Developing, implementing and monitoring low carbon policies and measures is not an easy
task as it requires a significant background scientific and technical work in order to collect
necessary data, identify mitigation options, develop tools for estimating the GHG emissions
abatement potential and selecting the appropriate mix of policies and measures. In order to
assist this process, the LOCSEE project (’Low Carbon South East Europe’), funded by the
South East Europe (SEE) Transnational Cooperation Programme, was launched in October
2012. A major task of LOCSEE is to develop a methodological framework for assessing the
technical and economic GHG emissions abatement potential at sectoral level. The
methodology is primarily addressed to SEE countries in the process of joining the EU, but
can be applied also by other countries and regions as well. It is based on the long
experience of EU Member States in the SEE region which have already developed and
implement low carbon policies and measures, and takes into account the real needs, gaps
and barriers in the region as communicated by SEE countries during its development.
The analysis presented thereafter focuses on residential and tertiary building sector, which is
responsible for a large part of GHG emissions of Montenegro. In this context, a bottom-up
model for each sub-sector (residential and tertiary) was developed, including all major
structural characteristics of the buildings (e.g. energy uses, key technologies, energy
sources). The model was first calibrated on the basis of recent energy balances and then
utilized for developing a reference scenario for 2030. Next, several mitigation measures were
analyzed as regards their GHG emissions abatement potential and their cost-effectiveness.
On the basis of the results obtained, a marginal abatement cost curve was constructed in
each case, providing quantitative estimations on the technical and economic GHG emissions
abatement potential of the sector.