WATER
Challenges of Climate Change: FYR Macedonia is already experiencing moderate water stress. Water consumers – irrigation, municipal and industrial users, and the power sector – are facing seasonal water shortages. The consequences include agricultural yields below those in similar countries, poor quality water for municipal and industrial users, insufficient quantity to thermal generation plants for cooling, and a low capacity factor of hydro-power generation. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: The overall demand-supply gap in the water sector must be managed in all water-using sectors, with a big emphasis on improving efficiency and strengthening conservation. For example, the growing scarcity of water can be addressed by reducing inefficiencies through pricing and regulation of groundwater, and through rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure. Read More
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AGRICULTURE
Challenges of Climate Change: Although agriculture does not contribute much to the overall emissions in FYR Macedonia, its high share in the economy, the sectoral inefficiencies and limited water availability make the country highly vulnerable to climate change. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: A more competitive, export-oriented agriculture sector in future decades will be possible only if adequate policies and investments are implemented to contain irrigation demand while improving irrigation and overall sector efficiency and resiliency. Read More
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ENERGY
Challenges of Climate Change: Electricity demand has exceeded supply for a decade, and 50% of the current energy base is made up of domestic lignite, which will be fully exploited within the next 30-45 years. More and cleaner generation is needed to avoid blackouts and expensive imports. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: Aggressive development of gas supply is recommended such that gas completely replaces lignite once the existing lignite plants reach the end of their economic life. This shift implies construction of new gas generation plants, a new cross-border gas pipe line, new transmission and distribution lines, and new gas supply infrastructure. Read More
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TRANSPORT
Challenges of Climate Change: The transport sector is the second highest emitter in FYR Macedonia, producing about 14.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The sector is also emissions-intensive compared with other countries in the region. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: There are many possibilities that FYR Macedonia can embrace. The Fuel Efficiency package delivers the highest benefits and is most cost efficient. Read More
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AIR POLLUTION
Challenges of Climate Change: Air pollution in the country is among the highest in Europe and the particulate matter (PM) in the air is responsible for over 1350 deaths (5th highest in Europe) and thousands of lost workdays annually, representing an economic cost of €253 mil. annually or 3.2 % of GDP. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: Reducing air pollution will not only protect human health, but also provide large local co-benefits. Given that over 90% of PM emissions are from metallurgy, electricity and heat production, asphalt mixing in road paving, and household wood burning, actions targeted at these sources should be prioritized. Read More
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URBAN
Challenges of Climate Change: FYR Macedonia’s cities, especially Skopje, are sprawling, losing density and adding to their share of per capita emissions. The main sources of increased urban emissions are the growing number of urban single family houses that use wood for heating and cooking, and the growing number of private cars for commuting. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: More than two-thirds of FYR Macedonia’s population resides in cities, and rural-to-urban migration is rising. To harness their potential to achieve improved growth coupled with reduced emissions, cities should focus on urban form and local service delivery. Read More
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INFRASTRUCTURE
Challenges of Climate Change: Vulnerability of infrastructure to weather is rising significantly because of climate change, including risks to power plants and transmission lines, telephone lines, roads, rail, airports, ports, water/sewer infrastructure, hospitals, health facilities, school buildings, municipal infrastructure, and urban storm water drainage. Read More
Opportunities for Green Actions: Countries with climate-resilient infrastructure that can reduce and sustain weather shocks have much lower costs of the after-shock recovery and are able to implement actions needed for the recovery in a timely fashion. Read More
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GREENER ECONOMIC GROWTH
Public investment choices on green actions can be guided by findings generated by macroeconomic modelling. Analysis shows that the impact on GDP differs across climate action measures. Among mitigation measures, those aimed at increasing energy efficiency have stronger positive effects driven by savings on energy. Less energy use means more resources available for other sectors. Read More
