Cablegate: Ukraine On Lrtap Convention and Protocols

VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKV #2438 3471539
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121539Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY KYIV
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6915

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

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