Aarhus Center Vlore , under the project ” Initiatives in the field of Renewable Energy – an important step towards sustainable development “, under the financial support of ENV.net project through Co-PLAN,  in cooperation with LGU of Orikum , Citizen Advisory Committees , UNDP – presence in Albania , the Regional Directorate of Environment, UNDP in Albania and local business located in Orikum,  organized on 5th of May 2014 , the third and last roundtable to increase public awareness on importance of renewable energy sources, through presenting results and recommendations from the questionnaire developed in this city, presentation of pilot projects implemented in the city for installation of solar panels in public buildings, under the administration of the municipality.

During the roundtable a lot of discussion were raised as, on how the municipality should play an important role on allocating a special budget lines to support these initiatives for the public building as a start, and also how the private business should be one of actors to lead the process of information and promoting this technology along the south coats of the country (300 days/ year with sunlight).

First photograph of the week is from Rize.  During the Regional Volunteers Meeting that was undertaken at Artvin, the Rize Tema Youths and volunteers that had taken the stage, were greatly appreciated by the participants for their meaningful messages against threats on nature. They expressed their feelings against outdated mining facilities, Hydro electrical Power Stations and similar threats that is threatening the Black Sea by shouting as “Our Gold is the Nature”..

The second photo of the week is from Tekirdağ-Şarköy. This photo taken after an event which was held by Şarköy County volunteers Representatives. 

The last photo of the week is from Edirne.  This photo is from Water for Life event which is to get attention and create awareness on the importance of water. Here we see TEMA Juniors giving meaningful messages with their multicolored banners.

Chapter 27 within the EU accession negotiation, concerning environment, is among the most demanding and most expensive ones, and Serbia is faced with a “bumpy” road when it comes to harmonisation with the European standards, said the participants of the “Environment towards Europe” conference, held at Belgrade Chamber of Commerce on the occasion of World Environment Day. Head of the European Integration Section of the EU Delegation to Serbia Freek Janmat said that a considerable part of the EUR200 million of pre-accession funds for the period 2014-2020 would be earmarked for environment. He said he expected Serbia would successfully face the challenges of harmonising domestic standards with the demanding EU regulations related to environment. State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Stana Božović said the negotiating Chapter 27 would be the most expensive, demanding, and serious one, adding that two thirds of all regulations and standards that need to be harmonised with the EU were related to environment.

EnE14/ENV.net Conference on June 5, 2014 (World Environment Day) in Belgrade, thematically focused on Chapter 27 of Serbian negotiation with EU, present strong  multi-stakeholder event (government-academia-industry-local communities-NGOs), with the presence and messages from representative of EU Delegation in Serbia, UN Resident Coordinator, OSCE and German Embassy, among others. See AGENDA , and Papers Proceedings.

More images from the event

More about the Conference , including the presentations

Project “School Energy Efficiency Standard” implemented by Milieukontakt in Albania, has started the process of energy audit  preselected school “Xhezmi Delli”, through filling in questionnaires with students, inventory of the existing situation of the electric system in the school etc. By the end of the next week energy audit report for the school is going to be concluded by giving some concrete recommendations for a more energy efficient building.

The cleaning action day of 24 May, was absolutely a successful activity of Let’s Do It Kosova , where there participated approximately 45,000 people all around Kosovo.  Even that Saturday it’s a weekend day thousand people decided to enjoy this time in a different way they used to do it before, by joining Let’s Do It Kosova team in the biggest cleaning action in the country.

Over two thousand tons of waste has been thrown out  and there were cleaned 305 illegal waste dumpsites  in all municipalities of Kosovo. Part of this big cleaning action were representatives   of central and local level, including heads of political parties, Ministry of Environment, heads of all municipalities, national and international NGO-s,  different companies, banks and to many others.

Characteristic of this year, unlike previous years, was not only cleaning as traditional activity, but also the translation of some illegal dumps in parks, which was financially supported by various donors.

Over 300 members of the Kosovo Security Force, along with hundreds of machines necessary, have been continuously available and willing to each activity, especially in the intervention of some spaces that were impossible to intervene by people.

Part of the agenda dated  on 24 May 2014, was also the underwater cleaning of two lakes in the municipality of Pristin therefore Badovc  and Batllava Lake, which was attended by 100 professional divers  and in coordination with the Search and Rescue Unit of the Kosovo Security Forces  , plans were completed according to coordinates provided by the plan. It is worth mentioning that part of this activity was the  Minister of Environment, together with other divers have made ​​cleaning under water of two lakes mentioned before.

The participation of a big number of people in the cleaning action, on weekend   day like Saturday proves that this activity has been quite successful. And the people of Kosovo are willing to work  even during the weekends, just because they want their country clean and beautiful. Also a big participation of political faces, famous people  makes us to implicate that this is very important for every person who lives here.

This cleaning action was also deemed  by all media as a very successful activity, at first for mobilizing all these people  to clean the community where they live,  for the strong message that was sent to everyone, and also making this activity, very special because it is the only activity which gathered all citizens and their political leaders, regardless of party.

This first photograph is from Kayseri. Young TEMAs after Natural Hero’s education program which supported under Step to save the World Project.

Second photograph is from Ankara. Here are Young TEMAs during the Natural Heroes education program.

The last photo of the week is from Istanbul. This photo was taken during a get together event for TEMAs dear Coordinator Melike who is leaving TEMA as an employee. This photo will stay in TEMAs minds and hearts as reminiscence forever.

On the 5th of June 2014, in the framework of ENV.net project, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (ENV.net team Serbia), Serbian Chamber of Commerce, UNEP and Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Serbia are going to organise the tenth 10th Regional Conference EnE14 / ENV.net Conference.

Participation and support is already confirmed by almost 200 participants, including:  Irena Vojáčková – Sollorano (UN Resident Coordinator), Freek Janmaat (Head of European Integration and Economic Section, Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia), Stana Božović (State Secretary for Environment, Ministry for Agriculture and Environmental Protection), Filip Radović (Head of Serbian Environmental Protection Agency – Ministry for Agriculture and Environmental Protection), Aleksandar Dragišić (Head of Institute for nature conservation of Serbia), Rodolјub Šabić (The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data), Gabriela Bennemann (Head of department for economy and trade at the German Embassy in the Republic of Serbia), Arunas Kundrotas (Lithuanian former minister of environment), Christos Vlachokostas (University of Thessaloniki), Stevan Lilić (Public Policy Institute Podgorica/Beograd/Ljubljana), as well as Eptisa, Hemofarm, and JP Ada Ciganlija.

The thematic focus of the conference is Chapter 27 – EU integration in the sector Environment and Climate Change.

See the agenda of the conference.

On 24-25 of May 2014, under the subgrant awarded by ENV.net in Albania , Ekolevizja performed its first installation of a solar panel kit in a house in Qarrisht village in the district of Librazhd to provide sufficient electric energy for lighting for 4 LED lamps, mobile phone charge and radio. in the following week other houses will be provided with these solar panel kits.

In the framework of the project “Raising public awareness about renewable energy” implemented by Aarhus Information Center in Vlora city as a sub-grant, it has recently promoted an add ) on potential of renewable energy sources in the south part of Albania.

Aarhus Information Center in Vlora has started recently its tour of roundtables in three of the main cities in the south part of the country (Himara, Saranda and Orikum) which will be concluded in 5th of June in Orikum roundtable.

See the add produced below:

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