Climate change bill expected to be sent to lawmakers by end-2018

The public debate on the draft law on climate change has wrapped up, and the future bill is expected to be submitted to the parliament by the end of 2018, Environmental Protection Minister Goran Trivan said at the EU-Serbia Talanoa High-Level Conference in Belgrade, held as part of the Talanoa Dialogue for Climate Ambition.

The future law will align Serbia’s measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with international agreements, including the Paris Agreement, which Serbia has signed and ratified and which is aimed at strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“Money represents a serious shortcoming in attaining the goal of a healthy environment and sustainable development, but we must think globally and use Europe’s and the world’s experiences, and act locally, as European funds and investments can be tapped through project and technical documentation produced by local governments, enterprises, and institutions,” Trivan told the conference.

Serbia’s biggest problem in terms of cutting emissions is its reliance on coal, he said, noting that the country will have to monitor the development of clean coal technologies.

At the conference, Dirk Buschle, deputy director of the Energy Community’s Secretariat, said that coal is “toxic” both in terms of health and regulations, such as the EU’s large combustion plants directive, and he also called for a switch to an auctions system to better exploit renewable energy sources.

Talanoa Dialogue

Speakers at the Talanoa conference included Elina Bardram, head of unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General Climate Action, and Ana Vuković of the Regional Cooperation Council, who presented the findings of a study on climate change impacts and on regional/national climate change projections.

The conference was organized by the European Commission and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, as part of the EU-funded Regional Implementation of Paris Agreement Project (RIPAP).

Talanoa is a traditional word used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue with the purpose to share stories, build empathy and to make wise decisions for the collective good. The UN’s 2018 Talanoa Dialogue Platform is aimed at detecting how mutual action can move the global climate agenda forward. It is a year-long process of discussions, consultations, events and expert inputs that will culminate at this year’s 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) in Katowice, Poland on 3-14 December 2018.