Recently, #Ukraine’s compliance with the #Kyoto #Protocol has been restored by the decision of the #Compliance #Committee of the Kyoto Protocol made in #Bonn after review of the Ukrainian #officials’ report on the #measures taken. This is a result of the Ukrainian #government’s efforts to change Ukraine’s #status back to #compliant.
On 6 September 2017, at the 19th meeting of the Plenary of the Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol held at the UN headquarters in Bonn, Germany, the Committee declared that Ukraine is back in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, as it was reported by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ostap Semerak.
In summer 2016, the UN experts established the fact of Ukraine’s failure to comply with the terms of the Kyoto Protocol since Ukraine had not kept an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions for the preceding year. As a result, on 21 June 2016 in Bonn, the Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol adopted a decision about Ukraine’s non-compliance with reporting requirements in relation to its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. This was the consequence of the shutdown of the National Electronic Registry of Anthropogenic Emissions and Absorption of Greenhouse Gases in August 2015, which resulted in the suspension of collection and processing of data on greenhouse gas emissions in Ukraine.
Starting from September 2016, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources has been negotiating with the Compliance Committee in order to restore Ukraine’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. According to the Minister of Ecology, the Compliance Committee came to the conclusion that the data provided by Ukrainian officials are sufficient to change Ukraine’s status back to compliant.
Ukraine sells carbon credits (the rights to emit carbon dioxide) to other countries if it does not use its CO2 emissions share. The terms are governed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) adopted in 1992. Ukraine shall keep an inventory of emissions in a special register and report to the UN Compliance Committee at regular meetings. This information is used to calculate CO2 emissions quotas. In particular, Ukraine signed a major agreement on the sale of quotas with Japan for USD 800 million. For example, as a part of arrangements, Japan provided Toyota Prius cars, which are used by the National Police of Ukraine.