‘Gas war’ forces Ukraine to clean up its act

For years Western environmentalists tried in vain to convince Ukraine to shake an energy addiction that made it one of the world’s least energy efficient economies.

Then in one fell swoop Russia turned energy conservation into a Ukrainian national priority by doubling the price of gas exports to its Western neighbour at the start of last year — before hiking them again this January.

President Viktor Yushchenko quickly reacted by setting up a government agency to halve energy waste, while his prime minister of last May, Yury Ekhanurov, called energy efficiency “question number one” for Ukraine.
Since then the country’s heavy industry has made significant progress, with the metals sector reducing its gas consumption by 50-80 percent by introducing energy-saving technologies and switching to alternative fossil fuels, according to Renaissance Capital investment bank.

“Hiking the gas price was a fantastic stimulus for energy-efficiency projects,” said Vasyl Bogatyr, who heads a body that for almost ten years has been trying to convince Ukrainian companies to curb energy waste.

France24