As announced at the conference held at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the European Union will fund the 18-month project “Climate Strategy and Action Plan” with a EUR1 million from the IPA funds.
As pointed out at the conference “Combating climate change – Serbia’s readiness,” the goal of the project is to draft climate Strategy and Action Plan for the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection which should serve as a strategic framework in line with Serbia’s commitment and the process of EU accession.
Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said the EU put climate change mitigation at the top of its agenda, adding that the Union considered Serbia an important partner in the global fight against climate change.
He said the EU had committed to reducing the GHG emissions by 20 per cent by the year 2020 and reduce the emissions further by 80 per cent by 2050.
Davenport reminded that a historic Agreement was reached in Paris, but in order for it to enter into force 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of global emissions are yet to ratify the Agreement.
“The two largest economies and biggest global emitters, the US and China, ratified the Agreement 10 days ago, but the goal of getting 55 countries to ratify the Agreement is yet to be reached,” Davenport said.
“Mitigating the climate change will be at the top of our agenda, as the EU has committed to reducing the GHG emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels,” the EU Ambassador said.
“Serbia is an important partner in the global fight against climate change and I would like to encourage and urge it to ratify the Paris Agreement as soon as possible and turn it into strategies and actions,” Davenport said.
French Ambassador Christine Moro said that France, which chaired the climate conference, made efforts for the Agreement to be ratified and had on 15 July adopted the law allowing the ratification.
“Serbia signed the Agreement and should now ratify it, but the biggest challenge remains its implementation,” Moro said.
Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic said Serbia was determined to make a large contribution to the fight against climate change and would aggressively achieve these objectives. “Serbia made a commitment to generate 27 percent of the total energy from renewables by 2020,” Antic added, reminding that in the past couple of years, more than EUR200 million were invested in GHG emissions reduction.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Stana Bozovic said Serbia was ready to assume international obligations regarding climate change and had already put in place plans concerning that highly complex area.
Today’s conference also stressed that the EU granted a total of approximately EUR700 million to Serbian environment sector over the period between 2000-20016. The EU’s future assistance in this area is estimated at EUR42.5 million. As stated, 39 per cent of the planned EU funding is aimed at flood relief, prevention and protection, 38 per cent at water protection and supply, 12 per cent at air protection, whereas some three per cent will be focused on legislation reform and capacity building.
