Sarajevo, December 27, 2016 – A joint letter signed by six Ambassadors from the Embassy of the United States of America, Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Nations Development Programme, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Embassy of Sweden was submitted to the FBiH House of Peoples, FBiH Prime Minister, and the competent Ministers in order to give their strong support for the adoption of the FBiH Energy Efficiency Law.
The FBiH Energy Efficiency (EE) Law has been awaiting adoption since 2013, which has been causing numerous problems for the implementation of energy efficiency activities in the Federation. Because of the delay in adoption of the law, citizens have not been able to benefit from a systematic implementation of energy efficiency measures in everyday life. In addition, BiH has not met its legally binding commitments under the Energy Community Treaty which is an important element in the EU Accession process. Most important, until the framework law is passed and secondary legislation developed, BiH remains unable to fully reap the benefits of energy efficiency measures that would greatly contribute to sustainable development of the country’s economy and to the livelihoods of its citizens.
The energy efficiency sector has significant untapped potential to secure economic and environmental benefits, such as investments, jobs, emissions reductions, lower energy consumption, and financial savings. Analyses of the draft National Energy Efficiency Action Plan have shown that the investment potential in BiH is as high as 5 billion KM. Very few economic sectors in BiH have such clear “win-win” potential as the energy efficiency sector in terms of benefits to public and private stakeholders.
