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On Tuesday, October 11, the Institute of World Policy hosted a videoconference on the topic “Spotlight on Ukraine: Examining Energy Efficiency and Security” in partnership with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, USA).The speakers at the videoconference were Adnan Vatansever, Carnegie energy and climate scholar, Peter Dohlman, a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund, Oksana Gryshchenko, a non-staff adviser to Ukraine’s minister of fuel and energy, and Yuriy Korolchuk, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Institute for Energy Studies.

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Oksana Gryshchenko, a non-staff adviser to Ukraine’s minister of fuel and energy, and Yuriy Korolchuk, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Institute for Energy Studies

Adnan Vatasever, an expert for Energy and Climate Programs at the Carnegie Endowment noted that Ukraine must increase energy efficiency in order to gain energy independence. “Energy efficiency is the best way to address the issue of dependency, the main security challenge. New technologies should be a part of Ukrainian promising strategy,” he said.
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Adnan Vatasever emphasized that Ukraine became the second consumer of Russian gas in Europe (with 32 billion cubic meters) after Germany (33 billion). Reducing dependence on Russian gas can be gained only by increasing domestic gas production, renewable energy sources (which, however, provide only 1% of balance) and alternative sources of gas supply.
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Ihor Todotov, Director Center for International Security (Donetsk, Ukraine), Oksana Moussienko, NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine

It is also important to use other sources like coal and nuclear power. But the main prerequisite for energy security is, without any doubt, energy efficiency. “In Germany it is 4 times higher than in Ukraine. Only Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have worse performance, but they have their own gas as well,” Adnan Vatasever said.
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Yuriy Korolchuk and Ivan Plachkov, former Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine

According to Yuriy Korolchuk, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Institute of Energy Research, conviction of the ex-prime minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko discourages potential investors from the energy sector of Ukraine, therefore threatens its national security. “The fact that she actually is convicted of a gas agreement sets a bad example for the future of Ukrainian energy sector,” Yuri Korolchuk assures. “Business and investors have now a fear that they may suffer the same in 2, 3, 5 or 10 years.”
However, according to Ivan Plachkov, former Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government still has powerful leverage in negotiations with Russia on gas prices.
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Ivan Plachkov
“Ukraine has three very serious leverages. Firstly, it is the biggest consumer of Russian gas, what is the convincing argument, by the way. Secondly, it has storage facilities, which have neither Russia nor the EU, but without them gas transportation to Europe is impossible. Thirdly, it is, of course, a Ukrainian gas transportation system, which was the project of the Soviet Politburo in Europe. If Russia take possession of these weapons, it will definitely try to use it again,” the former minister said.

Photo by Stanislav Gruzdev