Sustainability

The third Sustainability Forum took place under the auspices of the Energy Community in cooperation with Balkan Green Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation and The Nature Conservancy on 27 June 2019 in Vienna. Here is the Forum's agreed statement.

The success of the energy transition in the Western Balkans and Ukraine is a question of political will in those countries. But the EU can help set up the conditions for a successful modernization, writes Robert Sperfeld.

According to data obtained by the CINS, between 2013 and 2017, EPS was the primary recipient of state funds for electricity produced by small hydro, while in second place were companies owned by Nikola Petrović or his business partners, with more than €10 million in income. Petrović is a former director of “Elektromreža Srbije", and godfather to President  Aleksandar Vučić.  

Coalition 27's latest shadow report, entitled "No-Progress Report" calls for much higher investments, hence more political will in the field of environmental and climate policies. Serbia has yet to open negotiations on Chapter 27 of the EU accession process.

Almost every museum in Cape Town which in some way covers the period of apartheid includes among its exhibits a wooden bench with a variant of the sign “Whites Only” on it. This is no surprise, because these benches are a very vivid reminder of the brutal racial segregation which lasted in South Africa up to the mid-1990s. However, I was somewhat amazed that, in Cape Town today, there are almost no public benches, so that, if you want to sit down somewhere and have a rest in the city centre, you have to buy a coffee, a juice or a sandwich.

In the late 1990s, the scolding of the middle class had begun in the USA. Its lifestyle: too expensive, too wasteful, too costly. It used to live in cities. Now it lives 40 miles away, in the suburbs. One automobile used to suffice. Now there have to be 2, or more. The sizes of the living area, the energy consumption and the size of the properties have also multiplied – as have the debts.

Coalition 27 report on progress of Serbia in Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change, for 2015

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP 21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice (“system change, not climate change!”), the Paris Agreement can only be called a collective failure and disappointment. Read a critical assessment by hbs colleagues from around the world.

by Helena Stadtmüller

It is said that knowledge, besides capital, will become an increasingly significant production factor of the modern society.

Similar to some other countries, during the last couple of years Serbia, too, has been the scene of increasing debates about the problem of a fast debt growth and the possibility of the country being hit by debt crisis.