On May 25, 2021, the The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development (MinRegion) held a presentation of the draft law “On Creation of Conditions Encouraging Comprehensive Thermal Renovation of Buildings” which was prepared by the Ministry jointly with international partners, members of Parliament and industry experts. 

Specialists of the Energy Efficiency Fund were part of the drafting team and provided their inputs.

Participants of the discussion included: representatives of the MinRegion, EU in Ukraine, GIZ Ukraine, Energy Efficiency Fund and members of Parliament.

A key goal of the bill, among others, is to create environment enabling to reduce utility bills through thermal renovation of housing.

In his opening remarks, Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, stressed that higher energy efficiency of buildings is one of the priorities of the ministry he leads, adding that the bill is called to improve a number of mechanisms and remove some barriers to thermal modernization.

"The main purpose of the bill is to improve regulation in the field of energy efficiency. Large-scale thermal renovation can clearly impact utility charges of Ukrainians. Thanks to energy efficiency measures in buildings, more energy resources are saved eventually reducing the amount of charges for heating,” said Oleksiy Chernyshov.

The draft law envisages amendments to the Laws of Ukraine "On Energy Efficiency of Buildings", "On the Energy Efficiency Fund" and a few other laws aimed at:

- Tailoring the state support mechanism to the needs of co-owners of residential buildings;

- creating opportunities for the gradual implementation of in-depth thermal renovation projects (with the introduction of clear criteria regarding energy efficiency saving goals);

- introduction of a systematic approach to the shaping and implementation of policies to improve energy efficiency of buildings in Ukraine;

- across-the-board implementation of effective tools to reduce energy consumption in public buildings;

- creation of a data source with information on the number, physical condition, and energy consumption performance of buildings in Ukraine, etc.

According to the Ministry, once adopted, these changes would improve the mechanism of reimbursement by the Energy Efficiency Fund of the costs of thermal renovation of buildings; bring down the barriers to in-depth "phased" thermal renovation of buildings; streamline the mechanism of energy certification of buildings and the system of professional training of energy auditors; introduce systemic policy instruments to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, in alignment with the EU directives.

In particular, the Law on Energy Efficiency of Buildings proposes to introduce a Strategy for thermal renovation of buildings with long-term goals and measures, to create a National Database of technical and energy performance indicators of buildings and to instill mandatory energy management in state and municipal buildings.

Andrzej Rajkiewicz, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Energy Efficiency Fund, expressed the hope that the Ministry would accept suggestions to the draft law recommended by the donors as they aim to ensure the effective operation of the Fund and facilitate implementation of the EE policy of Ukraine generally.

“I would like to stress that the EE Fund closely monitors all changes in the Ukrainian legislation which may influence the Fund's operations. We pay close attention to the provisions that help to better adapt the Fund’s Energodim program to market conditions, and to the expectations of the Program beneficiaries,” said Andrzej Rajkiewicz.

In response, George Cristoderescu, the Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection Sector Coordinator at GIZ Ukraine, welcomed and commended the initiative to improve the energy efficiency of the housing sector in Ukraine.

"We are confident that the adoption of the law "On Creation of Conditions Encouraging Comprehensive Thermal Renovation of Buildings" will help improve the institutional conditions for large-scale thermal renovation," added George Cristodorescu.

Please note, that online discussions of the bill with the expert community will take place on May 26-28 on the Ministry’s platform, after which the document will be finalized and passed on to the Government.

As was reported, on May 19, a conference took place to discuss the current state and development prospects of technical regulation of energy efficiency relationship in the buildings.