Why young people should play a role in the implementation of alternative energy at the local level, Sofiya Zaladovska, the winner of the Essay Contest on energy security, which was held by the USAID Energy Security Project (ESP), shared in her essay with online.ua.
The establishment and development of an independent energy market in Ukraine is one of the key goals of economic planning to restore the resource and industrial capacities of our country. The energy sector requires effective and prompt management of emergency situations, as well as making sophisticated decisions to respond to today’s military and political challenges.
I am a supporter of the ecological approach to the development of projects in the energy sector. Today, it is essential for us to develop agriculture based on renewable energy sources because it is ecologically clean, efficient, and economically profitable. In my opinion, at the local level, it is the youth (youth centers, youth councils at city councils, youth public eco-organizations) who should be involved in the implementation of alternative energy and the promotion of ways to achieve the goal number seven of sustainable global development – renewable energy. Constructing an energy-efficient youth space in compliance with all environmental norms and indicators would help young people learn to control planned energy use indicators. Educational work about the basic concepts and the ability to rationally manage and control the use of energy resources among young people is vital.
I represent the Youth Center of Volyn and plan to start an educational campaign among young people on how to improve the city’s urban design and create a modern youth center that complies with all energy efficiency requirements. It would be helpful to have an interactive map with a network of centers, each working on youth energy initiatives. In addition, such interaction would create a platform for implementing joint international eco-projects to introduce alternative energy sources into our country’s security energy sector.
In modern realities, we cannot wholly abandon traditional sources of energy. And in the conditions of the war, it is still too early to talk about the complete restoration of the energy complex. The aggressor provoked an energy war, and therefore, the world energy community must make it impossible for the aggressor to circumvent economic sanctions and freeze the accounts of large Russian oil and gas monopoly companies. With joint efforts, we are creating a single energy platform for prompt response to challenges in the field of energy security of the entire region.
