Despite its unique landscapes, the topography of the region makes the Western Balkans Six (WB6) a hotspot of climate change. The failure to prioritise  the urgency of climate change is evident in the increased number of severe meteorological and hydrological events all around the region. Manifested through natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides, projections show that such severe events will substantially increase in the coming years. Air pollution remains the highest in Europe. 

The region has joined global efforts to control the planet’s temperature and prevent it from getting warmer, through the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans (GAWB), a commitment deriving from the Western Balkans Sofia Summit of 2020, with the overarching goal of addressing climate change and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. As a rather ambitious plan, its implementation has been embedded in the Economic and Investment Plan (EIP) for the WB6. Furthermore, in the 2023 Berlin Process Summit in Tirana, the Regional Climate Partnership was established between the region and Germany to support the green transition. Most recently, the Growth Plan required the countries in the region to implement reforms related to the energy and green transition in their Reform Agendas developed under this instrument.

Challenges arise when it comes to implementation. 

EBRD’s transition report findings are not very encouraging when it comes to the green transition, suggesting that WB countries are not keeping up with the eleven EU member states in Central Eastern Europe in terms of the green aspects of a sustainable market economy.

Climate change is not an isolated issue. 

The advancement of the GAWB projects is hampered by the lack of a horizontal action plan that brings together different sectors to ensure the impact is consistent and not project-based. Currently, only 2 out of 6 WB countries have adopted their integrated National Energy and Climate Plans under the Green Agenda for the WB6.

Financial assistance for development is overtaken by infrastructure projects.

Only 2 out of 24 endorsed projects under the Economic and Investment Plan, from 2 out of the 6 WB countries, fall under the Environment and Climate Section, which is equal to €212,3 million out of €3,4 billion approved investments. 

The convergence becomes challenging when the EU standards do not match those in the region.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will soon (2026) become a definitive regime in the EU markets; a standard that is difficult to be met by the WB6 region, which remains underprepared for this regime, with no appropriate meetings and discussions taking place with the private sector who need to understand the new obligations for the products they export to the EU.

Innovation is still hindered by bureaucratic procedures, lack of data and understanding of sustainability.

14 out of 24 endorsed projects under the EIP fall under the Sustainable Transport Section. However, adopting cleaner transport technologies remains challenging due to the lack of legal framework (e.g. none of the countries have adopted the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Directive), the lack of demand for such types of infrastructure (e.g. the deployment of Electronic Vehicle Charging Stations on the TEN-T road network in the region remains uneven among the countries), lack of project proposals from the governments that clearly state how such technologies would be adopted in these infrastructure projects, etc.

Preparation for future climate risks is missing, hence increasing the region’s vulnerability.

The development of early warning systems is missing in most of the countries in the region. Such an issue is mostly attributed to the lack of capacities and capacities to formulate emergency responses. Currently, only 3 out of 6 WB6 countries (Albania, Montenegro and Serbia) have concrete plans to strengthen their early warning systems.

Financial needs and realities in the area of climate and environment are not meeting one another.

According to the World Bank Country Climate and Development Report, damages from climate risks in the WB6 can be alleviated with an estimated $34,9 billion in investments. In the meantime, the EU Growth Plan has set high ambitions, such as potentially doubling the size of the WB6 countries within the next 10 years with a budget of €6 billion to be spent within 2024 - 2027. 

Throughout different project phases, there is a heavy reliance on external assistance. 

Such reliance reduces the appeal for foreign direct investments and obstructs the growth of trust from outside donors. Although FDIs are increasing, they remain significantly low in the areas of climate and environment and are mostly used for political influence from countries like China and Russia in a region that is following the EU accession path.

Needless to say, EU integration continues to be an important driver behind the reforms and developments in the region. Yet, the rush to fulfil the criteria and accelerate the convergence has led to a short-term mindset of project implementation and policy design in the region. The environment appears as collateral damage to such a mindset. To address this challenge, it becomes imperative to utilise development assistance in formulating regional solutions rather than implementing individual initiatives. Closer partnerships with local governments and citizens could support more informed policy design, whereas partnerships with specialised think tanks, CSOs and the private sector could lead to more concrete and appealing project proposals.

Re-ACT Lab promotes research and innovation as a means to advance governmental and policy-making reforms in Kosovo and regionally.