European Future of Ukraine: Environment, Energy, and Post-War Reconstruction through the Eyes of Citizens

by Resource and Analysis Center "Society and Environment" and DiXi Group

This policy brief presents the analysis of the findings of the public opinion survey on Ukraine’s post-war green reconstruction, the attitudes towards the environment and energy during the war, and the EU accession.

The paper outlines key trends in the attitudes of Ukrainian people to the environment, energy, and EU accession during the war, and the vision for Ukraine’s future. It also includes certain comparisons with the data of nationwide sociological surveys from the previous years.

Among the key recommendations:

 -  The key recommendation is to significantly increase citizens' awareness of the challenges that Ukraine faces on a daily basis, and steps to overcome them.

 -  Given the growing interest of citizens in reconstruction processes, proactive approaches shall be developed and implemented to identify citizens' opinions and involve them in reconstruction planning, from plans to specific reconstruction projects.

 -  Continuous monitoring and readiness to counteract inimical information campaigns are needed: low awareness of citizens about EU accession, energy, or environmental problems make them vulnerable to disinformation and manipulation by russia and opponents of EU accession.

 -  To make power outage schedules more transparent, provide access to this information in a convenient and timely manner, especially for older people.

 -  When developing the Roadmap for Gradual Liberalization of Gas and Electricity Markets envisaged by the Ukraine Plan within the Ukraine Facility, to arrange a proper public discussion of steps to ensure adequate protection of vulnerable consumers and a better targeting of the new subsidy system.

 -  It is necessary to actively explain each reform that leads to full EU membership, combining the effort with sectoral action on a technical level.

The publication was prepared with the financial support of the European Union within the project “Integration of Sustainable Development in Ukraine in line with the European Green Deal”.