Pragmatically Integrating Sustainability Into the Reconstruction of Ukraine

The document argues that Ukraine's reconstruction presents a 'watershed moment' to build a climate-resilient society, specifically through energy-efficient residential building. It warns against the 'international technocracy' and corruption seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina's recovery and the implementation delays and inefficient grant usage observed in Croatia's post-earthquake reconstruction under the NextGenerationEU program. The author analyzes the EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility and the Ukraine Plan, suggesting a targeted funding strategy where grants are prioritized for cost-effective multi-family homes to reduce payback periods and attract investors, while low concessional loans are used for single-family homes.

• Ukraine has suffered USD 155 billion in direct damage and USD 499 billion in economic losses since the full-scale invasion, with reconstruction costs estimated at over USD 486 billion over 10 years.
• The reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina serves as a cautionary tale where a lack of local ownership and the exclusion of local experts and citizens led to inefficient aid flow, redundancies, and corruption, resulting in residential buildings that failed to stimulate economic growth or conserve cultural heritage.
• Croatia's use of the NextGenerationEU program's Resilience and Recovery Facility (RRF) shows significant implementation delays in energy renovations, with a concerning trend of using non-repayable grants over concessional loans, a pattern mirrored across other EU member states.
• The EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility aims to avoid previous pitfalls by utilizing the 'Ukraine Plan', which includes multi-level governance, a 20% fund designation for municipalities, and a 20% earmark for the green transition based on EU taxonomy.
• Ukraine's residential infrastructure is highly inefficient, with energy consumption 30% to 50% higher than the European average; over 250,000 buildings have been damaged since the invasion began.
• A cost-benefit analysis of Bucha indicates that achieving nearly-zero energy buildings (nZEB) for all buildings would cost EUR 318 million, compared to EUR 106 million to repair them to prior efficiency; however, nZEB multi-story buildings are the most cost-efficient per square metre.
• To make sustainable reconstruction viable, the author recommends using grant-backed loans for multi-family homes to reduce payback periods (which can reach 34 years for nZEB in low-price scenarios) and using low concessional loans with public guarantees for single-family homes.

APA

Soman, S. (2024). Pragmatically Integrating Sustainability Into the Reconstruction of Ukraine. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-06/integrating-sustainability-into-ukraine-reconstruction.pdf

Chicago

Soman, Samuel. Pragmatically Integrating Sustainability Into the Reconstruction of Ukraine. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2024. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-06/integrating-sustainability-into-ukraine-reconstruction.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Soman |first1=Samuel |title=Pragmatically Integrating Sustainability Into the Reconstruction of Ukraine |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2024 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-06/integrating-sustainability-into-ukraine-reconstruction.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{soman2024pragmatically, author = {Soman, Samuel}, title = {{Pragmatically Integrating Sustainability Into the Reconstruction of Ukraine}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-06/integrating-sustainability-into-ukraine-reconstruction.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }