As Balkan Leaders Attend Climate Summit, Air Pollution Chokes Cities Back Home

In his speech on Tuesday to the COP29 annual UN climate summit in Baku, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the world must focus on extinguishing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East before it can truly focus on tackling climate change.

“This conference must finish not only with promises but also with plans for our future. I again refer to the main precondition – peace, peace, peace, and more financial instruments [to tackle climate change] for the poorer countries,” Vucic stressed.

Vucic, like several other Balkan leaders at the summit, restated a commitment both to green transition and to discussing fair ways to distribute the global cost of mitigating the impact of climate change.

For many in the Balkans, however, another matter is pressing. With the onset of winter, the region is bracing for another surge in air pollution.