August 12 (SeeNews) - Serbia will adopt a climate change law by the end of the year as it faces damages from global warming worth billions of euro, environment minister Goran Trivan has said.
The floods and droughts in recent years have affected Serbia's agriculture and electricity production and the country needs to invest in prevention of damage from climate change instead of fighting the consequences, Trivan said in a government press release on Sunday.
The climate change law would contribute to enhancing control of greenhouse gas emissions, Trivan said.
Serbia's government has afforested about 700 hectares of land in the area of Belgrade in the last two years, as afforestation is the simplest, cheapest and most effective way to combat climate change, he added.
In December, prime minister Ana Brnabic said Serbia needs to invest 15 billion euro ($17 billion) in environmental projects to address one of the most important issues in the process of its accession to the European Union. Some of the steps Serbia will take immediately include adoption of laws on climate change and a low-carbon development strategy, as well as to launch environmental projects in 2019, Brnabic said back then.
The total damage caused by extreme climate and weather events in Serbia since 2000 exceeds 5 billion euro and more than 70% of the losses are associated with drought and high temperatures. The second major cause of significant losses were floods, according to data from Serbia's Climate Change and Action Plan.
($ = 0.894817 euro)