The 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 9th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol is taking place from 11 to 22 November in Poland. We would like to underline side event: Opportunities and Challenges for Climate Action in Western Balkans and Turkey, already held on November 11 in Warsaw.

Moderator Dimitrios Zevgolis, DG-Climate Action, introduced the panel, which described projects taking place in the Western Balkans and Turkey on low emission development. He noted that most countries have not developed special climate action strategies, while highlighting achievements including the development of a climate project pipeline under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and preparations for developing inter-institutional coordination. He called for strategic frameworks to improve top-down decision-making, integrated policy development across sectors, and cooperation and coordination. Imre Csikós, Regional Environmental Network for Accession (RENA), discussed the Environment and Climate Regional Accession Network (ECRAN). He noted that ECRAN builds on RENA climate results, saying 30% of the budget will be reserved for climate issues. He outlined the four working groups on: climate policy development and climate awareness; GHG inventory and Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR); emission trading; and adaptation. József Feiler, Klima Politika, discussed the project Support for Low Emission Development (SLED) in South East Europe (SEE). He said the project aims to provide the basis for development of low emission development strategies by providing assessments through 2030 for energy efficiency in buildings and the electricity sector. He highlighted the objectives of electricity modeling in the SEE region including identification of cost efficient intervention, noting that the models will help address questions on the price impacts of policies. Andreas Tuerk, Joanneum Research, Austria, presented the project Low Carbon South East Europe (LOCSEE), noting the importance of finding synergies between projects that overlap. He outlined that their approach included preparation of state-of-the-art analysis in the field of climate change in participating countries, collection of good and bad practices, cross-sectoral National Working Groups (NWGs), capacity building workshops, development and improvement of low carbon policy papers, and development of a regional policy network.

During discussions, delegates from Croatia and Montenegro discussed their countries’ experiences with capacity building projects, noting the utility of modeling and assessments for the preparation of national GHG inventories and welcoming support in particular for human capacity development. A delegate from Serbia noted the importance of regional cooperation and highlighted activities they are undertaking related to climate change under the EU accession process.

(Extract from ENB on the Side – Coverage of Selected Side Events at the Warsaw Climate Change Conference – November 2013)