War-torn Ukraine can aid the European Union in securing the battery materials it needs to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy systems, researchers say.
The eastern European country holds deposits of 25 of the EU’s 34 minerals listed as “critical” to its economy. This includes Europe’s largest reserves of graphite and manganese, which are needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage, as well as titanium, which is used in offshore wind turbines and hydrogen electrolysers.
Ukraine has the potential to become a regional supplier of battery-grade graphite to the EU as the bloc seeks to bolster its mineral supplies and reduce its dependence on China for materials, according to analysis by Forum Energii and Green Deal Ukraïna published this week.
A ‘targeted’ solution to Europe’s needs
Graphite is the most prominent critical mineral by weight in a typical EV or energy storage battery and the booming battery market is causing demand to soar.
But the EU mines less than 0.1% of its total graphite needs and depends heavily on imports from China, which produces over 95% of the world’s battery-grade graphite. In 2024, only around 2% of total EU natural graphite imports came from Ukraine but this share could be much higher, researchers said.
Plans to develop a graphite mine and processing plant outside the village of Balakhivka in central Ukraine, could potentially meet 10% of Europe’s graphite consumption by 2030 and supply the battery industry, according to the report.
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The project has been designated as “strategic” by the European Commission, making it eligible for preferential access to EU financing. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signalled its interest in supporting the project.
Danylo Moiseienko, an analyst at Forum Energii and lead author of the report, said Ukraine’s contribution to the EU’s mineral supply will be “targeted…exactly what Europe needs to diversify away from single-source dependencies”.
Over the next two years, the challenge for Ukraine will be to translate its geological potential into a pipeline of mineral projects that qualify for EU support and “make sure that over time, more of the value stays in Ukraine,” he said.
The price of war
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine remains a major barrier to developing the country’s mineral potential, however.
Four years of conflict have devastated Ukraine’s energy and transport infrastructure, pushed up the cost of capital and disrupted access to mineral deposits, some of which are now in Russian-occupied territories, including two of Ukraine’s six major graphite deposits.
In addition, Ukraine’s energy system has come under persistent attack from Russian drones and missile strikes, weakening the country’s ability to power energy-hungry mining and processing operations. The World Bank estimates the country’s energy sector has suffered nearly $25 billion worth of damage, with the total cost of rebuilding estimated at more than $90 billion.
Ukraine’s graphite production fell by 88% between 2021 and 2024 due to a temporary shutdown of its only operating mine and electricity supply disruptions from Russian attacks. The report says that during that time, the EU – which signed a minerals partnership with Kyiv to develop its mineral resources – remained the main buyer of Ukrainian graphite, as the country drew down on its stocks.
Ksenia Orynchak, CEO of the National Association of Extractive Industry of Ukraine, said investment in the mineral sector will be an important part of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and economic recovery.
“The mining sector is very important for Ukraine’s reconstruction,” she told Climate Home News during an online presentation of the report’s findings. “If our government manages to stay strong and prioritises our extractive industries, our minerals will help rebuild our country,” she said.
EU, US offer window for new funding
But Ukraine faces other challenges to develop its energy transition mineral deposits.
The country’s geological data is outdated and incomplete, the financing and regulatory environment is unattractive to investors, environmental and social standards are not aligned with international norms and the sector is suffering from a shortage of qualified personnel.
Despite these challenges, the country’s significant mineral resources remain widely coveted. Last year, Donald Trump’s administration signed a minerals deal with Kyiv establishing a joint Reconstruction Investment Fund, which will focus on investment in the energy, critical minerals and infrastructure sectors, and gives the US preferential access to Ukrainian minerals.
The International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the US’s development finance institute, announced an initial $75 million to launch the fund, an amount matched by the Ukrainian government.
But so far, only two oil and gas projects are in line to receive DFC funding, Orynchak said.
The US deal and the EU partnership have opened a window for mineral projects in Ukraine to access financing but they remain limited, experts said.
“The amount announced by the US fund is not even sufficient to fully develop one mine,” said Tetiana Dzhumurat, a principal banker in the natural resources team at the EBRD, which is supporting Ukraine to digitise its paper-based geological data archive.
At the same time, the pipeline of mineral projects ready to be financed remains “thin”, she said. “I think there is potential, but more remains to be done.”
The post Ukraine can help Europe meet its battery material needs, experts say appeared first on Climate Home News.
Ukraine can help Europe meet its battery material needs, experts say
Saturday, 17 October 2026
7.18 AM AWST
Hi folks! We’re joining you live from the Rainbow Warrior where we will be providing you with updates as our four activists continue scaling and occupying Woodside’s gas platform. The activists are peacefully protesting against Woodside’s latest gas expansion plans, the Browse project, which would see up to 57 toxic wells drilled at Scott Reef.
“Right now our activists are scaling Woodside’s massive Floating Production Unit. They are scaling the South-East pillar and the underside of the Helideck. They’ll be setting up camp soon and have plenty of provisions with them – so stick around!”
5:45 AM AWST
Our RHIBS are in the water! We’ve deployed our four activists and our ship crew on our small fast boats, headed to the gas platform. We’re carrying crew and equipment, plenty of food, all of our safety climbing gear, some big banners, cameras and a whole lot of heart… someone even has something to read after they get settled in.
5:26 AM AWST
Before sunrise activists prepared to launch RHIBS from the Rainbow Warrior.
Looking for a front seat view?
You can follow along with the Live Rainbow Warrior bow cam here!
Looking for more?
Follow us on Instagram for a peek behind the scenes and hear from our Rainbow Warrior crew.
Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Climate Change
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
PERTH, Saturday 17 October 2026 — Four Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are scaling and occupying a Floating Production Unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, displaying banners reading: “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
- Photos and video available here and here. More will be uploaded throughout the day.
- Content and live updates will be uploaded to a live blog and to Instagram
Early this morning at 05:45 AWST, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists launched from the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, scaling and attaching themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth.
Woodside has since confirmed it has initiated a temporary shut down of the FPU.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is occupying the gas platform in peaceful protest of Woodside’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef as part of its Browse proposal.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action today to expose the unacceptable risk to Scott Reef posed by Woodside’s plans.
“Australians love our oceans. Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal would turn the magnificent Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. Woodside wants to drill up to 57 toxic wells around Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles, and endangered species like pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake; it is a place like nowhere else on Earth.
“Woodside has an alarming track record of oil spills, incidents and environmental neglect, and can’t be trusted with our oceans. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coasts to protect our oceans.
“There’s no future in new gas projects. Our future is in secure homegrown renewable energy, green industry and exports, where communities and places like Scott Reef are protected — there’s no future in dirty gas shipped offshore.
“The prospect of drilling for oil or gas on the Great Barrier Reef would be considered absolute madness today, but that is exactly the decision before the government: save Scott Reef or risk its destruction at the hands of a gas corporation.”
From aboard the Floating Production Unit, Dr Chris Holden, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activist said: “As a doctor, when I see new fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project being put forward, I can’t help but think about the impact this is going to have on the health of our communities and planet, and feel a sense of duty to act.
“Not only will this project do irrevocable harm to nature at Scott Reef, it will have a terrible impact on our climate, putting all of our lives at risk.
“On the Rainbow Warrior I’m carrying a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, which warns that health impacts of climate change are worsening, with millions dying needlessly each year due to fossil fuel dependence, growing emissions, and failure to adequately adapt.
“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead. It is their duty to do what is in the best interest of our communities.”
Almost half a million people have signed a petition calling on the government to Save Scott Reef and Woodside’s Browse gas project.
-ENDS-
Notes:
- Dial-in, SimSat and Zoom interviews with Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, currently aboard the Rainbow Warrior, can be organised separately
Media contact:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404
The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will decide on Thursday on whether to “provisionally set aside” $20 million for Nepal to deal with some of the effects of the climate-driven flood it suffered in August.
The motion, seen by Climate Home News, has been drafted by a group of board members from both developed and developing countries and so is likely to pass easily at the fund’s first-ever extraordinary board meeting on October 22.
It invites the government of Nepal to submit a proposal for how to use the money, with the board then deciding at one of its regular board meetings whether to approve the proposal or not.
While Nepali officials have described $20 million as merely “symbolic” in the face of the $4.8 billion estimated costs of recovery and reconstruction, it would be the first time the new FRLD – agreed in 2022 months after devastating floods in Pakistan – has set aside money for a specific disaster.
Until now the fund has only taken requests through a single call for proposals, launched at COP30 in Belém last November, that gave countries six months to submit requests.
Most of the 180 projects the FRLD is currently considering are designed to help countries avoid damage from future climate disasters, for example by strengthening responses to floods in Bangladesh and Lagos.
The draft decision says Nepal’s proposal will serve as a pilot for how funding requests can be submitted outside of the fund’s current timetable. That could let governments seek funds quickly after a climate disaster strikes, rather than waiting for the next call.
This arrangement would set the fund apart from other United Nations funds designed for climate adaptation or cutting emissions like the Green Climate Fund.
Climate campaigners from Fill the Fund said the draft decision is “a real step forward” as it is “the first time this Fund has moved to respond to a specific disaster”.
Too little, too late
The FRLD was agreed by governments at COP27, set up and operationalised at COP28 in 2023 but has yet to award any money. The 180 funding requests it is currently considering would cost around $2.8 billion, but it only has $350 million to allocate.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the amount of money available in the fund as “ridiculously small” and Fill the Fund said $20 million “is a meaningful signal but it is a drop against an ocean of need”.
A glacial rock and ice collapse sent a torrent of water and debris through Nepal and the Chinese-administered region of Tibet on August 26. It killed more than 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants. Nepal’s finance and environment ministers quickly appealed to the FRLD board for funds, saying that “time is of the essence”.
Their call was followed swiftly by a letter from developing country FRLD board members urging the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary meeting to allocate funds to Nepal.
But developed countries initially called for an informal consultation rather than a full board meeting. It took a further 45 days for the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary board meeting for October 22 and to draft a motion for adoption.
Fill the Fund called for a permanent way of the fund rapid responding to disasters as “Nepal should not have required historic letters, an informal drafting group and the Fund’s first-ever extraordinary meeting simply to unlock an emergency response. The next country cannot wait two months and a bureaucratic marathon. Speed must be built in, not improvised.”
The post UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery
Is a Team of Is a Bunch of MAGA Thugs Beating the Snot Out of a Woman a New Low, or Is it What We Now Need to Expect?
