EUKI Interview: Building Climate Bridges in the Western Balkans

The EUKI Networking Event in Sarajevo brought together more than 40 climate actors from across the Western Balkans. Why was this regional exchange so timely?

In 2023, we had the EUKI Western Balkans conference in Tirana, so now was a great time to see what has changed since then. Over the past two years, there has been a lot of discussion around topics such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), and the Just Transition. These are complex issues, and only now, as new obligations are approaching, we see a growing interest to truly understand them.

At the same time, many projects are being implemented, but often without proper coordination or communication among them. That is why it was the right time to exchange, learn from different national perspectives, and see what the best way forward is. Since the signing of the Sofia Declaration, the Green Agenda has been the hot topic in the region – and it will remain that way until we bridge this gap between talking and implementing better and more transparently.

The Green Agenda set out an ambitious framework for climate action in 2020. From your perspective, how far have countries in the region come in translating these commitments into real implementation — and where do you still see the biggest obstacles?

My main conclusion is that in this five-years-period, all Western Balkans countries have made visible progress in terms of legislative and policy development, especially in the fields of climate and energy. However, implementation on the ground is still missing. There have been many activities, but they are still fragmented. Although we have several policies, strategies and documents, there is no clear roadmap.

So why is legislation advancing, but translating it into real change is so slow? At the conference, we came up with these main reasons:

1. There’s limited administrative and technical capacities to operationalise newly adopted laws. Some public officials still lack necessary knowledge, and this needs to be acknowledged at the institutional level.

2. We need a systematic financing mechanism. Right now, the processes are too complex and funding is mostly short-term, making long-term engagement and sustainability difficult for projects.

3. Coordination across borders and sectors is weak. To address the Green Agenda, different ministries must work like one and civil society needs more access to institutional decision-making processes.

Sadžida Hafizović

is vice president and project manager at the Bosnian NGO CENER 21 – Center for Energy, Environment and Resources that works on sustainable development in South East Europe. Sadžida has a technical background in mechanical engineering and work experience as a researcher and consultant in the sectors of resource efficiency, energy efficiency, and waste management.

Civil society organisations often serve as the link between policy and local communities. What makes them so crucial for advancing climate action in the Western Balkans?

We translate national and regional policies into tangible local actions. We know the community realities and work on building trust, making abstract political goals understandable, and showing their relevance for everyday life.

A significant number of NGOs across the Western Balkans also act as “knowledge hubs,” bringing together engineers and experts from different fields. In my opinion, governments should make better use of this potential for capacity building and for bridging the gap to local communities. Meanwhile, institutions also face many challenges, and I think civil society should not only point out their shortcomings but help to strengthen accountability and build mutual trust.

A good example for that is the transnational network that we have built with EUKI project Climate Bridges. It brings together 80 civil society organisations, research institutions and youth initiatives — and our goal is to engage public authorities as well. Our work includes joint meetings, awareness campaigns on current climate topics and in just a few weeks, the first transnational event in Sarajevo, where we will meet to discuss our strategy and upcoming activities. Overall, Climate Bridges has created a shared regional space for dialogue and cooperation, and increased visibility for local civil society initiatives.

The recent Breathe Clean! campaign united citizens in ten different Western Balkan cities around the issue of air pollution in the region. What lessons did you draw from that experience about mobilising communities for environmental change?

It was a full week of events, different creative formats and tools of engagement – from public workshops to bike parades and art installations. And it confirmed how powerful and necessary civic-led initiatives are in making climate issues concrete and meaningful for everyday people. I would even say that local-level relevance equals greater engagement.

Concretely, one success factor was that the campaign was implemented under the same slogan in all cities – breathe clean! – but it was adapted to each city’s local context, so the specific air quality challenges, the urban layout, local partners and community concerns. Thus, people felt that we were speaking about their street, their city, their health.

„People felt that we were speaking about their street, their city, their health.“

We also worked with different target groups. For instance, we had one activity that was focused on the elderly. We saw that old people often don’t understand climate topics and feel marginalised – but it’s also their health and well-being. It was amazing to see how happy they were that someone cared about it!

Another take-away was translating complex ideas into simple messages. We saw that citizens respond better when we translated climate language into everyday terms like clean air, children’s well-being, breathing easier. When people notice that someone is listening to their problem, they are more likely to trust and join you. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is not only to engage people, but to keep up that engagement and take leverage of it for other activities that will follow.

Despite shrinking civic space and limited institutional capacity, many actors in the region remain committed to cooperation and mutual learning. What gives you confidence that this climate community will continue to grow?

The challenges we face are growing, but my hope is that our community will grow faster. That way, we can focus on mitigation strategies rather than constantly dealing with the consequences of climate change. What gives me hope is this sense of shared responsibility that already exists in the region. Climate challenges do not stop at national borders, so in many ways, these shared problems have also brought us closer together.

„Climate challenges do not stop at borders, so in many ways, these shared problems have also brought us closer together.“

We see a genuine willingness among organisations, experts and even local authorities to learn from one another, to cooperate and find joint solutions. So, initiatives like EUKI are crucial because they do not only provide financial and technical support, but also create the framework for peer learning and knowledge exchange between neighbouring countries.

EUKI and similar programmes give this community a sense of continuity and belonging, a feeling that we are not isolated projects, but parts of a regional movement working towards the same goals. I think that is what truly keep this community alive and growing. There are many issues in our region, but I am sure that step by step small changes can happen.