We are constantly engaged in participative local energy and climate planning and policy design processes. RES Foundation was a member of the working group for the preparation of the new Climate Strategy for Serbia and it is active in numerous climate and air pollution-related initiatives in Serbia and the region. We were two-year co-organizers, with the Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Novi Sad fair, of the Energy and Investment Days the only energy dedicated event at Novi Sad Fair. We were co-organizers of the Sustainability Forum of the Energy Community. RES Foundation is the founding organization of the “Network of good energy”, a network of local self-governments seeking sustainable climate and energy solutions in Serbia. RES Foundation is a member of the Energy Poverty Observatory.
We are currently implementing a project examining the volumes of current support to the energy-poor at the national and local level in Serbia with the aim to point to significant space for an increase in its effectiveness and also to underline that current schemes completely miss integrating air pollution aspect. Besides, the wide national awareness-raising campaign has been also driven by RES Foundation, addressing the issues of energy poverty and its linkages with air pollution, inefficient usage of wood and the necessity for replacement of wood-based stoves and devices.
RES Foundation is recognized as the lead organization when climate and air quality policy is concerned. We were recognized as the go-to organization for the matters of air quality policy by a large number of stakeholders during the time of unprecedented escalation of the air pollution issue in the public space in Serbia (and the region) culminating with the extraordinary session of the Government of Serbia in February 2020. RES Foundation was consulted by the Government representatives, both before and after the extraordinary session. We organized a regional conference dedicated to the issue of efficiency of residential heating on 3rd and 4th December 2020.
Energy poverty is in the focus of the RES Foundation since its establishment, as it is closely related to energy policy, climate policy, air quality policy, poverty and social inclusion.
RES Foundation was a co-organizer of the 2018 Sustainability Forum of the Energy Community in charge of the design and organization of the panel dedicated to the energy poverty and preparation of the background analysis on the phenomena on a regional scale. In 2019 RES has prepared a regional fact sheet for the Western Balkans covering among other topics also the energy poverty topic.
RES Foundation is a member of numerous regional networks and maintains a working relationship with organizations and individuals from each contracting party of the Western Balkans, Energy Community Secretariat, Regional Cooperation Council, World Bank, EBRD, UN and bilateral actors in the region.