Croatia will protect 30 percent of the Adriatic Sea under its jurisdiction and will plant an additional one million trees annually by the year 2030, Andrej Plenković, announced on Tuesday, November 2 in Glasgow, emphasizing that climate change will have irreversible negative effects on people’s lives but that ambitious actions can mitigate those effects.
Plenković spoke at the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP26) where world leaders presented the plans and commitments of their countries for the protection of the environment. “Croatia intends to compensate the impact of tourism on CO2 emissions by planting more than one million additional trees annually by the year 2030. As a country with a thousand islands, Croatia intends to contribute to the global objective of protecting the oceans by placing under protection 30 percent of the sea under its national jurisdiction. In line with the EU’s goal to reduce carbon emissions by 55 percent to the year 2030 Croatia will participate with, for us, a very high percentage of 45 percent and abandon coal by 2033, or even by an earlier date”, the Croatian Prime Minister noted in his speech at the COP26 Conference.
He emphasized that Croatia takes nature protection very seriously, that it has the fourth-lowest carbon footprint per capita in the European Union and that overall 38 percent of the country is under protection. “Croatian forestry has a century-old tradition of sustainable management. With 93 percent of certified forests, our carbon absorption rate per capita is two times higher than the EU average”, Plenković pointed out.
He warned that climate change will have irreversible negative effects on the lives of future generations even with the most decisive actions taken now. The deterioration, however, can be mitigated. “It is upon us, as leaders, not only worried individuals, to contribute and implement policies that will achieve that. To say the least, we have to achieve the goals already established in the climate agreements and act more vigorously for their implementation”, the Croatian Prime Minister emphasized and called upon the adoption of more ambitious policies in the struggle against climate change.
