Bosnia and Herzegovina GENERAL INFORMATION Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) has a population of 3.5 mil­lion. 77 The population trend in the country has been negative for years. According to Labour Force Survey-based data, the unemployment rate in the 15 to 74 age group increased to 19.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 16.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2020. Youth unemploy­ment(15 to 24 years) stood at 40.4 per cent in the first quar­ter of 2021, compared to 36 per cent the year before. 78 The gross domestic product per capita in purchasing power standards in BiH in 2020 was 33 per cent of the EU average. 79 Polarised nationalist politics and dysfunctional institutions are a daily feature of political life. The Republika Srpska en­tity leadership frequently calls into question the functioning of the State-level institutions and the Federation entity still has a caretaker government, three years after the October 2018 elections. All of this means that an inclusive energy transition appears to be the last thing on many decision makers’ minds and the public has very little appetite to en­gage with decision-making processes. ENERGY TRANSITION SNAPSHOT Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of only two countries in south­east Europe still planning new coal power plants. Although several are planned, Tuzla 7 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the one closest to being built, though chang­es in the technology being offered by the main contractor may yet prove to be the end of the project. 80 The loan guar­antee for the project also breaches EU state aid rules. 81 Around two thirds of BiH’s electricity is generated by lignite and brown coal, with the rest mainly from hydropower. So­lar photovoltaic development is in its infancy(35 MW by the end of 2020), 82 but three wind farms are operating(total 87 MW) 83 and up to 2.2 GW of projects are in the pipeline. 84 BIH’s 2020 target for renewable energy was 40 per cent, and in 2019 it achieved 37.6 per cent, 85 making it unlikely that the 2020 target was met. Like other countries in the re­77 Bosnia and Herzegovina Agency for Statistics, Bosnia and Herzego­vina in Figures 2020, 2021. 78 European Commission, Commission staff working document – ­Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021 Report, 19 October 2021. 79 Eurostat, GDP per capita in PPS(PRC_PPP_IND), accessed 8 Decem­ber 2021. 80 Vladimir Spasi ć ,‘EPBIH ready to continue construction of Tuzla 7 coal project’, Balkan Green Energy News, 13 September 2021. 81 Energy Community Secretariat, Ministerial Council decides in the ­Tuzla 7 case, 1 December 2021, 82 Energy Community Secretariat, Implementation Report 2021. 83 Energy Community Secretariat, Implementation Report 2021. 84 Vladimir Spasi ć ,‘Tušnica wind farm, Zvizdan solar power plant in BiH to be online by end-2023’, Balkan Green Energy News, 24 Septem­ber 2021. 85 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fourth(sic) Progress Report on promotion and use of energy from renewable sources, Energy Community, 14 June 2021. gion, Bosnia and Herzegovina over-relied on hydropower to meet its targets and has seen massive controversies, particu­larly related to the construction of small hydropower plants, largely driven by feed-in tariffs. Although the entities’ sup­port schemes expired at the end of 2020 in line with their renewable energy targets, only Republika Srpska appears to be making significant steps towards passing new legislation on renewable energy. Little progress has been made in energy market liberalisa­tion and aligning the legislative framework for gas and elec­tricity with the third energy package, 86 which limits BiH’s ability to freely trade electricity and integrate a high per­centage of variable renewables into its mix. BiH stands out as the most energy-intensive Western Balkan country, using more than four times as much energy to pro­duce a unit of GDP as the EU average in 2019. 87 Both Entities have Laws on Energy Efficiency, 88 , 89 but they are not fully aligned with EU Directive 2012/27/EU, and on­ly the Federation has adopted an Energy Efficiency Action Plan for 2019-2021, 90 despite 2021 nearly being over. In 2018 Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a Framework En­ergy Strategy until 2035 at the state level, which combines the Federation and Republika Srpska’s strategies in one doc­ument. This gives increased prominence to energy efficien­cy as one of the main pillars of the energy sector, but none of the scenarios it explores are compatible with a path to decarbonisation by 2050 as they include building new coal power plants. Since BiH’s Framework Energy Strategy is not binding, and does not pick any one scenario to be imple­mented, it is of limited use, 91 and the country’s NECP will need to be more ambitious. Like other Western Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovi­na lacks a definition of energy poverty. The Federation’s Law on Electrical Energy states that energy policy needs to provide a programme for the protection of vulnerable ener­gy consumers(Article 5), and that this programme needs to protect vulnerable consumers from disconnections and pro­vide protection in remote areas(Article 13). 92 To this day en­ergy poverty is still mostly seen as an issue related to the en­ergy sector and no statistical data collection, ­criteria or mon­itoring system on energy poverty has been put in place. 86 European Commission, Commission staff working document – ­Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021 Report. 87 IEA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, accessed 8 December 2021; IEA, ­Europe, accessed 8 December 2021. 88 Official Gazette of FBiH no. 22/17. 89 Official Gazette of RS, no. 59/13. 90 European Commission, Commission staff working document – ­Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021 Report. 91 Svjetlana Jovanovi ć ,‘Kopa č warns BiH Framework Energy ­Strategy until 2035 is useless without related law’, Balkan Green Energy News, 12 September 2018. 92 Zakon o elektri č noj energiji u Federaciji Bosne i Hercegovine, Sl. novine FBiH, br. 66/2013, 94/2015 and 54/2019, accessed 8 December 2021. 21