By KYIV. Nov 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), which starts in Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7, for the first time will have its own pavilion and will present a number of initiatives related to the Russian full-scale invasion, said Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets.
"This year, for the first time in its history, Ukraine will have its own pavilion. This is a suitably equipped location where we will invite representatives of delegations from other countries to hold joint events, as well as to show the consequences of the war unleashed by Russia," Strilets said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, by starting a war, Russia, in fact, nullifies all the efforts that civilized countries have been making for decades to protect the environment and prevent climate change, "and many countries understand this."
"Therefore, COP27, as one of the most important annual events on the environment, is a very powerful platform to really conduct high-quality communication with all countries of the world to involve them in our initiatives," the minister is convinced.
Strilets noted that among the main initiatives is, first of all, to start a dialogue with the countries of the world about the possibility of developing common approaches to assessing environmental damage from military operations.
"We need to involve as many countries as possible to start a dialogue and develop international methods that would allow us to assess the damage to the environment precisely from the war. We calculate them from the first days of the war, but in order to protect and prove each of the more than 2,000 cases of damage to the environment in international courts, we need to record them in such a way that no country in the world doubts them," the minister said.
According to him, one of the options could be the recognition by the international community of already existing Ukrainian methods, if this allows proving damages in international courts and speeds up this process.
"If we are talking about the history of international wars and armed conflicts, then it shows that the process of compensation for damage can last 10 or even more years. During this time, the fixed amount of damage is eaten up by inflation. We strive to be able to prove these facts faster," the minister explained.
