Overview of the conflict and energy situation
Stian Jenssen, previously the chief of Staff at NATO for former Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, started out by giving a bird’s eye view of the war – 1000 days into the conflict.
The current situation was described as very difficult on the battlefield and with a lot of political uncertainty with respect to Western support. Yet, Jenssen pointed out that there are reasons to be more optimistic. Ukraine has shown throughout the conflict that they are able to defend against a numerically superior adversary, and that there is also a credible – though challenging – path towards Europe and NATO.
Insights from Ukrainian leaders
We were honored to have the First Deputy Major of Lviv, Andriy Moskalenko, participating online and providing a strong voice of the current situations and needs in Ukraine. Moskalenko described the struggle of securing electricity and water supply to Lviv.
In addition to dealing with Russian attacks on particularly the energy infrastructure, the city has almost doubled its population due to internal displacements. - In front of us is a very complicated winter time, Moskalenko stressed, before pointing strongly to the need and wish for collaboration.
Grygoriy Dmytriv, Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, followed up by outlining how more than half of Ukraine’s electricity production has been knocked out by the war.
Dmytriv described plans for much more production from renewable energy sources, but also for a much more decentralized power system that would be significantly more resilient. Such a development will also require the integration of energy storage technology, mainly batteries and hydrogen.
All of these represent areas of common interest within energy research and are thus excellent possibilities for research collaboration between Ukraine and Norway.
Norwegian contributions and future collaborations
The last presentation was given by Jorun Sigrid Nossum, Director of the Department for the Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine. Giving first a general overview of the Nansen programme and how it consists of both military, civil and humanitarian parts.
Nossum also pointed out that energy support is already a key component, as it is closely tied to the other areas of aid, and concluded that energy is probably the best area for long-term collaboration between the countries involving both the private and public sector.
Panel discussions and key takeaways
The second half of the event was a panel discussion digging further into many of the issues highlighted by the initial presentations. Andriy Moskalenko and Jorun Sigrid Nossum was joined on stage by Idar Kreutzer, director at the Norwegian Confederation of Businesses (NHO).
A key message from Kreutzer was the need to find good ways of mobilizing the private sector and private investments, and that various instruments for risk reduction would be part of the solution here.
For the final part of the discussion, rector Svein St?len and Grygoriy Dmytriv also joined the panel, underlining how universities can be very important actors for long-term collaborations.
