National Programme To Abate the Climate Change Impacts in the Czech Republic

The National Programme To Abate the Climate Change Impacts in the Czech Republic (hereinafter, the Programme) presents the climate protection strategy of the Czech Republic. The Programme has been developed in accordance with the requirements of Council Decision 99/296/EC and approved by Czech Government Resolution no. 187 of 3 March 2004.

The Programme maps the impacts of the occurring climate change on the various sectors and defines a national strategy leading towards a mitigation of the negative impacts. Besides explaining the physical principles behind climate change and outlining the developments in international co-operation, the Programme contains data on the greenhouse gas emissions in the Czech Republic, including projections of future development, and presents proposals for concrete measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and for adaptation measures.

The Programme was reviewed in 2007 with respect to the effect and economic potential of the adopted measures, including a comparison with the previous state and the emission reduction achieved since the adoption of the Programme. The Czech Government approved the review on 16 April 2008. The review suggests that remarkable achievements have been made in most sectors over the several years in respect of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the share of renewable sources in energy generation has increased, with biomass holding the greatest share within the renewable sources (79%). Significant annual increases in gross electricity generation have been recorded in the areas of wind power, biogas and photovoltaics. In the agricultural sector, greatest efforts have been exerted in water management, erosion prevention and so-called agroenvironmental measures (such as organic farming). As concerns water management, adaptation measures have been introduced gradually in order to reduce flood occurrence and secure sufficient drinking water supply.

On the other hand, the Czech Republic still shows rather unfavourable figures in energy intensity and greenhouse gas production per capita and per unit of GDP. The transportation sector also appears problematic as its emissions have been growing constantly year on year, mainly due to the growing passenger and freight automobile transport. The reduction policies and measures therefore have to be directed specifically on the industry and transportation sectors, which contribute the greatest shares to the total greenhouse gas balance of the Czech Republic.

As political negotiations both domestically and globally (within the European Union and at UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol Conferences of Parties) have evolved since the introduction of the Programme in 2004, a new Climate Protection Policy of the Czech Republic will be introduced during the second half of 2010, including the current climate protection strategy and proposed measures for effective greenhouse gas emission reduction.