On September 26, 2022, the official opening of the Days of Sustainable Energy took place in Sumy City Territorial Community.
Sumy City Mayor Oleksandr Lysenko symbolically opened the event at the conference “Together Towards Energy Independence and Climate Neutrality of Communities!”, which was organized on the initiative of the Department of Finance, Economy and Investments of the Sumy City Council, with the support of the EU project “Covenant of Mayors – East”.
“For 7 years in a row, starting in 2015, we called this event a city-wide holiday, but not today. This year we are not celebrating… Even in such a difficult time for our country, we are obliged to remind everyone about the need to be frugal with energy resources and preserve the environment. The city of Sumy will continue to develop, supporting the European Green Course for the restoration of the natural environment and transformational growth to create a resource-efficient and climate-neutral community,” noted the Mayor of Sumy City.
Joining online, speakers at the conference included representatives of international projects, non-governmental public organizations, and scientists who all presented reports and experiences of implementing European Union projects.
The Mayor of Mažeikiai District Municipality, Lithuania, Mr. Vidmantas Macevičius offered insights on implementing Lithuania’s Energy and Action Plan 2021-2030 which is in line with the EUs commitment to a clean energy transition and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Thor Sverre Minnesjord, CEO of Green Business Norway, expert partner of the project – “Circular Based Waste Management”, gave an overview on Norway’s Circular Economy Roadmap 2030 and how the sorting, depositing, recycling and financing systems work in Norway. He also offered insights on the steps and actions needed to read the targets set for 2030.
Volodymyr Peregudov, Senior Coordinator of the project “Promotion of energy efficiency and implementation of the EU Directive on energy efficiency in Ukraine”, carried out by order of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), presented the experience of cooperation between the project and Sumy community.
Oksana Kysil, National Expert of Ukraine of the project “Covenant of Mayors – East”, spoke about the plans of the Covenant of Mayors regarding adaptation to climate change.
Sviatoslav Pavliuk, Executive Director of the Association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” (Lviv) and Dmytro Sakaliuk, Energy Efficiency Expert of the public organization “Ecoklub” (Rivne) focused on the issues of energy transition to reduce emissions and achieve the goals of the European Green Course and prospects for cooperation with authorities.
Oksana Zatvornytska, Head of Project Financing and Corporate Development Department of Egiis Ukraine LLC (Kyiv), shared her practical experience of implementing the “Urban Public Transport of Ukraine” project.
Mykola Sotnik, Head of the Department of Applied Hydroaeromechanics of Sumy State University, presented scientific developments for effective energy management of communities on the example of cooperation with Sumy City Council.
The Circular Based Waste Management project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation – eeagrants.org
