NGOs request withdrawal of draft just transition action plan in Serbia

Eighteen non-governmental organizations have criticized Serbia’s draft just transition action plan and called for the creation of a new document with concrete measures and activities. The Ministry of Mining and Energy said the adoption of the action plan should enable the establishment of an institutional framework for managing a just transition and define the most important activities up to 2030.

The Ministry of Mining and Energy recently published a draft just transition action plan and launched a public debate. The plan foresees investments of EUR 88 million.

The presentation of the draft took place yesterday in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PKS) in Belgrade. The public debate began on May 21 and ended today.

According to the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI) and the Belgrade Open School, with support from 16 organizations, the ministry announced at the debate in PKS that the energy transition would be postponed until 2030 and that the proposed measures would be limited to preparatory activities aimed at preventing the negative outcomes of the energy transition.

The NGOs called for the development of a new draft with concrete measures and activities for a just transition.

The organizations urged the EBRD to check if the drafting and adoption of the document is in line with its standards

They called on the ministry to restart the preparation of the draft in line with the standards of the Law on the Planning System and the Energy Community’s guidelines for planning the just transition. They also urged the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to compare the document’s drafting and adoption process against its environmental and social protection standards.

Of note, the draft is the result of a project funded by the EBRD. The NGOs outlined five main shortcomings.

The public debate was supposed to be organized in Lazarevac, Obrenovac, Kostolac, Požarevac, and other locations where the residents will be most affected

The first is that the public was neglected (the 20-day period for public debate is insufficient; no presentations were held in Lazarevac, Obrenovac, Kostolac, Požarevac, or other places where the residents will face the greatest and most direct impact). Another one is legal baselessness.

The third objection relates to the fact that the measures are neither precise nor substantive but only preparatory (most of the proposed measures are either preparatory or require additional analyses and research). The next item is that half a million euros are envisaged for updating recently adopted acts (it is not specified which strategies, laws, and bylaws need to be amended).

Finally, the civil sector criticized the fact that there is no precise date for phasing out coal-fired electricity production (it prevents affected communities and workers from making rational and informed decisions).

Zlatković: The draft action plan serves as an introduction to a broader energy transition process

Aleksandar Zlatković, advisor to the minister of mining and energy and head of the working group for the preparation of strategic documents at the ministry, said that the draft action plan represents an operational framework for the specification of the strategic goals defined in the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan until 2030, with a vision to 2050 (INECP), and the Energy Development Strategy until 2040, with projections to 2050.

The proposed measures include support for workers and communities in transition, strengthening local economies, education, and retraining, as well as capacity building for local authorities.

The detailed elaboration and identification of priority territories and targeted measures will be carried out by bodies that are planned to be established

According to Zlatković, the document also serves as an introduction to a broader energy transition process and establishes the institutional framework for setting up the bodies that would systematically manage and plan the just and energy transition processes.

“It is important to emphasize that the action plan provides only illustrative examples for some potentially affected regions. The detailed elaboration and identification of priority territories and targeted measures will be carried out through the work of the newly formed bodies, primarily after the adoption of the decarbonization plan of Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS),” Zlatković stated. The state-owned power utility is expected to produce the document by the end of the year, he added.