Introducing energy efficiency as a lifestyle and raising awareness of its importance in the everyday life of every man and all segments of the economy and society is one of the basic, strategic goals of the Ministry of Mining and Energy. In order to achieve this goal, but also its sustainability, it is necessary to work continuously to strengthen the awareness of the individual, in order to be expected to introduce energy efficiency at a broader, systemic level.
For this reason, the European Union provided support to the Ministry of Mining and Energy through the T project in drafting a strategic document, which includes capacity building and educational activities to be implemented to improve the application of energy efficiency measures. A draft Strategy for Raising Awareness in the field of energy efficiency was presented at a workshop organised in late July in co-operation with the Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The workshop was held in hybrid form, part live, part online, and was attended by 41 participants (representatives of the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, as well as representatives of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, civil society organisations, public enterprises, donors and other projects being implemented in the field of energy efficiency).
Introducing the draft of the strategic document, an expert in the field of awareness envisaged a large number of actors that implement energy efficiency measures to conduct within their competence. She stated that the development of the strategy was preceded by a situation analysis, which determined what has been done in the field of awareness of energy efficiency so far, in what way, and what are the effects of these activities. The aim of the analysis was to provide guidelines for the development of the Strategy, in order to improve the level of information and knowledge of the need and importance of energy efficiency, with a special accent to households. Speaking about the analysis findings, she emphasized that energy efficiency measures recognized money savings, but that citizens are not sufficiently motivated and do not believe in personal engagement and contribution to energy efficiency at some broader level. This should be taken into account when further creating measures in that area.
Based on the analysis, a draft Strategy on Awareness Raising in the field of EE was introduced, as well as its goals, target groups, partners who will participate in the application of the measures proposed in the document, as well as the channels and tools that will be used to transmit and receive messages and information. This document also shows resources and mechanisms that can be used for more efficient implementation of activities and measures. As the last segment of the strategy, the monitoring and evaluation, within the effect of each individual measure and activity conducted a comprehensive image of the achieved goals
In order to improve the document the workshop participants gave some proposals and suggestions as follows:
- Еmphasize that it is not only financial, simple energy saving, it is important to reduce energy consumption per unit, especially the effect of reducing carbon dioxide in the air, due to the consequences of climate change.
- Propose the introduction of a special course in primary schools, which would cover the topics of energy efficiency, environmental protection and similar areas.
- It is important to use this moment in which ecology or environmental protection, in certain parts of Serbia, are recognized as more important issues than just EE and that these
Concluding the workshop, Maja Milenković thanked the participants for their constructive proposals for the final Strategic Document, which she emphasized should serve as a communication and awareness-raising framework in the field of EE in the next five years.
European Union support to the energy sector in Serbia is worth more than 830 million euros for the period from 2007 to this day. Energy is the focus of the EU because it has an extremely large impact on all other sectors in society. Projects implemented by the EU in the field of energy reduce dependence on fossil fuels, increase the use of renewable energy sources, as well energy efficiency.