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The Ministry of Environmental Protection, as the institution in charge of coordinating the policy in the field of climate change, has prepared draft mitigation and adaptation components for the Revision of the Nationally Determined Contribution of the Republic of Serbia to the Paris Climate Agreement (NDC). These mitigation and adaptation components of Serbia’s NDC were prepared in cooperation with a team of experts and members of the inter-ministerial Working Group of the UNDP-GEF project "Establishing Transparency Framework for the Republic of Serbia". The draft document is based on the Draft Low Carbon Development Strategy of Serbia with the Action Plan, as well as on the basis of information and data collected during the implementation of projects " Second Biennial Update Report and the Third National Communication of the Republic of Serbia to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change" and GCF-NAP project “Advancing medium and long-term adaptation planning in the Republic of Serbia". The NDC revision process is supported by the UN Development Programme.

The document provides a basis for raising the ambitions of the Republic of Serbia in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as adaptation measures to climate change, compared to the Initial Nationally Determined Contribution that the Republic of Serbia submitted in 2015 to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Also, the additional analyzes are underway that will provide insight into the possibility for the Republic of Serbia to invest additional efforts in combating climate change through the concept of nature-based solutions and strengthening the synergy between air protection measures and reducing GHG emissions. In addition, the document will be gender sensitive and will contribute to the development of the first roadmap for a just transition of the Republic of Serbia to low-carbon development.

You can download the work-in-progress versions of the draft mitigation and adaptation components of Serbia’s NDC document:

CCA revised NDCs - DRAFT

CCM revised NDCs - DRAFT

All comments and suggestions can be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address: ndc@klimatskepromene.rs

The Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Ministry of the Interior have launched a campaign this year to raise awareness about the harmful consequences of burning crop residues in the open, which is prohibited by law. In this joint campaign, which is being implemented with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), promotional materials (video, leaflet) have been created with the aim of pointing out the existence of this problem and appealing to citizens not to burn the stubble as part of their agricultural activities.

Apart from being prohibited by law, this practice also poses a great danger to human safety and causes great damage to the environment. Last year (2019), firefighters had to intervene almost 19,000 times to suppress fires caused by burning stubble. On that occasion, huge material damage was created and 14 lives were lost. The most challenging period in front of the fire services is from September to November, because that is when most violations of this nature happen. That is when the corn harvest season ends and then the largest number of fires start and the fire services do not manage to intervene in all places. This practice, in addition to endangering human lives, causes great damage to the land itself. In the upper part of the soil, due to the fire, all microbiological processes are interrupted, but also most of the nutrients are lost. On that occasion, nitrogen is released into the atmosphere and the great damage is the loss of organic matter.

The Law on Agricultural Land regulates this area as well as offenses arising from the burning of stubble. Any burning of stubble is dangerous and therefore punishable by law for both individuals and legal entities.