A roundtable on "Combating Climate Change" was held at the Ministry of Environment and Water. The event was organized in the framework of the preparation of the Second Voluntary National Review of Bulgaria's implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The preparation started in March 2024 and the results will be presented at the UN High Level Political Forum in July 2025.

The roundtable reviewed the implementation of Goal 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts" and discussed future actions and solutions to address the challenges under this goal.

The participants included representatives of the Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Education and Science, the National Centre for Public Health and Analysis of the Ministry of Health, the National Statistical Institute, the Blulink/Climate Coalition, the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems and the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The participants in the roundtable presented detailed information on the projects implemented and the measures taken to achieve this goal of combating climate change. Of great importance in the current period is the work undertaken to identify, assess and address key climate risks, including the establishment of 8 early warning systems for hydrometeorological disasters maintained by NIMH.

Implications for emissions reduction and adaptation in the urban environment have factors, such as improvements in public, transport, and housing infrastructure, as well as targeted work to address energy poverty through available EU programming instruments, the discussions noted.

Raising the knowledge of Bulgarian citizens and the capacity of institutions and local authorities is an important measure to achieve this, for which a number of educational and applied projects and campaigns targeting schools, universities and municipalities and supported by operational programmes, national science programmes, the National Eco Trust Fund, and the civil sector were presented as key.

Representatives of the Council of Ministers shared additional information on the reporting process to the UN for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and presented the competition for best practices in their implementation, which remains active until 15 May this year: https://www.strategy.bg/Publications/View.aspx?lang=bg-BG&categoryId=&Id=388&y=&m=&d=

Summary data on the implementation of all UN SDGs is also available on the website of the National Statistical Institute: https://www.nsi.bg/bg/content/19408 goals-for-sustainable-development-2030

Voluntary national reviews promote the sharing of good practices, policy dialogue, resource mobilization and the integration of the SDGs into national development policies, thereby contributing to the achievement of the 2030 goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development "Transforming the World", adopted in September 2015 by the UN General Assembly, comprises 17 SDGs and 169 sub-goals. The MOEW is Bulgaria's lead institution for Goal 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts" and Goal 14 "Protect and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development".