December 13, 2011

Bulgaria's 2012 grain crop faces drought threat

After an oddly scorching month of November 2011, Bulgaria is highly to experience a grain crisis in 2012, Climate Coalition Bulgaria's Borislav Sandov said on Monday (Dec 12).

This past November was the driest month ever recorded by the Bulgarian weather service, and the drought, combined with low temperatures, has posed a risk to crops, particularly cereals. "The problem will already be felt in the spring," Sandov warned.

According to Denitsa Petrova of the Greenpeace international environmental organisation, climate change is a cause for concern worldwide as temperatures have risen by nearly 4 C instead of an expected 2 C. Despite this trend, the Durban Conference ended without concrete decisions after two weeks of tough negotiations. The conference set a vague commitment about reaching a legally binding global agreement in 2020.

Sandov said Bulgaria is going in the wrong direction as it maintains carbon intensive industries, mainly in the energy sector. The viable alternative to fossil fuels are renewable energy sources, and not shale gas, he said.

Petko Kovachev of the Green Policy Institute said Bulgaria can learn from the Czech Republic, which sold greenhouse gas emission allowances for half a billion euro by 2010, investing all proceeds in energy efficiency and creating 19,000 jobs.