Krug 99: BiH should become climate neutral with the rest of Europe

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - A policy paper titled "Green Agenda for the Western Balkans - Implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina" was prepared within the framework of the support for the project "THINK ABOUT NATURE!" implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society with the financial support of the Swedish government.

Within this project, the Legal Institute of BiH Association formed a Working Group for the Environment. Members of the Working Group reviewed the potential impact of the new European strategy for the development of the region from an environmental perspective, which was adopted by the governments of the Western Balkan countries and signed in Sofia in November 2020 under the title Green Agenda for the Western Balkans. This strategy promotes the transition from a traditional economic model to a sustainable economy and is divided into five main areas.

The first area relates to the decarbonization of the country, covering aspects of climate change, the energy sector, and the transport and mobility sector. The second area, relatively new in the European Union, covers the circular economy, while the third is dedicated to combating air, water, and soil pollution. The creation of sustainable rural areas and sustainable food systems, as well as biodiversity: protection and restoration of ecosystems, are covered in the fourth and fifth areas.

By signing this document, the countries of the region, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, committed to working towards Europe becoming climate neutral by 2050, as envisaged by the European Green Deal, which states, among other things, that the ecological transition for the European Union will be fully effective only if all Western Balkan countries also take effective measures.

Bearing in mind the scope and ambition of this document, which is extremely high, the members of the working group made a brief analysis of the situation in these sectors in BiH, and based on that, they also provided several recommendations.

We would particularly highlight the following recommendations:

Decarbonization of the country and achieving the set and accepted goals of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans and its implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be achieved with the establishment of a functional mechanism for inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation at all levels of government. Taking into account the complex administrative structure and the large number of institutions at different levels of government, special attention should be paid to establishing good cooperation between all relevant sectors.

Although institutions at the state, entity, cantonal, and municipal levels are familiar with the processes of work and cooperation with other institutions, it is necessary to adapt the cooperation processes to new requirements, which are much more complex and require an extremely good and precise formulation of responsibilities and tasks.

In order to ensure the implementation of undertaken international and European treaties and obligations, it is necessary to adapt the legal framework, through which the adoption of laws and sub-legal acts would give legitimacy to the work on activities that will contribute to fulfilling the obligations.

By involving representatives of the local community in coordination mechanisms, where the role and obligations of the local community would be clearly defined, it would contribute to the more successful implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans. Active participation in the work of working groups in the development of strategic documents and plans would improve the vertical and horizontal coordination of actors in the country.

 

In the DECARBONIZATION: CLIMATE, ENERGY, MOBILITY sector, we agreed to work with the European Union to achieve the goal of a carbon-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, it is necessary to reform the energy and transport sectors and introduce strict climate policy. A series of activities to be undertaken have been defined in over 20 agreed points from this chapter of the declaration.

The members of the working group have singled out recommendations that they believe should be considered first, according to their importance, which is the adoption of the Law on the Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), so that its development and implementation are carried out through domestic legislation. It is also necessary to harmonize existing policies, strategies, and plans with new ones.