Today we know that the area of ​​the Balkans is one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change and that our region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. In the past weeks, a large part of Serbia was affected by catastrophic floods that led to the declaration of a natural disaster in 56 cities and municipalities across the country. Climate change has become our reality and it is nothing new. We know that greenhouse gas emissions, which mostly come from the energy and industry sectors, are key to climate change. We also know that in order to adapt and fight climate change, we need reforms in the direction of a greater share of renewable energy sources, increasing the energy efficiency of public and private buildings, and abandoning coal and fossil fuels. We know that this work is not easy, that it requires long-term planning and that we need a clear plan of measures and activities to stop further warming of the planet.

The National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) is a key instrument of energy and climate policy and a document that should trace the path to a fair transition to carbon neutrality of each individual member state of the European Union, as well as countries that are in the process of European integration, including Serbia.

The Ministry of Mining and Energy started the process of drafting the NECP more than two years ago, and since June 13, the document is officially under public discussion. The preparation of the document required serious administrative and financial resources, a multidisciplinary approach and the coordination of the work of several ministries (economy, environment, education, finance...). The purpose of this document is to integrate, or more precisely unify, energy and climate policy, since the way we produce, distribute and use energy directly affects our relationship to climate change. 

 What did we expect from INEKP?

The task of the Ministry of Mining and Energy was to draft a document that would provide a roadmap for the low-carbon development of our country in accordance with the ambitious goals of the European Union. NECP is (was) an opportunity for Serbia to present a plan for ending the use of coal by 2050. That opportunity was not used, so instead of ambitious and clear goals, the Plan is full of vague formulations such as "a realistic reduction in the use of lignite" or "it is expected that Serbia will stop using coal by 2050". The document envisages a gradual reduction in the use of lignite and its share in electricity production, but without a clear and precise plan for when and in what order our thermal power units would be shut down. This approach prevents any planning of a just transition, solving the status of employees in coal mines and thermal power plants, but also the entire local communities directly dependent on the exploitation of fossil fuels. NECP refers only indirectly on this topic to another document of the relevant Ministry, "Diagnostics of a just transition" - which is still under construction.

In addition, the introduction of new gas power plants and the use of gas as a "transit fuel" for the transition from coal to renewable energy sources is foreseen. The crisis we have been witnessing for a little over a year has shown the extent to which gas is an (un)reliable and (un)available source of energy. While on the one hand thermal power plants on paper remain "in life" longer than anywhere else in Europe, and greater use of gas is planned, ambitions regarding the use of renewable energy sources are not high enough, especially assessments of the potential of using solar energy for electricity production, directly by citizens.

Plug in!

In order to make it easier for the general public to understand the content, measures and policies envisaged by this plan, we have prepared a set of comments with detailed explanations on how the document should be improved. All comments are publicly available and can be downloaded from the page javniuvid.bos.rs/inekp, so citizens can download them and send them to the Ministry of Mining and Energy in their own name. The public discussion lasts until July 28, and until then we have the opportunity to get involved and point out the omissions to the representatives of the Ministry and help improve this document before the official adoption by the Government, which is planned for the fall.

If you are interested in the issue of combating climate change, both at the global level and at the level of our country, the public debate on the draft NECP is the first and right step towards getting involved in solving this problem. Or to put it another way: If you're feeling warm - read and comment on the Proposal for a Decree on Establishing NECP.

You can read the text in the Nedeljnik newspaper. News link

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