Sandra Vlašić Green Development in Croatia ... - UNDP Croatia

Green Development in Croatia: Practical
Progress
Examples of green development from
Croatia
Sandra Vlašić
UNDP Croatia Environment Programme
sandra.vlasic@undp.org

• COAST Project
• GACKA river Project
• Energy Efficiency Project
• Solar Education Centre Project

The COAST Project:
brings jobs to people and preserves nature by
supporting green business in sectors of
agriculture, fisheries and tourism

The COAST Project: HOW?
Green Business Support Programme
– Partnerships: counties, people, banks
– Mentoring and education
– Grants and loans

COAST Achievements: economic
• $2.5 million invested in grants, technical assistance and
partial guarantee scheme mobilised $20 million of private
sector investments - 72 projects and 8 loans
• At least 100 direct beneficiaries – jobs in organic farming
and cattle breeding, shellfish farms, autochthonous sorts
and breeds, sustainable tourism business

COAST Achievements: environmental
• Organically cultivated areas in Dalmatia increased 3 times
in the last 4 years
• The biggest olive grove and biggest vineyard (100 ha) in
Dalmatia were converted to organic – without project
support this would not happen
• Traditional sorts and breeds re-introduced aiming at
economic revitalisation as a base for premium price
products

The COAST
achievements – social:
• reviving life in rural areas
in Dalmatia
• bringing back traditional and
new economic activities
• ensuring local selfsustainability
• life-long education
• creating sustainable values
with local partners, for local
communities

The COAST project achievements are
result of a 5-year small scale piloting
green business activities.
$2.5 million was invested into grants,
technical assistance and guarantees for
loans.
Scaling this up from Dalmatia to the
whole Croatia, Adriatic and wider
Mediterranean region would bring more
green jobs and sustainable values
created for people.

Every Drop Matters – GACKA river
• A combination of soft
and hard
infrastructure
investments
• In partnership with
local communities,
NGOs, public and
private sector
• Embedding with
already on-going
local initiatives –
larger impact with
small funds
project

GACKA project
Achievements – economic:
• Branding and producing info-edu
products targeted at round 15.000
tourists/y.
• Investing in smaller infrastructure to
upgrade local tourist offer – biking
trails and rent-a-bike spots; flyfishing
guide and rent-a-rod points;
fitness park built.
• Roughly 15 new jobs created in and
around Otočac.

GACKA project
achievements: environmental
• Investing in project
documentation for waste
water infrastructure
• Investing in visitor-centre
at the “Centre for
Indigenous Species of
Carstic Fish and Crayfish” –
close to 2000 visitors a year.
• Publishing the “Guide to
Good Water Management”

GACKA project achievements: social
Helping with creating local, diverse
sustainable tourism products and create
values with local people for the benefit
of local communities in rural areas/Lika.

The Energy Efficiency Project (EE)
Systematic energy management in
public sector buildings - public
sector as a leader of introducing
energy efficiency in it’s own
house.

The EE Project: environmental benefits
• Created registry of 8500 public buildings with regular
energy consumption monitoring – buildings are
entered into the Energy Management Information
System, which makes CO2 emissions visible.
• Reduced CO2 emissions: 63.000 t/y or round 0.2%
of total Croatian annual emissions.
• More efficient management of resources: saved
energy of 194.000 MWh

The EE Project: economic benefits
• 60 million Kuna was invested over 5
years and round 100 jobs created for
the introduction of systematic energy
management in buildings of cities,
counties and ministries
• Reduced costs for water and energy:
until now 91 million Kuna is saved
• More then 380 jobs are gradually being
converted into green – employees of
EE teams in 64 cities, 14 counties, 10
ministries; and at 6 EE info-centres in
different Croatian regions

EE: more economic potential in...
• More then 1000 energy audits of
buildings conducted by 17
companies with more then 150
Croatian experts – identified
investment potential of more then
1.6 billion Kuna
• If this is reflected in residential
sector – investing in EE
measures at only 20% of existing
residencies would account for
7000 new jobs in 10 years and
500.000 t/CO2

The EE Project: social benefits
• Better energy efficiency – lower
consumption, energy saved, money saved.
• “Live better – pay less”.

The Solar Education Centre (SEC)
– partnership for the future

SEC: educational curricula of the
vocational school in Zadar:
• Installers of solar-thermal
systems
• Installers of photovoltaic
systems
• Students (60/y)
• Adults re-qualification (20+)
• Joint EE and RES
information centre for
citizens

Plug-in to the future...