National energy and climate planning approach for the Western Balkans: case study Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Just in the immediate neighborhood of European Union (EU), Western Balkan (WB) countries are lagging behind in the energy transition regardless technological advances and policy instruments available. EU recently created a momentum for the energy transition acceleration with the European Green Deal, which is forwarded to the WB through the Energy Community secretariat and in general, the response in the form of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) is expected in the short to midterm. Recently presented the new Republic of Serbia’s Low Carbon Development Strategy with Action plan (LEDS) will be analyzed, commented and improvements suggested for the acceleration of the energy transition, based on the newest findings from the simulation-based optimization techniques using the sectors coupling approach. Furthermore, integrated assessment modeling (IAM) techniques, exploring the climate and energy cross impacts with the more details will be included. The purpose of the research is to provide the decision makers in the WB with the best available insights regarding sustainable energy systems, and citizens of the WB with better chance to benefit from adoption of these strategies in just transit ion.