The Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Kaja Shukova had an opening speech at the final conference of the project: “Increasing resilience to climate change at the local level”. At the event, the relevant stakeholders and decision-makers elaborated on the current situation and dealing with the shortcomings and increasing disaster resilience at the national and local level, and discussed the need for intersectoral cooperation, as well as the issues and activities that should be implemented in order to establish of a functional mechanism for civil protection. A brief overview of the local climate and energy plans for the Municipality of Prilep, Demir Kapija and Centar was also made, as well as the provisions for climate adaptation from the draft Law on Climate Action and the obligations for the municipalities.
According to Minister Kaja Shukova, projections so far show that climate change will have a negative impact on the most vulnerable sectors – water resources, agriculture, forestry and biodiversity, which is why we, as a state, must take comprehensive adaptation measures.
- Adaptation to climate change means taking actions to plan and adapt to the current and expected impacts of climate change. As a country, we have prepared 4 national communications/plans for climate change in which climate scenarios and their impacts on the most affected sectors are analyzed in detail, with proposed measures to mitigate the impacts in all sectors. At the same time, the Ministry prepared the proposal for the Law on Climate Action, which was the subject of public debate several times during 2023, and in addition to the adoption of the legal framework, we are facing long-term cooperation between national and especially local institutions in the area of implementing adaptation measures, the academic sector, as well as inter-ministerial cooperation – emphasized Shukova, adding that at the national level, as a small country vulnerable to climate change, we will devote special efforts to the adoption of the long-awaited National Adaptation Plan, the future implementation of which will require additional financial and technical assistance from the donor community.
She emphasized that the municipalities should use the projects and initiatives for international cooperation, which aim to strengthen capacities in order to develop policies, strategies and measures for adaptation.
The project is implemented by the Center for Climate Change within the program Civil Organization for Climate Activities funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by Eco-Awareness, the Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers and the CNVP Foundation.