Gas emission in Serbia to drop 9.8% by 2030

Serbia is ready to make a contribution to the global fight for the reduction of risk from climate changes, which is why it has adopted the National Plan, according to which the emission of greenhouse gases should be voluntarily reduced by 9.8% against the level from 1990, Agriculture and Environmental Protection Minister Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic said Thursday.

She told a conference on climate changes in the Palace of Serbia that after all relevant institutions had given their consent to the National Plan, it had been adopted by the Serbian government on Thursday and should be submitted to the Secretariat of the Convention within the next few days.

She noted that Serbia was the first country in the region to make voluntary projections of gas emission reduction, adding that it used that approach to make a contribution to the global fight against climate changes that had adverse effect on people's health, economy and other segments of the state.

- Although Serbia is a developing country and has no large emission of harmful gases, we wanted to contribute to the forthcoming UN conference on climate change in Paris, which we hope to be successful and expect an agreement to be reached on that occasion - said Bogosavljevic Boskovic.

She noted that Serbia was already facing the consequences of climate changes, stressing that the first estimates showed that material damages caused by extreme climate and weather conditions since 2000 exceeded EUR 5 billion with the losses and damages caused by drought and high temperatures accounting for more than 70%.

- Last year's floods alone caused damages estimated at over EUR 1.7 billion and endangered the lives, health, property of more than 1.6 million people - said Bogosavljevic Boskovic.

As she underlined, these are only some of the reasons for Serbia's committment to the global fight against climate changes.