May the 29th, 2023 - Could the territory of the Republic of Croatia and its immediate surroundings become an arid, hostile semi-desert in the future as a result of climate change? Dunja Mazzocco Drvar of the Directorate for Climate Activities at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development believes so.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Dunja Mazzocco Drvar, the director of the Directorate for Climate Activities at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, recently commented on what awaits the Republic of Croatia in the future when it comes to the ever-pressing threat of climate change.

"We're moving more and more quickly towards Croatia becoming a semi-arid, semi-desert area, because it's located in the Mediterranean which is an area that particularly feels climate changes when they occur, and generally much more strongly than the global average.

Droughts have already become a very big problem here. We have a situation in which 30 percent of our damages caused by climate and weather extremes are due to droughts, which shows that this is the form the weather disaster with which we already have the most problems.

Immediately after the drought comes the flood. This is what is the key when it comes to climate change, these strong extremes, we've had the opportunity to see what these floods can be like and we can now clearly see that we will have more and more problems with them going forward. After a year that's been extremely dry like last year, it isn't at all surprising that one like this will follow that is extremely rainy," explained Dunja Mazzoco Drvar for N1, referencing the droughts of 2022 and the terrible situation much of the country and nearby Italy has suffered recently owing to very high water levels and flooding.

She also commented on Croatia's climate ambitions and aims, and says that most of the work is currently being done on the adoption of new European Union legislation.

"We'll soon be done with that, now, one by one, these regulations are being passed, and then the next step will be the introduction of these new regulations into the new European climate package Fit for 55 into Croatian national legislation. This will then mean that not only laws and regulations must be passed, but that some kind of implementation mechanisms should also be set up, and we have a long way to go to achieve what we set out to do with the European Green Plan, to turn it into a real action, that is, to legislate it," she concluded.

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January the 10th, 2023 - The Croatian city of Karlovac (close to Zagreb) has become one of the very first cities in all of Europe to boast an impressive low-carbon district of its own.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, to be more specific, the Regional Energy Agency of Northwest Croatia (REGEA) was one of the partners in the Interreg Europe LC DISTRICTS project, which gave life to Karlovac becoming one of the first cities in Europe of this kind.

The goal of the project was to intervene in the selected strategic document in order to take a step towards the decarbonisation of city districts as we move towards a greener future. As was pointed out, in partnership with the City of Karlovac, the aforementioned agency managed to tale a significant step forward in the overall decarbonisation process by dealing with energy and climate elements in spatial plans.

A brave political decision

"In cooperation with the cities of Northwestern Croatia, with the City of Karlovac as a leader, we recognised spatial plans as one of the key policy documents that can be a trigger or a brake on the decarbonisation of neighbourhoods and cities. Spatial plans are in firmly the hands of local and regional authorities and can be considered as a tool to encourage this transition. Together with the city officials, we decided to develop a plan for a district that will be sustainable, energy efficient and resistant to climate change," they stated from REGEA, headed by director Julije Domac, adding that choosing to head down this particular path was a brave political decision because it meant a sharp change in the current practice. REGEA made all the necessary analyses and suggested how the measures that already existed in the action plans for energy sustainable development and adaptation to climate change (SECAP) of the City of Karlovac should be implemented in the overall spatial plan.

The pilot project itself was designed for the area of the Luscic Urban Development Plan zone. After the initial analyses, REGEA proposed a series of measures to ensure the low-carbon development of the district and its resistance to the effects of climate change to the local powers that be in Karlovac. A process of change followed, in which all city offices, city-owned companies, the academic and business community, non-governmental organisations and individuals were involved.

The result of the process was a spatial plan that was approved by the City Council and which, as the first in all of Croatia, and probably among the first in Europe, paves the way for the sustainability and resistance of a neighbourhood to the constant threat of climate change.

Some of the key features of the wider Karlovac plan are a complete ban on fossil fuels for heating purposes - no natural gas network is foreseen, energy for heating will only come from district heating or heat pumps (which is currently above the national standard in the use of renewable energy sources), and nature-based solutions regarding adaptation to climate change will be encouraged. All of this was done by REGEA in cooperation with the City of Karlovac as part of the wider European LC District project.

Cooperation with ministries

Participation in the LC Districts project enabled the REGEA team to gain insight into good practices from Sweden, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. Karlovac, led by Mayor Damir Mandic, therefore represents a pioneering venture here in the Republic of Croatia and will serve as an example of decarbonisation for other city districts throughout the country.

REGEA is now working with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Construction to help them implement the steps learned during this process into strategic documents with the aim of facilitating the energy transition, adapting to the effects of climate change and increasing the resilience of local or regional self-government units.

"Even though this may only be a small step at the level of the overall work which lies ahead of us, it's certainly a big one, as it represents the first successful implementation of decarbonisation in a spatial plan", they concluded from REGEA.

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August the 21st, 2022 - As fires continue to rage across Europe, with even colder countries like the United Kingdom having been the frequent victim of what are, in that country, freak incidents involving wildfires, Croatia is no exception. According to one expert, 71% more Croatian wildfires have broken out in 2022 than back in 2021.

As Morski writes, the Croatian coast is a victim of wildfires every summer, but this year has caused concern among those who follow such situations. In an interview with HTV 4 recently, chief fire commander Slavko Tucakovic assessed this summer as having, at least so far, been quite exhausting for fire brigades, due to the large number of Croatian wildfires, prolonged periods of drought and horrifically high temperatures.

''This year we've had as many as 71 percent more fires compared to last year, and as for the burnt areas, they're 170 percent larger this year,'' he stated.

Over the last month, there were no less than 30 outdoor fires, and on one day as many as 84 Croatian wildfires were recorded. With exceptional efforts with the help of the air force, they were all brought under control very quickly. Only a couple of days ago there were 40 active Croatian wildfires raging, but the current situation is good, it's stable, calm and under control,'' assured Tucakovic, noting that this year a firefighter tragically died near Orasac close to Dubrovnik, as did a civilian on the island of Hvar. He once again called on people to follow all of the proper instructions in regard to fires.

Mines which are still sitting under the ground are also a particular problem for Croatian wildfires

When extinguishing the fires in more rural, difficult to access areas of scrubland, firefighters are worryingly still coming across remaining mines, which poses an additional, potentially extremely serious problem.

When asked whether at the end of this year's summer tourist season, someone should be held responsible for all of the problems which arose from slow canadair repairs and the like, Tucakovic replied that he can only say that a complete analysis of all of the interventions will be carried out, everything will be put down on paper and preparations for the next fire season will begin immediately. He also referred to the potentially devastating crime of arson, praising the police for doing their job very well, given the fact that a large number of criminals were discovered and dealt with this year as well.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

21 March 2022 - International Forest Day, 21 March, this year focuses on the theme "Forests and sustainable production and consumption", to warn that forest renewal and sustainable management helps fight climate change and crises that occur due to the loss of biodiversity. 

Forests are threatened by climate change, wildfires, water disruptions, bacteria, fungi, and air, soil and water pollution.

Globally, the loss of forests will continue due to climate change despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is why sustainably managed forests fulfil all generally useful functions and produce goods and services for the integral sustainable development of communities.

The Hrvatske Šume state-owned forest management company notes that there is no fear of forest loss in Croatia because the country manages its forests and forest land in a sustainable way, in line with 10-year plans.

Wood resources are used to the extent that does not threaten the survival of forests, which is why in Croatia fewer trees are felled annually than are planted, Hrvatske Šume notes.

Forests and forest land in Croatia account for 49.3% of the country's land area. Of that, 76% is owned by the state and 24% by private forest owners.

Forests in Croatia 95% natural

The main trait of Croatian forests is that they are 95% natural, unlike many European forests that have been turned into plantations and monocultures.

"That is why Croatia's natural forests are admired by Europeans and that is why they are home to numerous rare plant species and the three largest European predators -  the brown bear, the wolf, and the lynx," Hrvatske Šume says.

A report on the state of nature in Croatia for the period from 2013 to 2017 shows that 98.88% of forests are excellently or well preserved.

Private forest owners, however, warn that the EU is 'punishing' Croatia for the good state of its forests and that its strategies, which are based on the EU Green Deal, will negatively affect forest management sustainability because they give priority to the environmental aspect over the economic and social aspects, which, they say, will cause a drop in production and loss of jobs in the sector.

February the 12th, 2022 - Could Croatian cities ever become flood resistant and be able to be managed entirely digitally? It seems that the future will require that as climate change and the digital transformation play ever bigger roles in our lives.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although experts at the global level cannot all totally agree on the dynamics and scale of climate change that will affect the Earth and human society as we go forward, it is undeniable that the climate is changing and that there are growing dangers from natural disasters each and every year.

While estimates of what will happen at the global level are mostly of a principled nature, at the micro level, so when speaking about a particular region or city, there is a very significant need to make and test out vulnerability models.

This was the topic of the recently held hybrid conference of the Association of Cities - Energy Sustainable Islands. Sanja Polonijo, an expert in communal economy, pointed out that natural extremes - cold, heat, storms, torrential floods and sea changes - are becoming more frequent and having longer lasting effects.

"The Mediterranean is warming 20 percent faster than the rest of the world is, and by the year 2040 its average temperature is expected to rise by 2.2 degrees Celsius. Projections also say that by the year 2100, the sea level will rise from anywhere between 65 and 110 centimetres.

"It is expected that floods, at least as of 2050, may become common annual occurrences, and most of the city's communal infrastructure has been built for old sea levels," Polonijo said.

She explained that the city's infrastructure must, except through the traditional approach of the so-called Grey infrastructure, which includes a quality water supply and drainage network, be based on the so-called ''green and blue infrastructure'' that represents an interdisciplinary approach that mimics the hydrological regime. This means that Croatian cities, many of them not just aged but ancient, will certainly need to adapt.

In this way, the problems that arise are solved in the long run - for example, if the drainage systems are made for rain, and the sea level rises near them, then seawater enters the entire system.

There has been a proposition of models for cities where impermeable surfaces would be transformed into permeable ones through tree lines, green roofs and walls, rain gardens and bioretencies. In this way, problems with rising temperatures during the hot summer months can be more easily solved, as those temperatures can be 10 degrees higher in Croatian cities than in the quieter suburbs.

"The most endangered areas with very little greenery can be ''greened up'' through a so-called urban heat island - planted trees provide shade, protection from the wind, shade for buildings, a cooling effect with evaporation, reduce flood risk and even lessen the noise.

Professor Mario Vasak from the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing warned of the importance of digital transformation of Croatian cities to become Smart Cities because it will be much easier to respond to the challenges posed by climate change, but also social and market changes.

It is necessary to make some decisions even before the start of investments in terms of building management - what capacity of the solar power possibilities to choose for a particular building, what should the capacity of the tank be, how we can plan water pumping in advance, how much flexibility to offer consumers... the whole building management system can take place in real time and act in accordance with our current needs,'' said Vasak.

He added that all this will lead to reduced operating costs, higher energy efficiency and increased levels of user comfort. “Perhaps the best example is the FER building, which covers an area of ​​about 10,000 square metres and has 248 offices and where IT has been implemented all of the existing building's automation system. After the introduction of the system, heating costs fell by 10 percent, from 336.9 euros to 302.6 euros per day, and for cooling, costs fell by as much as 18 percent, from 176.6 euros per day to 144.8 euros,'' said Vasak.

He added that similar models can be set up for larger units, such as streets, neighbourhoods or entire Croatian cities through Smart City solutions, and the fastest to implement and the greatest current effects are modernisation and the proper management of public lighting.

For more, check our our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 13 Nov, 2021 - About 300 people marched through central Zagreb on Friday evening calling on the government to finally start acting on climate change by closing down the coal-fired thermal power plant Plomin.

The Climate March for Survival was organised by the youth initiative Fridays for Future Croatia and Extinction Rebellion Zagreb, which are part of the global movement to protect life on Earth. The march was organised on the last day of the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow.

Demonstrators carried placards saying "Time is running out", "Systemic change, not climate change", "Shorten the working week", "Wellbeing, not profit", "Healthy environment, not profit" and "If the planet was a bank, you would have saved it already."

"The purpose of this campaign is to send a message to the Croatian government to start acting on the climate emergency. We will present three demands and the first one is the urgent closure of Plomin, the only active coal-fired thermal power plant in Croatia which has absolutely no grounds to continue operating," Leonarda Šmigmator of Fridays for Future Croatia told the press.

"It is interesting that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced at the COP26 conference in Glasgow that Plomin would be closed down as late as 2033, while at the same time 40 countries pledged to stop using coal as an energy source. This means that Croatia is lagging behind again," she said, adding that Plomin workers should be allowed to retrain for work in other industries.

Šmigmator pointed out that the march participants demand that the climate change issue should be included in primary and secondary school curricula and that the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development should start communicating with scientists and involving them in its decisions.

Commenting on COP26, she said that the conference has disappointed everyone and that great expectations have not been fulfilled.

Among the marchers were Workers Front MP Katarina Peović with her daughter, trade union leader Krešimir Sever with  his son, New Left member of the Zagreb City Council Rada Borić, ombudsman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, presidential adviser on energy and climate Julije Domac, and Nikola Briškov from the Scientists for Climate initiative and ambassador and EU Climate Pact ambassador.

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ZAGREB, 12 Nov 2021  -  As many as 64% of respondents in Croatia support stricter government measures that will make people change their behaviour in an attempt to overcome climate crisis, according to a survey conducted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in cooperation with the BVA pollster.

The opinion polls show that 64% of the respondents in Croatia are in favour of "strict government measures imposing changes on people’s behaviour to fight climate change," while 70% of EU citizens and 73% of Britons are also in favour of such measures.

Furthermore, 78% of Croatians welcome the adoption of a tax on products and services that contribute most to global warming, according to the results of the fourth EIB Climate Survey conducted among more than 30,000 respondents in 30 countries from 26 August to 22 September this year.

In Croatia, three quarters of the respondents believe that climate change and its consequences are the biggest challenge in this century. Also, 85% believe they are more concerned about the climate emergency than their government.

Furthermore, 84% of the Croatians believe that climate change affects their everyday lives, and 81% are in favour of using renewable energy to help overcome the climate emergency, as against the EU average of 63%.

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ZAGREB, 11 Nov, 2021 - Croatia ranks 28th in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) for 2022, slipping 10 places from last year, while Denmark, Sweden and Norway top the ranking.

Croatia adopted its national long-term strategies in June 2021. The country continues to rely on fossil fuels and is the only EU member state without a clear coal phase-out plan. Overall, the CCPI experts do not see Croatia’s targets as sufficient, the Croatian Society For Sustainable Development Design (DOOR) said in a statement on Thursday.

Success in climate change action is assessed in four categories, and Croatia scored poorly in two of them - greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. It scored high on renewable energy and achieved medium success in the climate policy category.

Croatia placed 11th on the use of renewable energy sources, reflecting a general trend of increasing the installation of systems using renewables in the public and private sector. It ranked 26th on climate policy.

No country performs well enough in all index categories to achieve an overall very high rating, CCPI said.

Denmark is this year's top performer, thanks to a considerable reduction in the use of coal over the past 20 years and a shift to renewable energy sources, which now account for 30 per cent of its energy supply. 

In Europe, the worst performers are Hungary (53rd), Poland (52nd), the Czech Republic (51st) and Slovenia (50th). Globally, Australia, one of the biggest coal exporters in the world, ranked 58th.

The Netherlands is among the countries with the biggest improvements, climbing up 10 spots to 19th place, while Norway is the first country to receive a very high rating in the renewable energy category.  

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ZAGREB, 1 Nov 2021 - Climate change must become the main political topic, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at a UN conference on climate change in Glasgow on Monday.

The two-week COP26 conference brought together 120 state leaders expected to agree on new initiatives on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing down the temperature increase.

"This must become one of our main political topics," Plenković said, adding that Croatia "is not a problem" because it has the fourth-lowest harmful gas emissions per capita in Europe.

"The problem is the big countries whose industry, traffic, and agriculture contribute a lot to carbon dioxide emissions," said Plenković, who will address the conference on Tuesday.

He said he saw the conference as a way to raise awareness of climate change, notably among the young population which "deserves a future" such as the one older generations had.

Plenković said the current political generation had the responsibility to take a step forward when it came to climate change and that the leaders who came to Glasgow were aware of the climate emergency. 

"It's something that's here, before us," he said, adding that politicians "didn't come to walk around Glasgow but to make a contribution."

He said it was "a pity" that representatives of China and Russia were not present, adding that "they have their policies" on attending international conferences in times of COVID-19.

On the fringes of the conference, Plenković met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

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Aug 5, 2021 -The salty Adriatic Sea became saltier in 2017, and even in 2021, the salinity levels are the highest ever recorded, warns the Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB).

With known salty areas such as Pag, you would expect the Adriatic sea to be very salty, and it is. However, over the years, it has become even saltier, as the Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) stated.

As the IRB wrote in a press release, a Croatian scientific team collaborating with their Italian colleagues published a study that shows so far unrecorded levels of salinity in the Adriatic. Their work was published in the prestigious Frontiers in Marine Science Magazine titled ''Observation, Preconditioning, and Recurrence of Exceptionally High Salinities in the Adriatic Sea“.

As the IRB explained, it was in 2017 around Palagruža where the Adriatic sea's salinity reached a record of 39.1 per mille.

''In addition, with minor oscillations, the high salinity in the first 200 metres of depth was kept within the central part of the southern Adriatic, and it has remained the case until today. For example, at this moment, the salinity levels in the central part of the southern Adriatic is over 38.8 per mille in the whole water gauge, and 39.15 per mille by the surface,'' added the IRB.

This measurement was the lead for the scientists to conduct further research that incorporated various available data acquired via multiparameter probes, autonomous ARGO buoys, remote-controlled submarines, and satellites that measure sea level's surface. The data from an oceanographic model of the Mediterranean sea (which combines satellite and other measures, thus giving the most quality 3D view of the oceanographic field) was also used.

Sure enough, the salinity rise has been explained. On one hand, the enhanced flow from the Middle East and the Ionian sea are to blame, but on the other, there are changes in the Adriatic sea itself.

''The processes (in the Adriatic sea) occur on a scale of several days to a decade, and have four key elements,'' they explained from IRB.

The first one concerns Adriatic-Ionian bi-modal oscillation affecting physical and biogeochemical conditions in the Adriatic through a period of 5-10 years, which, in the last decade, has caused a serious influx of salt and oligotrophic waters (waters which are too low in nutrients to support life).

The second process concerns low river flows due to the low amount of rainfall, while the third process concerns the enhanced amount of solar energy on the sea's surface during summer and early autumn. Finally, with the weather warmer than average and with very little wind, the water gauge is divided into the hotter surface level and colder central and bottom levels. This leads to the fourth process that includes vaporising and the loss of water from the sea surface.

''Three out of four of the aforementioned processes have already been documented in the Mediterranean as a consequence of climate change that in the future will bring warmer, drier summers and as a consequence, more heat and the higher salinity of the sea surface,'' they warned from IRB. They added that this is a threat to marine life which depends on the temperature, the level of salinity, and other factors that will be sabotaged with these changes.

With the Adriatic sea and its marine life being one of the treasures Croatia has, the global response to climate change must start giving results as fast as possible, and Croatia cannot afford to miss out on contributing for the sake of the country and the world in general.

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