Alihodžić: Incompetent Troika and energy transition in BiH

By: Nermin Alihodžić

No matter how much it seems at this moment that the world is radically changing and that the establishment of new geopolitical power centers on a global scale brings with it different views and stances on the political and economic future of humanity, one fact remains the same for everyone, and that is that countries have irreversibly moved towards the production of clean energy.

Why is that so? Why is energy transition to renewable sources important for the vast majority, especially technologically highly developed countries of the global North, and why are they striving to master this technology as soon as possible? The answer is very simple. Because the energy transition to renewable energy sources is a development opportunity and it brings economic prosperity to every society, but what is even more important is that it brings national security to the state.

It is no coincidence that the European Union has set itself the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. With such an ambitious task, this economic community is striving to transform into a just and prosperous society with a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy in which economic growth will not be linked to resource use and where the health and well-being of its citizens will be paramount in protecting natural capital.

That is why there are increasing demands from the European Union for greater public investment and stronger efforts to direct private capital towards action in the field of climate and environment, while avoiding dependence on unsustainable practices.

On the other hand, we are witnessing that one of Donald Trump's main pre-election platforms when he entered the presidential race was the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement and the large-scale return of fossil energy and fossil capital to the American economy, which has been materialized by the adoption of a series of decrees by the current US administration.

Such a firm stance of denying the phenomenon of climate change by the US president, combined with high tariffs on other countries that are announced and being imposed on China, could result in the US lagging behind the rest of the world in the development of technologies for clean energy production.
China is currently the world's largest producer and exporter of "clean technology," and the US is "just a footnote" in this balance, as only 4% of these products go to the US.

Trump's tariffs will not slow down the global energy transition because the shift to renewable energy sources is a process that has already begun and is unstoppable, and his latest move at this moment has little or almost no impact on the global clean energy market. In any case, this again proves in practice that renewable sources are largely resistant to economic shocks and crises, which is a very important fact when it comes to the national security of any country!

When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, we must not lag behind in these global processes in any way. That is why the "greening of the BiH budget" is extremely important, and the budget must play a key role in the green transition of our society. Well-thought-out tax reforms can stimulate economic growth and resilience to climate disturbances, and contribute to a fairer society and a just social transition.

Schools, vocational training institutions, and universities are well-positioned to open a dialogue with students, parents, and the wider community about the changes needed for a successful transition. The European Competence Framework can help us in developing and assessing knowledge, skills, and attitudes about climate change and sustainable development.

Proactive retraining and upskilling are needed to take advantage of the energy transition. Workers need to be enabled to acquire the skills they need to move from declining sectors to growing sectors and to adapt to new processes. The public must be involved, and past experience teaches us that revolutionary initiatives only work if citizens are fully involved in shaping them.

After all that has been said, it is illusory to expect that the current political authorities are capable of successfully implementing the green transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Frankly speaking, the ruling Troika, with its incompetence, ignorance, and lack of expertise, has brought us to a position where we are slowly but surely turning from a country that was an exporter of electricity into energy slaves.

Expecting the ruling party to "understand and interpret" political developments on the global stage is a task it is not up to. For such a thing, one must have prior knowledge, competence, personal opinion, and a personal stance, and the current developments on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian political scene are only clear proof of their incompetence and inability to lead such serious social processes.

Like any social crisis, this political crisis consists of the fact that the old is dying, and the new cannot be born. In the meantime, a great variety of morbid symptoms can appear, and the death of old ideologies takes the form of politics that is, to say the least, cynical in its immediate manifestation. In such a social atmosphere, we should not be surprised by the moves of the ruling Troika, which, with the power of its position, makes extremely important political and economic decisions that have a direct negative impact on the quality of life of citizens, but also negative consequences that have led to the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina being endangered at this moment.

One of the definitions of climate change is also the one that states that the climate crisis is a symptom of the way the modern era is constructed as a world with human beings at its center. In a political sense, this translates to the fact that the only way out of the current Bosnian-Herzegovinian constitutional crisis is the replacement and removal of the Troika from the political scene and the empowerment of those political options that know how to bring economic prosperity and place people and social justice at the center of priorities in our society.

As one of my interlocutors recently said: "It will take strength to endure this until the elections next year."

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The author is a member of the Coordination Body of the Party for BiH Novo Sarajevo