losing their licence for a long period of time. This will allow law enforcement to respond more quickly to dangerous behaviour on the roads, preventing road accidents with victims.

"We are working to ensure that Ukrainian roads are safe. Currently, there is a serious problem with systematic violators of traffic rules, who have 20-30 violations for the same offense, because the current liability does not affect them. So we made our proposals to this draft law, because such changes are meant to combat such violators who disregard all possible rules and, in particular, the norms established in society," commented Oleksiy Biloshitskyi , first deputy chief of the Patrol Police Department.

The non-governmental organization "Vision Zero" calls on the Verkhovna Rada to support draft law No. 12172, uniting to protect the lives of citizens. Every day of delay is a lost opportunity to save life on the roads of Ukraine. You can familiarize yourself with the draft law and the explanatory note on the portal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by following the link.