Energy, Climate and Environment

We challenged inventors in Serbia to propose new solutions for tackling Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the local level and are assisting the project teams to grow these ideas within the Climate Incubator/Accelerator, through concept development, prototypes and testing. UNDP is co-funding inventors’ private borrowing and other budgetary or donor funding to implement these ideas.

UNDP Serbia also assists the Government to report to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and other multilateral agreements, preparing information for the national inventories, drafting adaptation options and strengthening monitoring, verification and reporting mechanisms.

When it comes to Biomass market development UNDP is the leader in promoting the use of agriculture biomass for the energy production in Serbia. We blended finances with the Ministry of Mining and Energy to enable private borrowing. The seed funding, coupled with private investments, resulted in construction of six private biogas facilities, which now produce 6.32 MW of electricity on the grid. In this way the total installed capacity of biogas facilities in Serbia increased by 130% in four years, compared to 2015.

In parallel, UNDP blended funds with the Serbian budget to improve energy savings in 13 municipalities. Introduction of energy efficiency measures in public buildings in these local communities resulted in estimated energy savings of 2 million kWh/year, as well as in 1,500 tons of estimated CO2 emission reduction annually, thus contributing to climate change mitigation.

In the area of Environment Protection, UNDP has created the first-ever Mercury Inventory, and is currently assisting the Government to coordinate activities and reporting related to all four dangerous chemicals conventions (Basel, Rotterdam, Minamata and Stockholm). UNDP is also supporting the work on environment with young entrepreneurs, parliamentarians, civil society and academia, revising the policies on strategic and environment impact assessments.