Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted a Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Plan

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Encouraging decarbonisation can only happen if Bosnia and Herzegovina – BiH abandons the construction of new coal or gas thermal power plants. It is hypocritical and meaningless to ask BiH for intensive international assistance for decarbonisation, while at the same time billions of convertible marks are being spent on the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

At a session held on March 17th in Sarajevo, the Council of Ministers adopted the Plan – Determined Contribution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NDC) for the period 2020-2030. The plan is controversial for several reasons, especially because it was adopted with the obvious contribution of the energy lobby, instead of contributing to global efforts to reduce harmful emissions from this sector.

“We believe that this is a very dangerous policy that will lead us to economic and environmental collapse, because completely unambitious goals have been adopted, which include emissions from new coal-fired power plants. Such calculations are absurd and shameful, and with a document like this we can only plan our own downfall, “said Majda Ibrakovic of the Aarhus Center in Banja Luka.

This very important document should represent the contribution of our country in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, but also the current Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, which BiH accepted by signing the Sofia Declaration in November 2020, thus clearly committing itself. for climate neutrality by 2050. Instead, thanks to pressure from the “dirty” energy lobby, the NDC plan is based on an outdated but still valid energy strategy based on new investments in coal-fired power plants. Through two rounds of consultations held on the occasion of the adoption of the NDC for the period 2020-2030, non-governmental organizations pointed out this issue, but unfortunately the comments were not accepted.

“It is scandalous and completely contradictory to adopt the NDC for the period 2020-2030, by which BiH expresses its intention to reduce gas emissions, while at the same time new investments in coal-fired power plants are planned. It remains completely unclear how BiH intends to reduce emissions with the new thermal power plants? ” said Nina Kreševljaković from the Aarhus Center in Sarajevo.

In addition, the authors of the plan – consultants and institutions did not respect the law because a strategic environmental assessment was not conducted to assess the impact of these plans on the environment, so we have no indicator of compliance with the Plan and BiH’s contribution to environmental policy.

“This is another in a series of ‘projects’ by which an international donor, in this case UNDP, in cooperation with eligible local consultants, is shaping the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens,” said Denis Zisko from the Aarhus Center Tuzla. “Following the plays that our authorities call the Public Hearing, the Council of Ministers has adopted another useless document that attempts to seemingly fill out the form while completely ignoring the substance.”

What we consider crucial at the moment is the initiation of the revision of the Framework Energy Strategy for BiH until 2035 by the competent authorities, in order to harmonize it with a more ambitious climate policy that should go in the direction of decarbonisation of the electricity sector and cessation of coal investments.

Source: czzs.org

 

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