site.btaEnvironment Ministers of Bulgaria, Ukraine Sign Memorandum of Cooperation

Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water Yulian Popov and Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets Saturday signed a Memorandum of Cooperation between the two institutions in the field of environmental protection, the Bulgarian Environment Ministry reported.

Bulgaria and Ukraine will join efforts in developing environmentally friendly technologies. The experts in the two ministries will work together in the fields of sustainable water management and flood protection, waste management and air quality, as well as in nature conservation and biodiversity protection. The Memorandum of Cooperation also sets joint actions in the fields of geology and minerals, chemical management and rehabilitation of contaminated sites, and prevention of industrial pollution.

During an event at the Ukrainian pavilion on the sidelines of COP28 on Saturday, Minister Popov expressed Bulgaria's support and accession to the Kyiv Declaration on the Environment. The draft document directs efforts towards the development of an international mechanism to calculate the environmental damage from wars in fulfillment of the tasks set out in Pillar 8 (Environmental Security) of the ten pillars of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula initiative.

The event was also attended by the ministers of ecology of Slovenia, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, and Lithuania, among others.

The countries that signed the Kyiv Declaration support Ukraine's sovereignty, condemn Russian aggression and encourage the establishment of a compensation mechanism for transboundary environmental impacts. The declaration stresses the need to demilitarize the nuclear power plant and calls for global cooperation in assessing and preventing environmental damage, the Bulgarian Environment Ministry said.