National Energy and Climate Planning experiences from EU and Western Balkans: Shortcuts for Republic of Serbia?

Just in the immediate neighborhood of European Union (EU), Republic of Serbia as one of Western Balkan (WB) countries is lagging behind in the energy transition regardless technological advances and policy instruments available. EU created a momentum for the energy transition acceleration with the European Green Deal, which is forwarded to the WB through the Energy Community secretariat as Green agenda and in general, the response in the form of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) is expected in the short to midterm.  Republic of Serbia’s Low Carbon Development Strategy with Action plan (LEDS) and current Energy Strategy will be analyzed, commented and improvements suggested for the acceleration of the energy transition, based on the newest findings from the simulation-based optimization techniques using the sectors coupling approach. Furthermore, integrated assessment modeling (IAM) techniques, exploring the climate and energy cross impacts with the more details will be included. The purpose of the research is to provide the decision makers in Serbia with the best available insights regarding sustainable energy systems planning tools, possible shortcuts for delayed planning activities and Serbians with better chance to benefit from adoption of these strategies in faster transition.