The purpose of this paper is to account for how local governments and citizens perceive sustainable development in Kosovo and explore bottlenecks and opportunities they face in this regard. A combination of document analysis and information gained through public debates shows that local governments are in a favorable position to respond to and address today’s local development challenges in Kosovo. Findings indicate that local governments can play a vital role in educating, mobilizing, and responding to citizens to promote overall sustainable development in the longer term, albeit a relatively new concept in Kosovo.
This issue of Perspectives is dedicated to climate change mitigation in the Western Balkans, because of both the global need to limit global warming but also because mitigating climate change, as the articles show, goes hand in hand with development both in terms of economic growth and in terms of health, wellbeing and societal development.
With this context in mind, the articles before you shed light upon some of the commonly overlooked aspects of it but also point to solutions which are good starting points for any future changes in how we think of energy, development, and public good more broadly.
The report Chapter 27 in Serbia: No-Progress Report deals with the key events in the areas of environment and climate change (Chapter 27 in the EU accession negotiations) in the Republic of Serbia in the period from November 2017 to February 2018. The report assesses those events and makes recommendations for strengthening the process of transposition and implementation of the EU legislation covered by this chapter.
The European Energy Atlas shows a clear alternative: It not only provides a compass on the different energy discussions in different Member States but also reveals how a Europeanization of the energy transition will be the more efficient and cost-effective option for all Europeans.
Coalition 27's analysis of environmental and climate change policy in the Republic of Serbia highlights a wide range of serious challenges in all areas - horizontal legislation, air quality, water quality, nature protection, industrial pollution, chemicals management, climate change and financing of environmental protection.
It seems as though the term citizen does not need a specific explanation. It is an inhabitant of a certain country or a city, a person with legally recognized citizenship, who pays taxes and fulfills their obligations to the community, and enjoys certain rights in return. But how often is that really the case? How many citizens in the world can say that they are true citizens according to this definition? Given the current global situation, not many. In this issue of “Perspectives”, our focus is on citizens and cities in the Western Balkans.
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