Abstract
Relying on interviews conducted in the summer of 2019 with parliamentary advisors, civil society activists, public officials and the EU, OSCE, and UNDP missions in Kosovo, this study provides an overview of the debates about the building of the new coal power plant by a US-led (UK-based) Company ContourGlobal. It discusses how different actors in Kosovo state and society approach the renewable energy question. An important obstacle against Kosovo’s transition to renewable energy derives from the absence of consensus about the main threats and goals facing Kosovo. In this context, rationalist and constructivist stances imply different “hierarchies of harms”.
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Notes
- 1.
However, the Vetëvendosje’s coalition government was dropped with a no-confidence vote in the Kosovo Assembly on March 25. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it seems that it is going to pursue a caretaker role for a couple of months. Blerim Vela, ‘Kurti’s downfall leaves Kosovo politics in turmoil’, BIRN, 26 March 2020, https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/26/kurtis-downfall-leaves-kosovo-politics-in-turmoil/ (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 2.
Xhorxhina Bami and Eve-Anne Travers, “Construction of Coal-fired Power Plant in Kosovo Halted,” BIRN, 12 March 2020, https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/17/construction-of-coal-fired-power-plant-in-kosovo-halted/ (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 3.
World Bank Data, “Kosovo.” https://data.worldbank.org/country/kosovo (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
World Bank Data, “GDP per Capita (Current US$)—Kosovo” https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=XK (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 6.
Eurostat, “Enlargement Countries: Demographic Statistics,” 2015 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4031688/7101418/KS-04-15-589-EN-N.pdf/063d451e-c7ca-471e-a84c-da6896b655d1 (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 7.
Valeri Plesch, “Tiny Nation of Kosovo has Air Pollution so Bad that it Rivals Beijing,” USA Today, 28 March 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/03/28/kosovo-air-pollution-health-problems/459594002/ (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 8.
World Bank, Air Pollution Management in Kosovo (Basque, Albanian) (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2020), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/927281579895920533/Air-Pollution-Management-in-Kosovo (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 9.
The Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals of the Republic of Kosovo, https://www.kosovo-mining.org/mineral-resources/mineral-deposits/?lang=en (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 10.
GAP Institute and The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, The Effect of State Aid on the Electricity Market in the Balkans, February 2019, p. 4, https://www.institutigap.org/documents/26454_state_aid_web.pdf (last accessed 12 April 2019).
- 11.
Entered into force in April 2016.
- 12.
The Treaty entered into force in July 2006.
- 13.
Reuters, “Environmentalists File Complaint over Kosovo’s Coal Project,”13 May 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kosovo-energy-coal/environmentalists-file-complaint-over-kosovos-coal-project-idUSKCN1SJ10T (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 14.
In 2016, the coal production in Kosovo was 1412 kToe, source: IEA—International Energy Agency, “Coal Production by Type, Kosovo 1990–2017,” https://www.iea.org/countries/kosovo (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 15.
World Bank, “Energy in Kosovo,” https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kosovo/brief/energy-in-kosovo (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 16.
ERO–Energy Regulatory Office of the Republic of Kosovo, “Electricity and Thermal Energy Balance 2020,” Pristina, December 2019, https://mzhe-ks.net/repository/docs/ELECTRICITY_AND_THERMAL_ENERGY_ANNUAL_BALANCE_2020.pdf (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 17.
ERO–Energy Regulatory Office of the Republic of Kosovo, “Annual Report, 2017,” Pristina, March 2018, p. 7, http://ero-ks.org/2017/Raportet/Raporti_vjetor_2017_ZRRE_ang.pdf (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
World Bank Data, “Energy Imports, Net (% of Energy Use)—Kosovo,” https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.IMP.CONS.ZS?locations=XK (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 21.
Eurostat, “Energy Production and Imports,” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Energy_production_and_imports (accessed 10 April 2020).
- 22.
World Bank Data, “Energy Imports, Net (% of Energy Use)—Kosovo”.
- 23.
World Bank, Evaluation of Power Supply Options for Kosovo, August 2018, p. xviii, https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WBG_Evaluation-of-power-supply-options-for-Kosovo_Aug-2018.pdf (last accessed on 12 April 2020).
- 24.
Noah Kittner, Hilda Dimco, Visar Azemi, Evgenia Tairyan and Daniel M. Kammen, “An Analytic Framework to Assess Future Electricity Options in Kosovo,” Environmental Research Letters, 11, no. 10 (2016), p. 2.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Die Morina and Visar Prebreza, “Kosovo Delays Action to Avert Coal Shortage,” BalkanInsight, Pristina, August 3, 2017, https://balkaninsight.com/2017/08/03/kosovo-seeking-for-solution-to-prevent-an-energy-collapse-08-02-2017/ (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 27.
Gent Ahmetaj, Burim Ejupi and Rinora Gojani, The Prospects for an Energy Market in Kosovo: The Case of Electricity (Prishtina: Institute for Economic Development, March 2015), p. 5.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 29.
Bleta Arifi and Philipp Späth, “Sleeping on Coal: Trajectories of Promoting and Opposing a Lignite-fired Power Plant in Kosovo,” Energy Research & Social Science, 41 (July 2018), pp. 118–127.
- 30.
Dije Rizvanolli, “Kosovo’s Potential for Renewable Energy Production: An Analysis,” Unpublished Master Thesis (MEEM) (Twente: University of Twente, August 2019).
- 31.
GAP Institute and The Vienna Institute, The Effect of State Aid.
- 32.
World Bank, “Energy in Kosovo.”
- 33.
The Options Study which was stamped as confidential has not been published by the World Bank officially. World Bank, Evaluation of Power Supply Options for Kosovo.
- 34.
Ibid., p. xxx.
- 35.
Ibid., p. xxiii.
- 36.
Energy Monitor, “Kosovo Expects Million-Euro Profits after Secession from Serbia’s Energy Bloc,” December 2019, https://www.amchamksv.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Energy-Monitor-December-2019-Issue-12.pdf (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 37.
Energy Regulatory Office, Annual Report 2017, p. 73.
- 38.
Fabian Schmidt, “Clocks in Europe are Running Late Because of the Kosovo Conflict,” Deutsche Welle, 7 March 2018, https://www.dw.com/en/clocks-in-europe-are-running-late-because-of-the-kosovo-conflict/a-42867061 (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 39.
Milica Stojanovic, “Kosovo Moves to Join Albanian Grid, Serbia Incensed,” BIRN, Belgrade, 3 December 2019, https://balkaninsight.com/2019/12/03/kosovo-moves-to-join-albanian-grid-serbia-incensed/ (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 40.
Energy Monitor, “Kosovo Expects Million-euro Profits.”
- 41.
Stojanovic, “Kosovo Moves to Join Albanian Grid, Serbia Incensed.”
- 42.
Kittner et al., “An Analytic Framework,” World Bank, 2018; Rizvanolli, 2019.
- 43.
Kittner et al., “An Analytic Framework,” p. 3.
- 44.
Germanwatch and Balkan Green Foundation, “Phasing in Renewables: Towards a Prosperous and Sustainable Energy Future in Kosovo: Challenges and Possible Solutions,” Bonn, July 2018, https://www.germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/2018-09/Study%20Phasing%20in%20Renewables.pdf (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 45.
Zana Govori, “Renewable Energy in the Republic of Kosovo: Regulatory and Financial Obstacles to RES Penetration and Deployment in the Market,” Unpublished Master Thesis (Thessaloniki: International Hellenic University, February 2019), p. 39.
- 46.
Eurostat, “File: Energy Production, 2007 and 2017,” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Energy_production,_2007_and_2017_(million_tonnes_of_oil_equivalent)_upd.png (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 47.
International Energy Agency (IEA), “Modern Renewables,” https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/modern-renewables (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 48.
Rizvanolli, Kosovo’s Potential for Renewable Energy, p. 19.
- 49.
European Parliament Directorate General for Economic and Scientific Policies “Renewable Energy Directive Target,” IP/A/ITRE/2017–03 PE614.201, January 2018, European Union, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/614201/IPOL_STU(2018)614201_EN.pdf (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 50.
IRENA, Renewable Energy Market Analysis: Southeast Europe (Abu Dhabi: IRENA, 2019), p. 69.
- 51.
Noah Kittner et al., p. 3.
- 52.
IRENA, Renewable Energy Market Analysis, p. 82.
- 53.
Ibid., Table 3.5, p. 83.
- 54.
Govori, “Renewable Energy in the Republic of Kosovo,” p. 38.
- 55.
Environment Impact Watch in Energy & Mining South East Europe (ESIA SEE), “Subsidies for Coal Power Three Times Higher than for Renewables in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia,” 26 June 2019, https://www.esiasee.eu/subsidies-for-coal-power-three-times-higher-than-for-renewables-in-bosnia-kosovo-serbia/ (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 56.
IRENA, Joanneum Research and University of Ljubljana, “Cost-competitive Renewable Power Generation: Potential across South East Europe,” Abu Dhabi, January 2017, p. 52, https://www.irena.org/publications/2017/Jan/Cost-competitive-renewable-power-generation-Potential-across-South-East-Europe (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 57.
Kittner et al., p. 3.
- 58.
Lira Ramadani, “KOSID Sues the Government Challenging Kosovo’s Coal Investment,” Prishtina Insight, 21 March 2019, https://prishtinainsight.com/kosid-sues-the-government-challenging-kosovos-coal-investment/ (last accessed 10 April 2020).
- 59.
For rationalist-constructivist divide, see James Fearon and Alexander Wendt, “Rationalism vs. Constructivism: A Skeptical View,” in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth Simmons (eds), The Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage, 2002), pp. 52–72.
- 60.
Andrew Linklater, The Problem of Harm in World Politics: Theoretical Investigations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
- 61.
Fearon and Wendt “Rationalism vs. Constructivism”; Linklater, The Problem of Harm in World Politics.
- 62.
Jeffery Checkel, “The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory,” World Politics, no. 50 (1998), pp. 324–348.
- 63.
Vladimir Spacisc, “Kosova e Re Power Purchase Agreement Challenged at Energy Community,” Balkan Green Energy News, 14 May 2019, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/kosova-e-re-power-purchase-agreement-challenged-at-energy-community/ (last accessed 11 April 2020).
- 64.
Balkan Green Foundation, “Green Deal for Kosovo—Kosovo B power Plant Refurbishment,” 30 January 2020, https://www.balkangreenfoundation.org/en-us/press/134/green-deal-for-kosovo-kosovo-b-power-plant-refurbishment/?beta=1 (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 65.
EUobserver, “EU Gives €76 m to Help ‘Green’ Kosovo Power Plant,” 31 January 2020, https://euobserver.com/tickers/147320 (last accessed 12 April 2020).
- 66.
The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, “What is Human Security,” https://www.un.org/humansecurity/what-is-human-security/ (last accessed 10 April 2020).
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Dikmen, B.A., Gülmez, D.B. (2022). Destined for Coal? A “Hierarchy of Harms” and the Prospects of Renewable Energy in Kosovo. In: Shabliy, E.V., Crawford, M.J., Kurochkin, D. (eds) Energy Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93068-4_5
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