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