Kosovo is among other countries in the Western Balkans that will not meet the European Green Deal Agenda.
Buletini Ekonomik
Besides North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, other countries in the Western Balkans will find it difficult to meet the objectives of the European Union Green Deal, stated Janez Kopac, the head of Energy Community Secretariat.
The Energy Community is an international organisation which brings together the European Union and its neighbours to create an integrated pan-European energy market.
During an online conference held in November, introducing the annual report on monitoring the implementation of European regulations on energy, Kopac warned that the region will not meet the European Green Deal objectives with the current policies.
“I think that North Macedonia and Montenegro will succeed in meeting the European agenda because they will run out of the coal reserves, and Albania surely will meet the criteria,” Kopaz said. “However, if Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia do not start to implement carbon tax, they will not reach the objective until 2050,” stated Kopac.
The ECS annual report covered Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine between November 2020 to November 2021.
The report praised Kosovo for fostering policies on clean energy and delays to construct another new coal-fired power plant. Nevertheless, the report highlighted that renewable energy production still stands at a low level. Kosovo’s energy production is almost fully dependent on the use of lignite.
The report also emphasised that Kosovo is not connected with any natural gas pipeline.
During a summit held in Sofia, Bulgaria in November 2020, the Western Balkans countries signed the Declaration of the Green Agenda for Western Balkans. The Western Balkans leaders committed to transform their energy sector to carbon-neutral by 2050.
For Kopac, the main challenges to green transition in the Western Balkans remains the non-implementation of the carbon tax for carbon emissions and state subsidies for the use of coal.
