Energy and Climate Change in Europe & CIS

FYR Macedonia launches strategy to attract climate-friendly investment

Macedonia is joining global efforts to meet the climate change challenge with a national strategy to attract investment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage sustainable development.

The strategy, developed with the support of UNDP, enables Macedonia’s participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). One of the flexible mechanisms introduced by the Kyoto Protocol to tackle climate change, CDM offers industrialized countries the possibility of supplementing their domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions by reducing the emissions of developing countries.

This gives developing countries the opportunity to attract investment for sustainable, environmentally friendly development.

Macedonia, despite suffering a significant economic downturn in the 1990s, has one of the highest levels of GHG emissions per unit of GDP in Central and Eastern Europe. Such high “carbon intensity” presents a damning picture of Macedonia’s unsustainable energy sector, which contributes some 70% of the total emissions - but it also indicates the potential to achieve big reductions at a low cost, making the country an attractive candidate for CDM.

The energy sector in particular is ripe for investment: the country relies heavily on coal- and lignite-based thermal power, and CDM projects to develop efficient and renewable energy generation could offer investors quick wins.

The national strategy outlines the course of action for Macedonia to take advantage of CDM opportunities, including: identifying priority areas for projects; setting up the country’s designated national authority under the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, which will establish the rules for CDM projects and grant approvals; and building up both national private- and public-sector capacity to participate in CDM.

Macedonia’s CDM strategy for the 2008-2012 period was officially presented on 23 February in capital Skopje, with Maria Luisa Silva Mejias, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative, and high-level government officials attending.

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