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• Jul 03 2020
The webinar, held on Friday, July 3th, 10:00 – 12:30, was designed to provide decision-makers and other target groups relevant to the NAP creation process with answers to the following questions:
Why NAP?
Process or policy document?
Formulation - support and experiences?
Integrating adaptation into planning and development plans?
National and local actors - roles and benefits;
The goal of the webinar was to contribute to an easier understanding of the purpose, strategic and multisectoral nature of the NAP and the data and information that need to be provided for the functioning of the complete NAP cycle: planning - implementation - monitoring - improvement.
The relevant international framework has been presented at the webinar, primarily the Green Climate Fund, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, as well as the EU's experiences.
This webinar has been the first in a series of planned ones, with the following goals:
• Involvement of all stakeholders; and
• Focused and continuous discussion and exchange of information, as well as acceptance of the roles of all stakeholders in the NAP process.
The structure and support for the formulation of NAP as well as the main experiences, roles and benefits of various actors in this process were presented at the webinar. It was stated that the main goal of the NAP GCF project “Advancing medium and long-term adaptation planning in the Republic of Serbia” is to establish a system and capacity for the integration of adaptation measures into national and sectoral development goals, decision making and investment planning and financing. It was pointed out that the development of the NAP is important in order of reducing the climate change risks and losses.
It was emphasized that, according to the official data of the Republic Hydrometeorological Institute, 2019 was the year of climate records in Serbia and projections of future temperature trends regarding the implementation of adaptation measures were presented, as well as the latest global analysis of the results of investments in climate change adaptation.
The participants were presented with the vision of the NAP for the Republic of Serbia. Sets of activities and their sequence during the NAP document development process as well as the sectors most affected by climate change: agriculture, forestry, water management, energy, transport and infrastructure have been identified.
It was noted that disaster risk reduction should be an integral part of planning in each of the affected areas and that the focus is on strengthening the capacity of all relevant actors.
The webinar was presented to a wider group of stakeholders – more than 30 attendees from relevant national, provincial and local institutions, public companies, academy and international organization.
At the end of the webinar questions and answers were discussed by all participants.
Below are some of the questions and answers that have been discussed:
- What are the further plans in the field of regionalization of agriculture in terms of adaptation measures?
It was pointed out that the regionalization of viticulture has been completed and that the regionalization of fruit and livestock is underway, but that the future climate projections need to be entered within them, while the regionalization of farming is planned to begin. It was emphasized that the situation at the local level in this sphere is diverse and that there are examples of good practice, but that further work should be conducted in this segment. - Is there a standardization plan and data reliability control system at the national level?
It was indicated that in defining specific sectoral measures and activities, efforts will be made to base them on reliable sectoral data, but also to create quantitative and qualitative indicators for monitoring progress. The main goal is to merge all existing sectoral data into one central system in order to facilitate the availability of such data. The need for further work on the quality of data was emphasized. - Is it planned to cover the area of soil erosion within the project objectives?
The coverage of the area of soil erosion through a joint view of the agriculture and water management sectors has been identified. Insufficient accuracy of data in the field of soil erosion is noted.
• Jun 04 2020
The Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with the United Nations Development Programme in Serbia has organized a virtual presentation of the Draft Second Biennial Updated Report to the UNFCCC on 1 June 2020. Members of the project working group composed out of governmental and non-governmental organizations and other sectors of the economy, were participating in this presentation. The ongoing pandemic of the COVID 19 virus has prolonged the development process of the Report but all hopes are that it will be adopted by the Government of Serbia and submitted to the Secreteriat of the Framework Convention by the end of the year.
The Representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the UNDP praised the fact that a lot of effort has been invested in the preparation of this report despite the COVID 19 pandemic. The current pandemic gives a special aspect to fight against the climate change. The global GHG emissions were reduced up to 17% during the pandemic, which is a good thing, but will be short-lived and as soon as the humanity returns to its usual economic models of production, the pollution will return as well. In any case, the climate change represents a paradigm of our development and our economic recovery should be based on the green economy principles.
In the continuation of the event, the obtained results and basic conclusions were presented by the representatives of the expert team working on the preparation of the Report. These conclusions include scenarios and mitigation measures to the changed climate conditions. They emphasized that by applying a different scenario, which were presented in details in the Report, the GHG emissions could be reduced by 45% in 2030 compared to 1990 as a baseline year. This would be the most optimistic scenario with applied additional measures which would also be the most expensive from the economic perspective.
The GHG Inventory was presented as well. The Serbian Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of its preparation. Despite the challenges of gathering data (lack of the legal framework) as well as the lack of the administrative capacities, a huge progress was made last year when it comes to advancement of the Inventory and especially in the AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use) sector.
Within the discussion, the participants were interested in the integration of the nature based solutions and specially protected natural areas within the Nationally determined contributions. Also, the mentioned the harmonization of the Serbian legislation with the EU climate acquis which itself still evolves in this area. It was mentioned that an effort should be invested in raising awareness about these issues among the small in middle size enterprises.
The event was concluded with the remark that in parallel to this process the establishing transparency process for the Republic of Serbia is also ongoing. This is also one of the obligations that the state took over by ratifying the Paris Agreement. Within the transparency framework establishment a monitoring, reporting and verification system will become operational as well. The fact was emphasized that we are individually within our jurisdictions responsible for the climate change policy, as well as for the reporting process.
The process of submitting the Report to the Convention will be finished when the working group delivers its comments on this Draft, after which the document will be sent to inter-ministerial consultations and upon its approval will be sent to the Government for the final approval.
Presentations from the event could be found bellow:
https://www.klimatskepromene.rs/sepa_ghgi/
https://www.klimatskepromene.rs/aleksandar-jovovic-masinski-fakultet-2bur/
• Jun 01 2020
Due to the initial postponement of the conference in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled firstly for the November 2020, and after the consultations with the UNFCCC members and the international community, a new date has been set for the COP 26 which will be held in Glasgow from 1st to 12th November 2021. The host of the conference is the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy.
At the same time, the UNFCCC Secretariat and the Bureau called upon the member states to submit their revised and more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) during this year. Although the meetings of the subsidiary organs of the Convention are so far postponed until October 2020, there will be a virtual meeting 1-10 June where the states parties and other stakeholders will have an opportunity to exchange and present the ways in which climate actions are advancing in these special conditions which the world is currently facing. Formal negotiations and decision making are not envisaged for this event and will be held at the meetings of the UNFCCC subsidiary organs in October of this year. More information available here: https://unfccc.int/news/governments-commit-to-take-forward-vital-work-to-tackle-climate-change-in-2020
And here https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/june-momentum-for-climate-change
