In Serbia, the Low Carbon Development Strategy was not adopted more than two years after the public discussion, while the Draft of the National Energy and Climate Plan does not envisage measures that would make our country carbon neutral by 2050. The delay in the adoption of these documents damages the country's international reputation, and their working versions, which the public had access to, indicate the absence of adequate measures and goals to achieve the proclaimed climate ambitions.

The leaders of more than 120 countries of the world attended the UN Summit on Climate Change (Conference of Parties - COP 27), which was held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. From November 6 to 18, further steps to stop climate change were discussed. This is the fifth summit that has been held in Africa, a continent that is considered one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. All countries were urged not to allow the war in Ukraine and the global financial crisis to stand in the way of stopping the further rise in global temperatures.

Radical measures are needed

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, while the first meeting of the signatories was held in Berlin three years later. Since then, every year, with the exception of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, regular annual meetings have been held to set the tone for global climate policy.

So far, the most significant meetings were held in Kyoto (1997) and Paris (2015).

Opinions were divided on the issue of the success of last year's Summit in Glasgow. Some believe that the agreement was historic, as it was the first time that the possibility of completely abandoning coal was mentioned. However, in the final version of the Glasgow Climate Pact, instead of the term "coal phase out", the term "coal phase down" was found, which was interpreted as a lack of ambition in the fight against the climate crisis.

With the Kyoto Protocol from 1997, industrialized countries undertook to reduce individual emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), which put the responsibility of combating climate change on the developed part of the world. With the Paris climate agreement, the obligation to reduce GHG emissions was transferred to developing countries, which further highlighted the comprehensiveness of the problem and the necessity of cooperation in order to find a solution.

The main mechanisms for the implementation of the Paris Agreement are the Nationally Determined Contributions, a document that the governments of the countries adopt individually, in accordance with the national context. Governments are required to update their contributions every five years and set more ambitious targets to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees by the end of the century, with efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The world has experienced an average increase in global temperature of 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, and the latest United Nations Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions indicates that current policies and regulations are leading to a global temperature increase of as much as 2.8 degrees until the year 2100. In order to stop warming at 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, it is necessary to reduce GHG emissions by 45% by 2030, which requires system transformation and taking radical measures.

Climate change in the background

The period since the last Summit was marked by the war in Ukraine and the financial and energy crisis as their consequences. The debate about the security of energy supply has come to the fore, and voices about the insufficiency of renewable energy sources are getting stronger. At the same time, the European Union, which proclaimed that the recovery from the pandemic will take place in the spirit of the Green Deal, sees the solution in reducing dependence on fossil fuels. COP 27 was held at a time of great polarization at the world level, but also in the hope that opposing views will be overcome in order to get closer to a solution to the global climate crisis.

The agenda of the conference included the issue of climate justice, i.e. whether highly industrialized countries, which are most responsible for causing climate change, should pay the countries that feel the consequences most directly.

That they are the most vulnerable and also the poorest can be seen in the report of the UN Office for Trade and Development, according to which the costs of adapting developing countries to climate change will amount to 300 billion dollars by 2030.

The main agreement of this year's Summit concerns the establishment of the Loss and Damage Compensation Fund. It is a new instrument for providing financial assistance to poor countries in the fight against climate change, which should help them adapt to new conditions. Nevertheless, the idea of ​​providing financial support to less developed countries was launched in 2009 at the Copenhagen Summit (COP15). At that time, it was agreed that developed countries would allocate 100 billion dollars annually until 2020. Although the total amount intended for developing countries increased over time, this agreement was never fulfilled, and in 2020 only slightly more than 80% of the promised annual amount was collected.

COP 27 will also be remembered for the absence of the heads of state of many G20 members such as: India, China, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, which is by no means commendable given that among those countries they are the biggest emitters of gases with by the greenhouse effect. However, world leaders met at the two-day G20 Summit in Bali on November 15 and 16 to discuss economic recovery after the coronavirus and tensions over the war in Ukraine, which tells us that climate change (and) this time is set in the second Plan.

Serbia's climate ambition, words and deeds

The Serbian delegation in Egypt was led by the President of the Assembly and the Minister of Environmental Protection, who in their speeches emphasized Serbia's determination to become a prosperous and climate-resistant country.

Serbia was among the first countries to submit its first Nationally Determined Contribution in 2015, when a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 9.8% by 2030 (compared to 1990 emissions) was defined.

The improved/revised version of the document has been waiting for seven years. Without prior involvement of the public, the Government adopted the NDC for the period 2021-2030 in August of this year. according to which Serbia increases its ambitions in terms of GHG emissions by 13.2% compared to the level of 2010 (or 33.3% compared to 1990) until 2030.

As solving the climate crisis requires the adoption of strategic and normative documents that offer concrete measures to mitigate and prevent the climate crisis, such statements cause suspicion and mistrust in the part of the public that monitors how decision-makers treat the issue of climate change.

Although the Law on Climate Change was adopted at the beginning of 2021, its implementation and thus its effects await the adoption of numerous by-laws.

The Low Carbon Development Strategy was not adopted more than two years after the public discussion, while the draft of the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) does not foresee measures that would make Serbia carbon neutral by 2050.

The delay in the adoption of these documents damages the country's international reputation, and their working versions, which the public had access to, point to the absence of adequate measures and goals that would make the proclaimed climate ambitions achievable.

That is why it is necessary to move from words to actions as soon as possible, to first adopt the necessary documents, and then to start the consistent implementation of the ambitious climate policy. Until then, it remains to be seen what, if any, progress will be made by the 28th Summit, scheduled for November 2023 in Dubai, and whether and how much action will trump words.

Authors: Marija Milenkovic, Damir Dizdarevic and Lazar Jovcic, Belgrade Open School

Photo source: Freepik.com