The Belgrade Open School (BOS) and the RES Foundation have organized a series of three consultative workshops over the past week at the Zlatar mountain (Monday, May 29), in Leskovac (Wednesday, May 31) and in Nis (Thursday, June 1). The workshops brought together over 50 participants, representatives of local government and civil society organizations from sixteen municipalities.
The themes of the workshops were the climate change, development of a National Climate Change Strategy and the contribution of local communities to the development of the Strategy. Various aspects of decarbonization of the local economy have been discussed, such as the energy efficiency, energy management, the use of renewable energy sources and the coherence of public policy at the local level.
The aim of the consultative workshops was to collect data on local specificities in these areas in order to identify priorities for the development of local climate policies, obstacles to their implementation and resources that the actors at the local level recognize. Special attention has been given to the energy efficiency and energy management as fundamentals of local development. Workshop participants identified a wide range of important topics, which differed from one municipality to another.
Representatives of municipalities in Western Serbia stressed the importance of preserving natural resources and the quality of the landscape as the basis for the development of tourism that the local economy largely relies on. Participants from least developed municipalities in Southern Serbia emphasized the importance of the potential for developing the local economy through new "green" jobs that are currently at the very beginning of the development. The problem of inadequate waste management occurred as a common theme in almost all municipalities. The types of problems varied from the lack of adequate waste disposal sites, disorganized separation, and occasional burning, to regional landfills projects, which are mainly built for more than 10 years.
Inadequate management of forests as a resource for energy production from biomass also occurred as a common problem. Participants mentioned unplanned and often illegal logging as a mass phenomenon that causes devastation of forests, mostly privately owned. The conclusion is that we need better communication between the local and national government, the revision of authorization and responsibility distribution in managing individual resources (such as water and forests), as well as the close cooperation and the exchange of experiences across different local governments.
The lack of clear property relations is recognized as a key obstacle to the establishment of an effective energy management system since it makes it difficult to establish an information gathering and metering system. Representatives of municipalities have agreed on the possibilities of making savings in the public lighting, which must be preceded establishing the public lighting cadaster. The question was raised on the price and sustainability of maintaining the electricity supply infrastructure in areas that are not permanently inhabited. Experiences in using renewable energy sources have been exchanged, i.e. solar energy in Bosilegrad, and it has been concluded that the potential for better use of renewable energy is very high. Participants also expressed hopes that issues related to energy efficiency would occupy a significant place in strategic documents that their municipality should adopt in the future.
The Belgrade Open School and the RES Foundation have had a long and successful cooperation in the field of improving energy efficiency policies and assisting local governments in establishing energy management systems. The series of workshops is a part of activities implemented through "Community Energy" and "Civil Society for European Union - CS4EU" projects. The CS4EU project includes the Support Program for the Civil Society and the Media in the Field of European Integration. The RES Foundation has been implementing its own "Good Climate for Development" project through this program.
The "Community Energy" project is supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and it aims to contribute to the decarbonization and democratic governance through promoting energy efficiency policies, the participation of all stakeholders in the policy-making process, and greater transparency of government activities. The "Civil Society for European Union - CS4EU" project is supported by the Swedish government, and aims to promote cooperation and dialogue between civil society and public administration in the process of European integration, as well as to support the civil society and the media in actively participating and representing the interests of local communities in the process of accession to the European Union.
Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School