UKRAINE ON LRTAP CONVENTION AND PROTOCOLS

UNCLAS KYIV 002438 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR OES/ENV E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD SENV SUBJECT: UKRAINE ON LRTAP CONVENTION AND PROTOCOLS REF: STATE 123960 Sensitive but unclassified. Not for internet or distribution outside the USG. ¶1. (SBU) Post delivered the reftel demarche to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, the body responsible for LRTAP issues and protocols, and sent a formal query with attached information on the U.S. LRTAP position, translated into Ukrainian. ¶2. (SBU) According to Olga Zvereva, Head of the Air Protection Section in the Department of State Environmental Monitoring at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ukraine will not send any representatives to the 26th EB session. Ukraine intends to forward a general paper on LRTAP that it has submitted in previous years. Zvereva said Ukraine has not ratified the Gothenburg Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone to the Convention, as the Protocol contains strict target deadlines that Ukrainian industry would be unable to meet. ¶3. (SBU) With the respect to the five substances suggested by EU and Norway, Ukraine has not yet developed its position, according to Zvereva, due to the fact that Ukraine only ratified the Stockholm Convention on POPs in 2007 and is now developing a national action plan. Because the proposed five substances are not yet monitored in Ukraine, the Ministry to date lacks the necessary knowledge or research to make a full policy determination. PETTIT