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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Joint action crucial for successful response to climate change

Belgrade/Katowice, 3 December 2018

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stressed today at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Katowice that climate change is an issue that one country cannot solve alone, saying that cooperation is a condition for a positive result.

During her address to the participants of the meeting, Brnabic expressed her concern about the impact of climate change on our environment, and especially pointed out the uncertainty of its impact on people's lives in the future.

We must be united – whether we belong to industrially developed countries, whether we are a territorially small or large state, whether in transition or not. This is a topic that does not concern national or religious affiliation, political and personal affinities – this is the question of all of us, the people who inhabit the planet Earth, the Prime Minister said.

She stressed that Serbia is clearly committed to all initiatives of this kind, which means that it works immediately, and reminded that our country in the recent past really felt the effects of climate change.

She said that the May 2014 floods as well as last year's droughts affected the national GDP, Serbia's trade exchange and, accordingly, the living standard of the population.

The Prime Minister stated that environmental protection is one of the most important issues in the process of Serbia's accession to the European Union, which requires far the most investments – more than €15 billion.

In the past, environmental protection was not on the list of Serbia's priorities. In the past four years, we have carried out difficult and unpopular fiscal consolidation measures that have enabled us to have a stable financial system today, which rests on healthy grounds and gives us the opportunity to invest in other areas, such as ecology or renewable energy sources, Brnabic pointed out.

According to Brnabic, some of the steps Serbia will take immediately is the adoption of the Law on Climate Change and Low Carbon Strategy, as well as the start of the implementation of concrete projects that our country will present in the course of 2019.

She explained that all these measures, with a higher level of environmental protection as a basic motive, would point Serbia towards a new direction of further economic and social development.

Development based on innovation, knowledge and clean energy sources is something we create in Serbia, and such strategies and laws will definitely help this process and will have a double benefit for our citizens, she said.

Brnabic said that Serbia is ready and committed to protecting the environment, and looks forward to continued work with the United Nations, the European Union, and with all the individual countries that share the same vision.

On the margins of the conference, the Prime Minister also met with presidents of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen and Bulgaria Rumen Radev, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and World Bank Director Kristaline Georgiev.

Today, in Katowice, the Silesian Declaration on Solidarity and Fair Transition has been adopted.