24.02.2025 | Insight
“What if?” That was the question we asked at Nefco’s headquarters late in 2021. We hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. What would we do if Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine in addition to the war that had been ongoing in the Donbass region for eight years? Ulf Bojö, our Vice President for Eastern Europe is reflecting over the situation in Ukraine over the last three years, since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and what Nefco’s role has been and will continue to be in supporting Ukraine and its rebuilding activities.
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Donetsk, 2012. A beautiful, brand-new airport had just opened ahead of the European Championship of football, split between Poland and Ukraine. Ambitious Nefco plans, together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), were in place for a large part of the district heating system in the regional capital. Huge CO2 emission reductions were in the making. The city administration and the management of the district heating utility were enthusiastic, looking forward to a bright Ukrainian future.
150 km north of Donetsk, in Siverskodenetsk, were the worst main roads ever seen. Traveling at 40-50 km/h, we tried to avoid the deepest holes. The city, with 130,000 inhabitants, had a proud mayor who talked about the city’s prodigal son, now one of Germany’s best table tennis players. The district heating utility manager had done a lot of thinking and was aligned with European best practices. Impressive! It looked good.
As is not uncommon in municipal projects, progress was slow. Feasibility studies were developed and updated. The start of Russia’s war in Donbass in April 2014 did not help. As we stated in our application for co-financing from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) in December 2015: “The safety and security situation is still a concern.”
We have had to abandon many good plans in the eastern part of Ukraine, such as the groundbreaking industrial waste heat project at Azovstal in Mariupol. The agreement was signed in December 2021. But we have never stopped supporting Ukraine, working for a sustainable future for the country. Nefco has kept the office in Kyiv open through all the hardship, which is appreciated by our Ukrainian partners. There are no plans to shut down. If anything, quite the opposite.
Over the last ten years, there has been a rapid expansion of activities related to municipal services, while also contributing substantially to the development of solar and wind power in cooperation with Nordic private companies.
Nefco’s hands-on approach during project implementation, including our procurement procedures and compliance checks, are among the reasons why Nefco has been and continues to be an effective and trusted financier of programmes and projects in Ukraine. Over 200 municipal projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions and costs, while providing improved living conditions in more than 100 municipalities, is a pretty good track record. It has given Nefco a unique network of municipal partners in Ukraine and made Nefco probably the best-known international financial institution among Ukrainian municipalities.
So, what now? We witness a historic macro-political shift in the US, and we don’t even know if there will ever be presidential elections again in that country. A generally good piece of advice is to focus on what one can influence. For Nefco, that should mean that we, building on our experience, our success, and Nordic know-how, develop further and do what we can to support a democracy and its people in dire straits, remembering that history never ends. We can pilot, transparently demonstrate, show good sustainable examples, and support scaling up good demonstration projects. That is what Nefco is doing. That is what Nefco will continue to do.
