ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - An online international conference on climate change was held in Kaštela, outside Split, on Tuesday to raise public awareness of the need to strengthen Croatia's capacity to deal with this matter.

The conference was organised by RERA, the public institution for coordination and development of Split-Dalmatia County as one of 11 partners in the EU project "Change We Care" between Croatia and Italy.

Croatia and Italy are to prepare joint projects to alleviate the consequences of climate change and include them in the new EU programming period 2021-2027.

Branka Pivčević Novak of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development stressed the importance of developing the first national action plan on climate change, saying that the modernisation of the national meteorological network in Croatia was very important.

Speaking online from Italy, the "Change We Care" project leader Davide Bonaldo said the project envisaged evaluating the current situation and newer trends in physical and ecological processes along the Adriatic coast, making projections of scenarios in climate change conditions, and identifying measures to adapt to climate change in five pilot areas.

Those are Vransko Jezero lake, the Neretva river delta, the Jadro river and the Kaštela Bay in Croatia, and Mula di Muggia and the Po river delta in Italy.

The end goal of the project is to establish adaptation measures to deal with climate change, Bonaldo said, adding that local communities would benefit the most.

Climate change affects the low-lying coastal area, which is urbanised, as well as the cultural heritage and tourism, so the goal of this plan is the implementation of an integral approach to the management of the Kaštela coastal area in the context of climate change, said Professor Martina Baučić of the Split Faculty of Civil Engineering.

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ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - Economic losses in the EU due to climate change extremes amount to €12 billion annually and energy efficiency can help adjust to climate change and create jobs, not lose them, President Zoran Milanović said on Friday after meeting with representatives of Croatia's regional energy agencies.

The meeting was held at the Bračak Energy Centre in Zabok on the occasion of World Energy Efficiency Day, observed on 5 March to raise awareness of the need to reduce energy consumption and sustainable energy use, the president's office said in a press release.

In the past 13 years, together with counties, towns and municipalities, Croatia's regional energy agencies have been implementing sustainable energy use projects. Investment in clean energy exceeds HRK 1 billion.

They successfully participate in many EU projects for the energy-efficient renovation of public infrastructure, developing new business models and financial instruments, which makes them Croatia's energy transition pioneers, it was said at the meeting.

President Milanović said there was no successful adjustment to climate change without energy efficiency and that the climate crisis was potentially the biggest global crisis of the future.

"The experience in achieving renewable and efficient energy and climate protection in Croatia, which regional energy agencies already have, is a good example to all in Croatia at local as well as national level that we can and must do even better when it comes to energy efficiency. Our children must go to better schools, the buildings we live in should be both safe and energy-efficient, our cities deserve to become smart in terms of energy," he said after the meeting.

"The economic losses in the EU due to weather and climate extremes already amount to €12 billion annually. Energy efficiency is what can help us to adjust to climate change, not to lose jobs but create them, raising the standard of living of us all," he added.

Croatia has five regional energy agencies which employ 70 experts while the EU has 350, some of which have been active more than 40 years.

There are four million green jobs in the EU today, including 1.4 million in the production of energy from renewables and over 900,000 in energy efficiency activities, said Julije Domac, the president's energy and climate advisor.

"That's what we should focus on. Croatia has the know-how, as evidenced by the fact that Croatian energy agencies regularly coordinate European development projects, provide services to the European Commission and are active across the European Union. Today it's important that each of us know that energy efficiency means better for them, for Croatia, and then for Earth," he added.

January 21, 2021 – What will be welcome news to Zagreb's increasing number of transitory summertime visitors, may be more difficult for permanent residents (and their children) to deal with, as it's revealed the hot Zagreb summer has been extended by a considerable 45 days since the 1960s

Over recent years, the Croatian capital's rising popularity with visitors has made it the fastest-growing tourist destination in the country. But, its increasing footfall from those on holiday is not the only similarity the city now shares with the sun-drenched coast; their climates, once separate and distinct, are now closer than ever before. In fact, Zagreb summer now has on average 45 more days to its duration than it did during 1960s.

While summertime tourists don't seem to mind basking in the sunny streets while catching the city sights in t-shirts and shorts, many residents are only too aware of how stifling an entire season can be if spent solely in the capital. Zagreb summer is traditionally a time when many try to get away, to go cool off on the coast. And yet, despite this being a time-honoured tradition, the extent of the rapid and recent extension of Zagreb summer will still come as a shock to many.

The surprising details were revealed in a rather long article in yesterday's Vecernji List. Within the sprawling text, Doctor of Science Ivana Herceg Bulić, a professor at the Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb and the head of the newly established Centre for Climatological Research said “Based on previous measurements, our analysis shows that every ten years the number of Zagreb summer days - the number of days with a maximum temperature above 25 degrees Celsius - on Grič increases by eight days. In Maksimir, on the other hand, located in a less developed part of town, measurements indicate an increase of seven additional summer days in ten years. Only when we approach the end of the city like Pleso do we reach the number of six summer days more. Zagreb today has 45 more summer days than we had in the middle of the last century."

The centre of Zagreb is the area of the capital which has experienced the most sustained rise in temperatures

The reason for the increase in Zagreb summer is less welcome than the hot days it provides; global warming and climate change are the cause, compounded by inadequate urban planning. As TCN has recently reported, the population of Zagreb continues to rise. As it does so, the demand for new buildings increases and the city boundaries extend. This creates an island of heat whose concrete retains the warmth of the day, long after the sun has set, resulting in sustained high temperatures. Studies show that such conditions are disadvantageous to health.

The information given by Dr Herceg Bulić comes from a new report by the Centre for Climatological Research. Coming just days after Zagreb residents were informed that they had just breathed the worst quality air in the whole of the European Union, you could forgive anyone considering to make their Zagreb summer exodus a more permanent move. But, the news isn't all that bad.

Less built-up areas of the city, those with extensive parkland and who have kept the trees that line their avenues, record a much less harsh summer temperature. In Croatian cities like Osijek and Karlovac, where parkland and trees within the city are cherished, the summers are far from stifling. Though climate change requires a global response, Zagreb can easily address its own summer burden with better urban planning, the preservation of grasslands, parklands and trees, plus the planting of more. Such foresight is necessary to embrace now if we are to ensure that Zagreb summer in the future will be as welcoming to visitors and as wonderful for residents as it is today.

ZAGREB, Sept 30, 2020 - The University of Zagreb's Faculty of Science (PMF) plans to establish the First Climatological Research Center in Croatia that will be the central institution for inter-disciplinary climate and climate change research, the faculty reported on its website.

The faculty notes that as leading research and educational institution with a long tradition of teaching and research in various fields of climatology, it is going to establish the first Climatological Research Centre in Croatia.

Contemporary research and networking top scientists

Nowadays, climate change is the subject of numerous scientific studies, and due to their impact on the environment and living conditions on Earth, they are gaining more and more public attention, the center's head, Associate Professor Ivana Herceg Bulic underlined.

"Due to the extreme complexity of the Earth's climate system and the many complex processes and interactions, a multidisciplinary approach to study is necessary. That is why the Faculty of Science, which brings together scientists from various fields of science and mathematics, has exceptional strength and competencies for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific research," said Herceg Bulic.

She believes that with that approach the center will achieve quality scientific results and gain new knowledge about the vulnerability of natural and urban environments to climate change.

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ZAGREB, September 22, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the UN, that it was necessary to "make the United Nations fit for the 21st century" and called for reforming the Security Council and combating climate change.

"Today we live in a much different world than 75 years ago. The technological revolution changed and improved our lives beyond comparison. Yet the scourge that plagued the world in the autumn of 1945, the hunger and poverty, the disease and refugees, still burdens parts of our planet," the prime minister said in a video message.

The UN has 193 member states and Croatia has been one since 22 May 1992.

Plenkovic said "unprecedented progress has been achieved in the past 75 years."

"Whereas two out of three people lived in extreme poverty at the end of the Second World War, today this share has fallen to less than one in ten, and by 2030 this should fall under one in 16," he added.

But the world is facing new challenges and it is necessary to revitalise the UN, he said, calling this year's General Assembly session "a springboard for that."

"We must make the United Nations fit for the 21st century... The revitalisation of the United Nations's work has to go beyond the General Assembly. Reform of the Security Council is long overdue. Our historical anniversary should also be an occasion for revisiting the UN Charter to meet the needs and realities of the new era."

Plenkovic also called for combating climate change, saying "climate change is one of the pivotal fields for the future of humanity. This is where we cannot afford to fail. We have to adjust to new realities, find the way to meet new challenges... achieve all Sustainable Development Goals and avoid the pitfalls of the past."

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ZAGREB, October 31, 2019 - The president of Croatia's ORaH party, Antun Petrović, and the international secretary of the German Greens, Jamila Schaefer, said on Thursday it was extremely important that climate change remained a priority in chairing the European Union in 2020.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Petrović said he hoped that "A Europe that protects", one of the four key areas on which, according to the government, the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU will be based, meant protection of the environment, climate and human rights, and not the external border, ORaH said in a press release.

The two parties expect the Croatian and German governments to continue next year the trend set by Finland during its presidency and set climate change as one of their EU presidency priorities.

ORaH said Schaefer arrived in Croatia to discuss cooperation, but also to check the human rights situation in the wake of reports of inappropriate police treatment of migrants on the border.

The common task of the EU is that the governments of all member states protect human rights and check all credible reports on violations, Schaefer said.

She warned that climate change knew no national borders and that slowing it down required coordinated action by all European countries, ORaH said.

More news about environmental protection can be found in the Lifestyle section.

June 12, 2018 — Croatia's vaunted Adriatic Sea may soon join the ranks of the world's oceans — a plastic-filled, hot mess — if things don't change soon.