German Energy Agency ready to cooperate with Belarus on climate change

The German Energy Agency (Dena) is ready to cooperate with Belarus in addressing climate change issues, Dena director Kristina Haverkamp told reporters, BelTA has learned.

"We understand that the issues of climate change can only be addressed by means of increasing energy efficiency. This should be a global effort. This is the only way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. With regard to Belarus’ achievements in this area, we can see that the country has been dealing with the problems it faces in a resolute and consistent way,” Kristina Haverkamp said.

In addition, the German Energy Agency is ready to intensify interaction in other areas. "Belarus is facing challenges that relate to energy efficiency, reformatting and reforming the energy sector. These issues are coupled by the need to ensure reliability of electricity supply. We are working on these issues, both at the government level and the level of experts,” Kristina Haverkamp explained.

Referring to the Belarusian legislation in the field of renewable energy, she that it is largely corresponds to the principles upon which the German regulatory framework has been built. "According to our observations, the Belarusian government has contributed to the development of renewable energy in exactly the same way as the German government has done. However, later Belarus faced the need to adjust its network infrastructure to the development of renewable energy. Germany also had to ensure the production of renewable energy simultaneously with the development of the associated infrastructure. We believe it was one of the reasons for the changes in the Belarusian legislation on renewable energy,” said Kristina Haverkamp.  

Minsk is hosting the Belarusian-German Energy Forum for its fourth time. The event will include panel discussions to exchange experience in the area of energy systems and renewable energy resources, as well as energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in buildings. The participants of the event are expected to visit a number of facilities.

The Belarusian-German Energy Forum is organized by the representation of the German economy in Belarus under the auspices of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy of Germany. Among the partners of the forum is the Belarus Energy Ministry, the Energy Efficiency Department of the State Committee for Standardization and the German Energy Agency.