While Macedonia enters into a political crisis, with the announced but uncertain resignation from PM Zoran Zaev, and faces an energy crisis due to lack of coal, President Stevo Pendarovski is in Glasgow for the UN climate conference. Pendarovski pledged that Macedonia and the other European countries will achieve carbon neutral energy production on the continent by 2050.

Scientists tell us that we only have perhaps one decade to have the world fundamentally rethink its lifestyle paradigms. We need to change our habits and put our economies on solid sustainable grounds. If we ignore these worrying trends, we are in for disastrous consequences in the environment, health and security, Pendarovski said.

He added that Macedonia aims to reduce carbon emissions by 51 percent from 1990 levels until 2030, and that there are 63 gender responsible policies in place to do so. Macedonia currently faces a crisis as our main electricity producing facility, the REK Bitola coal plant, is operating at bare minimum capacity due to poorly planned and executed coal mine management.