Ukraine hopes as many actors as possible join Environmental Declaration - minister
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ruslan Strilets, discussed the Environmental Declaration project with his foreign counterparts at the Ukrainian pavilion on the sidelines of COP28. He hopes as many countries as possible will join the Declaration to protect the environment from hostilities.
This was reported on the Ukrainian Government portal, Ukrinform saw.
"We hope that this international platform will rally everyone – from countries to international organizations, individual politicians and experts. Everyone who wants to work together on assessing the damage to the environment and bringing the culprits to justice," said Strilets.
Moldova, Bulgaria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy, New Zealand, and other nations have already expressed their tentative willingness to join such work.
The Minister expressed hope that as many countries as possible will join the Declaration and contribute to joint work to protect the environment from hostilities.
"Russian missiles may not reach your country, but birds from Ukraine can. Their number is decreasing by day due to the large-scale destruction of nature reserves, forest fires, and the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant. Oil and chemicals that have made it into Ukrainian rivers may turn in the Black Sea. But you will not be able before you go to dinner to control the origin of the food or fish that your children eat. If we don't act together now, we all risk having marine flora and fauna replaced with mines, missiles, and their debris tomorrow," said Strelets.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Environmental Declaration was presented for the first time in Kyiv during the United for Justice, United for Nature forum. It is a continuation of the platform that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at the previous COP27. It is part of the action plan for the implementation of Point 8 of Zelensky’s Peace Formula to stop ecocide and collect reparations from the aggressor state for the affected environment.
On Sunday, December 3, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strelets, officially opened the National Pavilion at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai.
The purpose of the pavilion is to show Ukraine’s amid the ongoing war and climate crisis
The Ukrainian pavilion at COP28 was designed by the teams of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine with the support and assistance of the European Union, the Federal Government of Germany, IKI, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine, the UN Global Compact, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (Recovery Program and Reform Architecture in Ukraine), and the largest private investor in the energy sector of Ukraine, DTEK Group. The concept of the pavilion was developed by the Gres Todorchuk agency in cooperation with the FORMA architectural office and the Ukraine-based agency how.production.
The Ukrainian pavilion at COP28 will function in Dubai until December 12.