With its new Transition Plan, the community of Ugljevik in Bosnia and Herzegovina are stepping away from coal and embracing a greener, more resilient future. To do so, municipality representatives travelled to Sweden to discover innovations and solutions for sustainable energy systems, circular waste management and urban planning.
Aleksandar Krstić, Head of the Civil Protection Department of the Municipality of Ugljevik was taken by surprise how sustainability was manifested in Sweden: 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑒𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 — 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒.“
The capacity building and sharing doesn’t stop here. Going home to Ugljevik, more trainings on topics such as sustainable agriculture and de-pollution are underway, all steps to facilitate the community’s transition away from coal. With support from SEI – Stockholm Environment Institute through BiH SuTra , Ugljevik is ready to become a model of a just and green transition in BiH. 
