Publication Name

and increasing costs to build and maintain roads and

supplies. Railway systems are similarly vulnerable.

Inland navigation will more often be faced with

restrictions associated with extremely low and high

river discharges. Changes in transport capacity may

lead to changes in transport costs or to a shift between

transport modalities. Economic impacts are closely

related to the frequency of events that damage, disrupt

and restrict transport, and the availability of transport

alternatives. Furthermore, the costs associated with

monitoring and maintenance of these networks is

likely to increase. Few studies exist on the impacts of

climate change on the transport networks within the

region, including the mountainous areas. However,

one study on the EU-27 transport network can

give some indication of potential economic costs of

climate change for the region. For road infrastructure,

weather stresses already represent 30 per cent to 50

per cent of current road maintenance costs in Europe.

Ten per cent of these costs (0.9 billion euro) are

associated with extreme events, with flooding taking

the lead. A significant extra cost for road transport

infrastructures is projected due to more frequent

extreme precipitation and flooding events (50–192

million euros per year between 2040–2100). At the

same time, increasing temperatures could reduce

road costs related tomaintenance operations in colder

areas (for snow and ice) (JRC, 2012).

Climate change also interacts with transport to have

a strong influence on air quality. Transport emissions

contribute to air pollution and the greenhouse gases

that cause climate change; the effects of which –

higher temperatures, in particular – exacerbate

the human health responses to air pollution. An

efficient transport sector would reduce greenhouse

gas (GHG) emissions and lessen the health effects of

air pollution. While the transport system in South-

Eastern Europe has improved in recent years, the

standards are generally low, and in the region’s large,

rapidly growing cities, traffic is one of the main causes

of poor air quality. The use of leaded fuel has been

reduced, but it is not yet banned in FYR Macedonia,

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia.

Industry (mining)

There is a long history of mining within the region,

reaching back to at least the fifth century BC. Richly

endowed with minerals, the region contains some of

the largest deposits in Europe. Many of the deposits

that are mined today have been exploited since

the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. By the 1930s

exploitation had increased to include aluminium,

chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, magnesium,

manganese, nickel and zinc. Precious metals include

gold, palladium and platinum, and hydrocarbon

fuels include coal (lignite), natural gas and petroleum

(UNEP/ENVSEC, 2012). By the 1990s, mining,

mineral processing and downstream exploitation

had established the region as a major European

source of copper, lead and zinc, and the mining

industry was one of the flagship industrial sectors

(UNEP, 2009). However, following the disintegration

of the Yugoslav common market in the 1990s,

industrial output dropped significantly, resulting in

a decrease in pollution, but also many abandoned

or so-called orphan sites scattered across the region

that have no liable legal ownership. Within Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, FYR

Macedonia and Kosovo,

about one-third of the 180

sites identified are considered to be of significant

environmental and security concern, and one-fifth

are considered to pose transboundary risks.

Abandoned mine, Serbia