Outlook on Climate Change Adaptation in the Western Balkan Mountains

rapidly growing cities, traffic is one of the main causes of poor air quality. The use of leaded fuel has been reduced, but it is not yet banned in FYR Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia. Industry (mining) There is a long history of mining within the region, reaching back to at least the fifth century BC. Richly endowed with minerals, the region contains some of the largest deposits in Europe. Many of the deposits that are mined today have been exploited since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. By the 1930s exploitation had increased to include aluminium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel and zinc. Precious metals include gold, palladium and platinum, and hydrocarbon

fuels include coal (lignite), natural gas and petroleum (UNEP/ENVSEC, 2012). By the 1990s, mining, mineral processing and downstream exploitation had established the region as a major European source of copper, lead and zinc, and the mining industry was one of the flagship industrial sectors (UNEP, 2009). However, following the disintegration of the Yugoslav common market in the 1990s, industrial output dropped significantly, resulting in a decrease in pollution, but also many abandoned or so-called orphan sites scattered across the region that have no liable legal ownership. Within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, FYR Macedonia and Kosovo, 1 about one-third of the 180 sites identified are considered to be of significant environmental and security concern, and one-fifth are considered to pose transboundary risks.

and increasing costs to build and maintain roads and supplies. Railway systems are similarly vulnerable. Inland navigation will more often be faced with restrictions associated with extremely low and high river discharges. Changes in transport capacity may lead to changes in transport costs or to a shift between transport modalities. Economic impacts are closely related to the frequency of events that damage, disrupt and restrict transport, and the availability of transport alternatives. Furthermore, the costs associated with monitoring and maintenance of these networks is likely to increase. Few studies exist on the impacts of climate change on the transport networks within the region, including the mountainous areas. However, one study on the EU-27 transport network can give some indication of potential economic costs of climate change for the region. For road infrastructure, weather stresses already represent 30 per cent to 50 per cent of current road maintenance costs in Europe. Ten per cent of these costs (0.9 billion euro) are associated with extreme events, with flooding taking the lead. A significant extra cost for road transport infrastructures is projected due to more frequent extreme precipitation and flooding events (50–192 million euros per year between 2040–2100). At the same time, increasing temperatures could reduce road costs related tomaintenance operations in colder areas (for snow and ice) (JRC, 2012). Climate change also interacts with transport to have a strong influence on air quality. Transport emissions contribute to air pollution and the greenhouse gases that cause climate change; the effects of which – higher temperatures, in particular – exacerbate the human health responses to air pollution. An efficient transport sector would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lessen the health effects of air pollution. While the transport system in South- Eastern Europe has improved in recent years, the standards are generally low, and in the region’s large,

Abandoned mine, Serbia

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