Civil society representatives, the ones very invested in monitoring of public authorities, were careful enough to notice the information on GHG emissions from 2014. This well-known controversial information has once again emerged and, after firstly emerging in the Second National Communication of Serbia, it has found its place in the Report on the State of Environment in Serbia for 2017, issued by the Serbian Environment Protection Agency.
The Environmental Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was discussing this Report during its 16th session, held on November 1st 2018.
This document brings the information on GHG emissions from Serbia. We must note that such information hasn’t been contained in this type of document before. The information on the GHG inventory is mentioned at the very end of the document, without any prior explanations on how this information is obtained. The section of the Report on the GHG emissions states the following: “Based on the information and analyses from this Report, conclusions are drawn for the following sections…Based on the GHG inventory, the estimated total emission of GHG in Serbia, for the year 2014, amounted to 67.148 GgC02 eq. GHG emissions have been on the rise since 2000, with increase rate of 7,8%.”
This estimation of emission inventory is an assessment carried out in 2013 and it does not take into account the severe floods in 2014 that devastated Serbia’s energy sector and flooded coal mine pits, leading to drastic reductions in energy consumption and, therefore, CO2 emissions. This is not the first time this assessment has been published within official documents of the Republic of Serbia, since this very paragraph, was also published in the Second National Communication of the Republic of Serbia to the UNFCCC. This document provoked a reaction of the EU. The Country Report of the European Commission, covering Serbia’s progress in the EU accession process, stated the following: “Serbia has submitted its Second National Communication to the UNFCCC Secretariat in October 2017. However, the quality of data presented needs to be re-assessed.” Since the very data criticized by the EU Commission has once again found their place in another official document of the Republic of Serbia, RES Foundation and Coalition 27 have decided to address the issue by sending a letter to Serbian Environment Protection Agency.
There are several facts underlining why the information on GHG data presented in this Report is questionable, t
o say the least:
- This is the first time for total GHG emission inventory to be presented in an Report on the state of environment. Furthermore, it is presented in the end of the document, without any prior explanations on how this information is obtained.
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, in one of its official documents (256 - LXVIII, issued on 20.09.2018.) states that “Air emission inventory, according to the Decision 691/2011, encompasses the data on GHG emissions, which haven’t been available to the Office for the year 2014”.
- There is really no need to carry out any estimations and assessments, since there are other documents offering more accurate data. For example, official documentation used for developing Climate change strategy of the Republic of Serbia, states that total GHG emissions for 2015, amounted to 60, 294 kt CO2 eq, which is 3,3% less than 2010 emissions and increase of 13,7 in comparison with 2014.
RES Foundation and Coalition 27 have underlined the importance of accuracy of data on GHG emissions, since the fight against climate change is in a very delicate phase of development. At this moment, Climate Change Strategy and the Action plan, as well as the Law on Climate Change, are being developed. In addition, development of the Third National Communication of Serbia and Second updated biannual report towards UNFCCC are also expected in near future. It is of the utmost importance to develop these documents, based on sound, accurate and comparable data on GHG emissions. For these reasons, RES foundation and Coalition 27 have invited the Serbian Envirionment Protection Agency to publish all relevant data on GHG inventories, as it should in accordance with the Law on Air Protection (Article 50, paragraph 7), and thus contribute to timely and complete informing on the state of environment and successful development of public policies for fight against climate change in Serbia.
The letter, sent by RES foundation and Coalition 27, is available in this link (Serbian version only)
Photo credists: UnSplash