The Embassy of France and the French Institute in Serbia organized a conference named "Conquering Renewable Energy Sources" at the Yugoslav Cinema on 19 and 20 of June, as a part of the project "Caravan for Climate # 2" and the European Week for Renewable Energy Sources. On the second day of the Conference, Mirjana Jovanović, Program Manager of the Energy, Climate and Environment Program of the Belgrade Open School, participated in panel  "Clean Energy for all of us".

When asked why she decides to work with citizens in her work, Mirjana Jovanovic said that involving citizens in measuring air quality is necessary in order to spread awareness of this problem.

Within the project "Local actors for clean energy and air", citizens received air quality monitoring devices, as well as the necessary skills and knowledge for their use. The goal is for citizens to know who the main air pollutants are, to monitor and understand the information received, to know where and how they can find relevant information and participate in decision making as an interested public.

The Belgrade Open School is soon moving on with the inclusion of an even larger number of citizens in the process of independent air quality measurement. The intention is also to match the results of civil measurement and IT sector through the development of a Serbian language platform to monitor the results of real-time measurement.

The aim is to spread awareness of the problem of polluted air, increase interest among the population and change the sense of the citizens that they can not change anything.

Šabac - innovations to even better results in production and energy saving

On the panel moderated by Aleksandar Macura from the RES Foundation, participants were Dunja Đenić, a member of the city council of the City of Uzice in charge of environmental protection, Slobodan Jerotić, director of JKP "Toplana" from Šabac, Zeljko Zečević from the Secretariat of the Network of Good Energy, and Jasminka Youing from the RES Foundation.

Slobodan Jerotic, former energy manager of the city of Šabac, today is director of JKP "Toplana" and, through his work, seeks to improve the quality of services provided by Toplana to citizens, while minimizing harmful effects on the environment. Novelty in business is certainly the idea that "Toplana" transforms into an ESCO company, which will allocate non-interest-bearing loans to citizens for the renewal of thermal insulation, with repayments from the realized savings in energy consumption. Novelty for Šabac is also the announced establishment of the Green Energy Cooperative, which will give the citizens the possibility to be producers of electricity and heat from renewable sources. Šabac has gradually become a city that has a focus on energy efficiency and is a pioneer in the use of renewable energy sources in Serbia.

The common conclusion of all panelists is that it is necessary to spread the story of successful examples from practice, as well as to motivate citizens to engage in some of the activities that contribute to improving the quality of the environment.

The conference was organized in partnership with the SUEZ Group, the United Nations Development Program, the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia, the Center for the Promotion of Science, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, as well as with several associations for environmental protection.

Photo source: Belgrade Open School