The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) along with Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) and Climate Investment Funds’ Clean Technology Fund (CTF) have agreed to provide funding to improve solid waste management in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Image: Lviv, a major municipality in the west of Ukraine, will address its waste management issues. Photo: Courtesy of The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
As per the agreement, EBRD will provide 13 year municipally guaranteed loan of €20m, while E5P will offer an investment grant of €10m and CTF to provide €5m as concessional loan.
With the loan agreement, Lviv is claimed to become the first Ukrainian city to join the Bank’s Green Cities Framework, which offers a comprehensive business model for green urban development, combining strategic planning with investments and associated technical assistance.
Lviv is a UNESCO protected city with a renowned cultural heritage. It is inhabited by 750,000 people and is the administrative and tourist attraction in the western part of the country.
In the coming 12 months, Lviv will implement a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) to identify and prioritize green municipal investments and necessary policy reforms.
The funds provided by the parties will be used to support the rehabilitation of the Hrybovychi landfill and the construction of a municipal solid waste mechanical biological treatment plant in the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 141,500 tonnes of per year. The city also plans to adopt enhanced recycling and waste management practices.
The government of France provided the technical support for the project’s feasibility study.
EBRD said: “The project is also the first to be implemented in the context of Ukraine’s National Solid Waste Management Strategy, designed and developed jointly with the EBRD and supported through the Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-donor Account.”
Since 1993, EBRD has provided about €12.1bn for nearly 400 projects in the country.