Posted on October, 26 2009

The WWF truck with solar powered appliances and the colourful blow up tent stopped in 7 Ukrainian cities including Ujgorod, Lviv, Ternopol, Rovno, Kiev, Dneprodjerjinsk and finally in Odessa.

Ukraine is named among the 20 most energy inefficient countries in the world. To this end, the tour demonstrated a number of small steps that Ukrainian citizens could take to save energy, from changing light bulbs to purchasing energy efficient appliances. Turning off stand-by functions on appliances can save as much as 40% of energy used. Visitors could also find out how much energy is needed to operate simple appliances, such as toasters, microwave ovens and PCs. They were asked to produce electricity by peddling a bicycle. The majority could only produce enough to make a cup of coffee, eat a toast or watch TV for a couple of minutes, but very few could power a PC. The idea was to show how difficult it is to produce energy and how careless we are in consuming it.

During the tour WWF and partner environmental NGO “The voice of nature” asked visitors to sign a petition pleading with the Ukrainian government to implement energy efficient practices in municipal services – providing energy efficient grid, promoting renewable energy, developing financial incentives for those switching to solar or wind power.

“Despite cold weather conditions, the climate tour was very successful and attracted a great deal of attention from ordinary people and the media”, Katya Kurakina, Communications Officer of WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme in Ukraine, said.

The WWF climate change tour is part of a European tour, which is being sponsored by the Toyota Europe Foundation. Prior to travelling to Ukraine the tour passed through Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.