Advancing medium and long-term adaptation planning in the Republic of Serbia
Project Overview
The project builds on Serbia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments to advance medium and long-term adaptation planning in the Republic of Serbia with a National Adaptation Plan (NAP), providing support for iterative improvements to the NDCs under the enhanced transparency framework requirements. The project aims to enable the Government of Serbia to build and strengthen capacities for mainstreaming climate change adaptation, produce actionable climate risk and vulnerability assessments, and implement effective methods, tools and information systems to better inform decision-making on climate risks. Project activities address the main barriers to the integration of climate change adaptation into national, sectorial, and local government planning and budgeting, as well as support the formulation of financing strategies and mechanisms for the scaling up of medium- and long-term adaptation.
Project Details
The "Advancing medium and long-term adaptation planning in the Republic of Serbia" project aims to increase the country’s capacity to address its climate change vulnerabilities. The project is proposed in two phases and focuses particularly in the areas related to the agriculture-water management nexus, and the sectors of energy infrastructure, transport infrastructure and construction.
Climate change impacts are already evident in Serbia. The IPCC AR5 has identified southeastern Europe, where Serbia is located, among the most vulnerable regions in terms of exposure to the negative effects of climate change. Climate change is expected to have adverse effects on the intensity and frequency of floods and droughts, and on the quality and quantity of yields of major crops. Serbia’s recent history of floods and natural disasters has shown that rural low-income communities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to heightened water insecurity, increased health risks and reduced agricultural productivity.
The project builds on UNDP support to Serbia in February 2017 that resulted in a stocktaking report and a plan of action to advance the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, validated by representatives of key sectors and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The stocktaking exercise highlighted the existing weaknesses and demonstrated the prevailing barriers to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction planning in Serbia. The results confirmed that to adequately address climate change vulnerabilities, Serbia must overcome its current information gaps, capacity weaknesses, as well as a general lack of awareness of climate change adaptation – both at the national and sub-national levels. The report further identified that climate change is not integrated into existing policies, or their associated budget priorities.
The overall goal of the project is to reduce climate change related risks throughout Serbia by strengthening institutional and technical capacities that support integrated climate change adaptation planning and programming. This will be achieved through three outputs and related sub-outcomes across two phases:
- In the first phase, the emphasis is given to the development and setting up of the national mandate and steering mechanism for long-term climate change adaptation and capacity building for effective development of the NAP implementation strategy. The first phase also focuses on improved management of the adaptation related knowledge and data, addressing institutional capacity gaps and needs in specific sub-sectors and at all levels of governance, establishing a system for effective monitoring and reporting on climate change adaptation measures and actions;
- Building on the results and achievements from the first phase, the second project phase will focus on capacity building for setting up a sustainable financing strategy to support medium- and long-term climate change adaptation. Both project phases will be accompanied by a NAP and adaptation engagement and communications plan and concrete measures at both national and local levels.
In addition to the implementing partner, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, other project partners include the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministries in charge of energy, infrastructure and construction, local self-governments, Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Chambers of Commerce, civil society and others.
Project updates
- A draft National Adaptation Plan (NAP) developed;
- Introduction of a bylaw (of Law on Climate Change) that will regulate the implementation of the NAP for the country and the preparation of provincial plans;
- Introduction of an advanced university degree programme on adaptation;
- Priority adaptation interventions in all key sectors identified;
- An interactive/digital climate atlas for Serbia launched;
- “Analysis of available climate and socio-economic information” conducted, establishing the current state-of-play and steps to be undertaken to build and strengthen institutional capacities for climate change adaptation;
- “Institutional capacities for climate change adaptation” report conducted, providing an overview on existing capacities and capacity building needs at the national and local self-government levels;
- “Existing policy, regulatory and institutional framework” report conducted and recommendations on improvement of specific policy and regulatory measures for climate change adaptation prepared;
- Reports on the impacts of climate change on key economic sectors such as agriculture and water management nexus, energy sector, construction and roads infrastructure, forestry and health with recommended adaptation measures;
- Economic assessment of the damage and losses caused by climate change for local self-governments conducted;
- Recommendations for better integration of nature-based solutions into the revised NDCs for Serbia provided;
- Representatives of the line ministries and other authorities participated in trainings, online workshops and consultative meetings on climate change adaptation.
- A series of press workshops held on the topic of climate change in Serbia, involving more than 500 stakeholders, at national and local levels.
News
Webinar: “National adaptation plan (NAP) systematic and risk-shaped response to climate change” (2020)
Održan prvi Dijalog o prilagođavanju Srbije na klimatske promene (2021)
The first workshop for journalists on the topic of climate change in Serbia (2021)
Continuation of training on the topic of adaptation to climate change within the NAP project (2021)
The third training in a row on the topic of adaptation to climate change within the NAP project (2021)
Key Results and Outputs
Outcome 1: National mandate and steering mechanism in place for long-term climate change adaptation
Outcome 2: NAP implementation strategy developed
Outcome 3: System to monitor progress on adaptation strengthened and financing strategy for medium- and long-term climate change adaptation established.