Human Development Report - Croatia 2008 Evaluation of Current Activities to Mitigate Climate Change – Institutional Analysis^221The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
(FER), at the University of Zagreb, has been carrying
out significant research on the costs of various sce-
narios for the reduction of emissions within the en-
ergy sector. Overall, the availability of information for
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large busi-
nesses on energy efficiency, emissions reduction and
renewable energy possibilities is improving, but more
is necessary to ensure that bankable energy efficiency
projects – especially large projects – move forward.
Alongside academic institutions and consultancy
firms, regional energy agencies are being established
to support energy efficiency and renewable energy in
various parts of the country. These include a North-
West Regional Energy Agency, an Educational Energy
Agency for East Slavonia, and a project in Varaždin
County. A new project being carried out by MELE
called “Energy Management in Cities and Counties”
will also result in the founding of numerous new en-
ergy agencies around the country.
Within the agricultural sector, the Faculty of Agriculture
of the University of Zagreb is probably the entity most
engaged in issues related to climate change, though
this involvement is usually manifested in specific activi-
ties such as providing inputs for the National Commu-
nications on Climate Change to the UNFCCC. There is a
fair amount of technical expertise within this institution
that could be harnessed in dealing with mitigation is-
sues in the future – especially in examining potential re-
ductions resulting from changes in fertiliser processes,
soil usage, etc. The European Commission has already
funded some assistance to farmers to meet European
standards for methane emissions, but significantly
more work on agricultural emissions is possible. Farm-
ers would benefit from additional information about
emissions in this area and others, such as potential
emission credits from changes in forest coverage, proj-
ects that can qualify for the feed-in tariff, and others.
Within the general economic planning realm of tech-
nical expertise, the Economic Institute which carries
out many regional economic plans has not, to date,
been actively engaged in climate change issues. This
is probably due to the fact that many of the Institute’s
activities are oriented towards areas of local develop-
ment where climate change mitigation is not being
considered in planning. However, as the national pro-
gramme for energy management moves forward in
the counties, this could and should change. One major
element that would be useful in the analysis of mitiga-
tion measures and their economic impact in Croatia
is a macro-economic model of the Croatian economy.
This national economic input-output model does not
exist in an updated form. Once realised, it would make
for easier analysis of the impacts of increased energy
prices and changes in consumption patterns. This is par-
ticularly important for gauging the impact of increased
energy prices on the most vulnerable in the population
and on human development within Croatia.
One important limitation consistently raised during
the research for this section was the lack of access to
original data. Many reports on energy use, emissions
reductions, and renewable energy systems are only
available in document format and the original raw
data is not available for later study. This is understand-
able when the data collection has been paid for by
private companies for a specific study, but many stud-
ies are paid for through public funds and therefore
the original data should remain in the public domain.
Data sharing could be done through a website devot-
ed to climate change, administered by the MEPPPC,
the Croatian Environment Agency, or the MSES.
Climate change mitigation is potentially very impor-
tant for human development in Croatia for two rea-
sons. Firstly, Croatia must capitalise on the human
development opportunities created by the emerging
economy surrounding greenhouse gases, including
carbon trading, energy efficiency possibilities and new
technologies, such as renewable energy sources. Sec-
ondly, technical and economic expertise will be critical
to ensure that the costs of emissions reduction pro-
grammes do not undermine human development.
Thanks to the relatively high availability of informa-
tion and knowledge in the country, Croatia has the op-
portunity to become a regional leader in introducing
technology and moving forward with emission trad-
ing initiatives. Several regional initiatives already exist
to move forward the introduction of energy efficiency
measures in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovi-