Bosnia and Herzegovina submits its third national report on climate change

Bosnia and Herzegovina has experienced several significant extreme climate episodes in the last five years and the temperature increase, while the energy sector is the most significant source of CO2 emissions, the country’s reports on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions show.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has recently finished the adoption procedure of the Third National Communication on Climate Change and the Second Biennial Update Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions as they were adopted by the relevant institutions on both state and entities’ level, the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Civil Engineering and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska announced.

The reports has been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in Bonn, the statement said.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the UNFCCC signatory, has an obligation to submit the National Communication on Climate Change every four years and the Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions every two years.

The reports updates information on climate changes, greenhouse gas inventories, climate change mitigation, vulnerability to climate change and steps taken to adapt to climate change, as well as information on public awareness, education, training, systematic research, and technology transfer.

In the last five years Bosnia and Herzegovina has been facing with several significant extreme climate and weather episodes that have caused substantial material and financial deficits, as well as casualties, the reports show.

The two most important events are drought during 2012 and flooding during 2014, the UNDP Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina explained in the statement. The project of the preparation of two reports was implemented by the UNDP and funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF).

The increase in annual air temperature ranges from 0.4 to 1.0 degrees Celsius, while the increase in temperature during the growing season (April– September) even reaches 1,2 degrees Celsius. In the analyzed period, all indices of warm temperature extremes have positive trends, while indices of cold temperature extremes have negative trends.

The most significant source of CO2 emissions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the energy sector, which in the 2002-2013 period contributed with about 53 percent of total CO2 emissions.

The agriculture contributed with 14 percent, industrial processes with 6 while the share of and waste is 5 percent. The share of emissions from other sectors in the total emissions during this period is about 22 percent, the findings show.