Project summary
Serbia and Uzbekistan are stepping up action to meet global climate change agreements including in their agrifood sectors through decarbonization, adaptation to future climate scenarios and through greater private sector investment and engagement.
Context
The EBRD and FAO are supporting Serbia and Uzbekistan to significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) in their agrifood sectors while increasing their sustainability and adaptability to future climate scenarios. Globally, the agrifood sector contributes up to 37% of GHG emissions and is also adversely affected by the changing climate, for example, increasing temperatures require enhanced investments in energy efficient cold storage facilities to mitigate food loss and waste. Investing in the sector to adopt green technologies such as renewable energy systems and more resilient and efficient production approaches can deliver huge returns on both mitigation and adaptation targets.
Serbia is currently updating its nationally determined contribution (NDC) roadmaps and planning to significantly increase its commitments to reduce GHG emissions by 15 percent in its agricultural sector. Uzbekistan updated its NDC roadmap in 2021 committing to reduce GHGs per unit of GDP by 35 percent by 2030. This project is helping strengthen institutional processes and private sector engagement to help implement the NDCs by identifying capacity building and investment opportunities within both public and private sectors to align agrifood stakeholders towards climate resilience and adaptation.
Activities
Support the implementation of the NDCs and institutionalize the relevant policy dialogue including identifying the potential of the agrifood sector to contribute to climate change goals, strengthened national engagement and capacity development of stakeholders including training relevant national institutions on supporting the NDC implementation plans.
Identification of investment opportunities to support private sector organizations on a path towards decarbonization and climate resilience, including by identifying priority agricultural value chains and investment opportunities for climate-smart food production and engaging the private sector in the NDC implementation process while enhancing the competitiveness of the agribusiness sector.
Training public and private sector stakeholders on the definition and implementation of climate-smart investment packages and monitoring and accounting of agribusiness climate change mitigation process.
Achievements
- Country diagnostics and policy reviews to define pathways for climate resilience and decarbonisation of the agrifood sector in Serbia and
- Identification of priority value chains, based on their economic value, carbon intensity and potential for physical climate impacts
- Stakeholders meeting held in Rome in May 2024 including representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture and Economy of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Chamber of Commerce, Serbia.