Build Back Better, Build Back Greener

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year and the costs of the destruction continue to mount, the principle of “building back better” has become a central pillar of Ukraine’s recovery agenda. Yet for municipalities responsible for rebuilding infrastructure, housing, and public services, this principle often remains difficult to translate into practice. Local governments face pressure to reconstruct quickly while simultaneously aligning investments with EU accession requirements, donor expectations, and long-term sustainability objectives. Limited technical and financial capacity, combined with the absence of practical implementation frameworks, risks locking cities into outdated infrastructure systems that will become increasingly costly to maintain and upgrade in the future. 

Addressing these challenges effectively will require Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts to align with the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and relevant provisions of the EU acquis. Decisions made over the next decade will shape the long-term performance of Ukraine’s cities. At the same time, investments that prioritize short-term replacement over modernization risk creating infrastructure that is costly to operate, environmentally inefficient, and difficult to align with emerging EU regulatory requirements. 

This policy brief argues that green and circular urban development provides a practical framework for aligning municipal recovery, economic modernization, and EU accession objectives. It examines the institutional, financial, and regulatory mechanisms required to support this transition, with particular attention to Public Investment Management (PIM) reform, the (Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management) DREAM ecosystem, and the implementation of key EU environmental and energy standards. It concludes with practical recommendations for international donors, the Ukrainian government, and city governments.

The views expressed herein are those solely of the author(s). GMF as an institution does not take positions.