“Ukraine in the Context of Global Climate Change: Trends, Adaptation and Resilience”

17.4.2025

On April 16, teachers and students of the Department of Chemistry, Geography and Earth Sciences attended a guest lecture on the topic: “Ukraine in the Context of Global Climate Change: Trends, Adaptation and Resilience.”

The lecturer – Oleksii Ivanovych Sytnyk, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography, Geodesy and Land Management of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University – spoke in detail about climate change in Ukraine. The lecturer paid special attention to the adaptation strategies that Ukraine can and should implement. Mr. Sytnyk emphasized that adaptation to climate change is not just a reaction to the crisis, but a proactive approach that can turn challenges into opportunities. He spoke about innovative practices in the agricultural sector, such as the use of drought-resistant plant varieties and modern land reclamation systems that can increase crop yields, and emphasized the need to influence hydrometeorological processes in order to overcome the climate crisis.

The strong point of the speech was the lively interaction with the audience. The speaker provoked a discussion, involving the audience in the discussion. The audience asked quite sharp questions, namely:

Can global warming make Ukraine the new “climate tiger” of Europe, for example, thanks to the cultivation of exotic crops, or does our country risk becoming a “victim” of droughts and floods?

Donald Trump called climate change a “fiction”. If he were a farmer in the Odessa region experiencing a drought, would he change his mind? How can we convince Ukrainian skeptics that the climate crisis is real?

Mr. Sytnik’s lecture was not just an academic event. The lecturer managed to convince the audience that climatology can be not only a serious but also an exciting science, and that Ukraine is not a “victim” of climate change, but a country that is able to successfully adapt to it.

Department of Chemistry, Geography and Earth Sciences