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Nov 20 2017 
RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHALLENGE: Kickoff event of the project “Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge”
On Thursday 15 June 2017 at the UN House (Bulevar Zorana Djindjica 64, New Belgrade), starting at 10:00, was held the kickoff event of the project “Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge”, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection in cooperation with UNDP and with financial support from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
The project which aims to achieve sustainable development of local municipalities and the support of local governments in responding to the challenges of climate change was introduced to public and relevant stakeholders. Climate change is a major challenge for humanity, is generally accepted attitude of this meeting. In this kickoff event, local governments, business sector, civil society organizations, scientific research institutions and all those who, in partnership, can offer and implement original ideas, was sent a challenge and an invitation to participate in the project.
On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, the audience was addressed by State Secretary Stana Bozovic. She pointed out that the Government through the relevant Ministry to provide full logistical and financial support to local governments so that they can, according to their own needs and capacities, meet the challenges and take part in this project. The challenge of course is to find ways to apply a universal, accessible and sustainable solution to the problems at the local level, especially when local governments are not able to achieve individually and independently financed.
Deputy Resident Representative of the UN Development Program in Serbia, Steliana Nedera, has invited all local governments to engage in a program of challenges and stressed that innovation is a key way to achieve “balance development and preservation of quality of life and the environment.” Guests from Finland and Croatian presented their experiences related to the participation of local governments in the field of application of innovative ways to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, as well as measures to adapt to climate change. Also, on this event were presented alternative ways of financing of the projects in this field. Exceptional response to this event contributed to the representatives of the banking, non-governmental and private sector. They all expressed their willingness for a direct contribution to this project, and the general conclusion of the participants of this meeting is that interdisciplinary cooperation is one of the main preconditions for its successful implementation.
It is planned that in the next five years of the project all of those ideas that are the basis for supporting sustainable local development are implemented and support the local communities to become more resistant to climate change. In this way, solutions that will have the best results, in addition to giving a great development and ecological contribution to their local governments, also will have the right to be awarded by this challenge program.
Presentations from the event:
01 MPZŽS Odsek za Klimatske promene – Danijela Bozanic
03 UNDP_CSUD project for the Kickoff 15 06 2017 Miroslav Tadic
04 Hinku Forum- Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
05 Zeleni fond MPZŽS – Vladica Božić
07 Alternative Finance – Terra Hub
08 RES CSUD KICK OFF_15 june 2017
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Nov 20 2017 
Initiative “Just not by car”- challenge for a urban mobility within GEF project “Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge”
On Thursday, 18 May, a lot of organizations in Belgrade will join the challenge “Just not by car”, with a goal to promote the usage of alternative ways of transport for going to work.
The officials of Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection will also participate in the challenge led by State Secretary Stana Božović, as well as the UNDP team!
This year the challenge “Just not by car” is realized through support of project “acclimatization of urban development” (Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge) project which is funded by Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and implemented by UNDP in cooperation with the Ministry.
Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, on Thursday, will send a call that all interested individuals, institutions and companies choose to cycle or walk and so support the action in achieving better results and rise awareness about the importance of using alternative ways of transport.
By participating in this action we strengthen the social capital of our communities, improve our health, showing practical and useful ways of urban mobility in urban areas.
In one word, we provide personal and collective contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals in the fight against climate change.
Tracking of activities is done by a mobile application “Strava” which will track the distance that participants cover.
The organization and the individual with the most distance, and the organization with the largest number of entries, will be awarded.
Besides the Ministry, in organizing of the challenge participated associations “Bajsologija” and “Ulice za bicikliste”, foundation Heinrich Boll and UNDP.
The official promo video:
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Nov 20 2017 
Inception workshop of Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge (CSUD) project
On May 08, UNDP held an inception workshop for the Climate Smart Urban Development Project (CSUD). The inception workshop aimed to achieve a consolidated agreement for activities that would enhance the implementation process of this project.
The CSUD project began in 2017 and will last for the next 5 years. To successfully execute this project, The Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection (MoAEP), in cooperation with the UNDP as the implementing agency, will receive funding from the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the Ministry, UNDP, government partnerships of Sweden and Switzerland, the European Union Delegation and other key partners.
The main objective of this project is to get local communities involved in the fight against climate change, through new and innovative solutions. The project consists of two major challenges: the accessibility of data (Open Data Challenge) and program challenges (Challenge Program). The first part of the project aims to improve the data availability for local communities, while the other encourages the development of projects which will contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Challenge Program framework will consist of three key steps: challenges for collecting innovative ideas to implementation challenges for these innovative solutions.
The project will be carried out according to the procedures and requirements of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), and the needs of the local governments.
