Western Balkans is one of the regions of the world that still enjoys unspoiled nature and pristine rivers. However, the drive to pursue traditional economic development and infrastructure investments led in the latest years to environmental damages, sometimes irreversible. Sustainable development can on the other hand produce economic growth while protecting the environment. The citizens of the Western Balkans deserve both economically better living conditions, better living standards, access to clean air, clean water, less waste and less damages due to climate change.

The UNSG Climate Action Summit in September 2019 makes it timely to discuss how the economic, environmental and social aspects of the transformation of economies and societies towards greater sustainability are managed in ways that maximize opportunities of decent work for all, reduce inequalities, and enhance country’s efforts to improve the people’s health.

The objectives of the panel:

• Discuss possible ways of decoupling economic development from environmental damage with examples of successful business cases and/or activists’ involvement contributing to both mentioned goals
• Provide examples on how investments in environment can bring benefits in terms of public spending for health care and other sectors.
• Discuss the importance of mainstreaming environmental and climate protection into other sectors – education, public finances, public administration, employment (with examples)
• Discuss the importance of citizens and civil society involvement in environmental protection and decision-making for a better state of the environment and better living conditions – but also more united local communities
• Explore how green growth, circular economy, environmental education, social enterprises and corporate and social ecological responsibility together with artistic projects, are all contributing to awareness raising on environment’s protection, also proving how the combination of economy, environmental and arts is possible
• Explore how public policies could be improved to ensure sustainable development of the region - “Green Agenda for the Western Balkans”.

Panelists:

H.E. Johannes Hahn – EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations TBC

H.E. Nikola Dimitrov - Minister of Foreign Affairs, North Macedonia TBC

H.E. Marija Pejčinović Burić, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Croatia  TBC

Artur Lorkowski – MFA’s Climate Envoy, Poland’s Presidency to UNFCCC

Artur has been working for governmental sector since 2001, i.a. as Deputy Director for EU Sectoral Policies in the Office of the Committee for European Integration, Deputy Director for Energy Security and Climate Change in the MFA. He served as Polish Ambassador to Austria (2013-2017).

He has been engaged in climate agenda since 2006, previously on the EU level. As from Copenhagen Climate Change Conference he joined UNFCCC process. During Polish EU Presidency, he advised the President of the Council of the EU (Environment) while negotiating the Durban Platform for Enhanced Actions (2011), as well as cooperated with the President-Designate of COP 19 in the view of Warsaw Climate Change Conference (2013).

Nataša Kovačević – Green Home Montenegro

Nataša holds Bachelor degree in Law, while finalizing Master’s degree focused in Environmental Protection from Faculty of Mathematics and Science. Since 2003 works in NGO Green Home reaching the level of Senior Expert on Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy. She is author and co-author of several researching papers on environmental policy and nature protection and a member of IUCN CEL (Commission on Environmental Law), National Council for sustainable development of Montenegro as well as Negotiation Working Group for Chapter 27 – Environment, within the accession process of Montenegro to EU. She had been implementing more than 20 projects in the field of environmental protection collaborating with WWF, UNDP, OSCE, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, US Embassy, RBF etc. For the last three years she acts as CEO in Green Home responsible for strategic planning and public representation.

Srdjan Kukolj – HEAL

Srdjan is HEAL’s Health and Energy Advisor for the Balkan region. He is working on strengthening health stakeholder engagement, environmental policies and outreach activities to raise awareness on health impacts of air pollution.  

Davor Percan – Head of Unit, Bilateral and Regional Environmental Cooperation, DG ENV

Davor Percan has more than 20 years of operational and managerial experience in international environmental relations and development assistance. Prior to joining the European Commission in 2006, he worked in the energy sector, researching energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and managing related international assistance in Zagreb, Croatia.

Upon joining the EC, Davor followed Croatia’s alignment with the EU body of legislation and managed EU accession-related financial assistance in two chapters: environment and energy. After Croatia’s accession to the EU, he continued his career in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement, later to become the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). After a short assignment as Financial Officer, he managed the EU’s annual financial assistance programmes for Kosovo in the Western Balkans directorate.

Davor joined DG Environment in 2018 as head of unit for bilateral and regional environmental cooperation in the Global Sustainable Development directorate.

Moderator: Jeta Xharra, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

Time frame and format: Moderated 60-75 minutes panel discussion with 15-45 minutes Q&A.

Language: English

Where? When? Poznań AGORA, Civil Society Forum, July 4th, 10.00 – 12.00