December 3 (SeeNews) - Serbia needs to invest 15 billion euro ($17 billion) in environmental projects to address one of the most important issues in the process of its accession to the European Union, prime minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday.
Serbia is already suffering from climate change, it was affected by floods in 2014 and by drought in 2017, and calls for action to cope with the climate problems, Brnabic said during the Katowice Climate Change Conference, according to a press release issued by the Serbian government.
Some of the steps Serbia will take immediately include adoption of laws on climate change and a low-carbon development strategy, as well as to launch environmental projects in 2019, Brnabic said.
The main objective of the participants in the event, which will include the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is to discuss ways to implement the provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2015.
The European Commission started negotiations with Serbia on the country's accession to the bloc in January 2014. The country has opened 14 chapters in the accessions process thus far, two of which have been closed, namely Chapter 25 - Science & Research and Chapter 26 - Education & Culture.
($ = 0.880995 euro)