Development of low carbon urban environment stands among the highest
priorities countries, cities and regions are faced with. Despite all the
efforts, initiatives and concrete actions taken on the international,
regional and national level, many countries experience very low or almost
insignificant change on a local level. The situation in Serbia resembles
these widely recognized dynamics. While on one hand, the responsible
ministries and governmental bodies in Serbia have made a visible progress in
meeting the challenge of developing low carbon environment over the past
decade, it is a fact that actions on a local level aimed at redirecting the
current trends and introducing a more responsible development into their
cities and towns are very rare and rather sporadically taken. This paper
focuses on a local level, and is concerned with the specific challenges and
opportunities recognized there. The medium and small towns in Serbia are of
primary interest, since their potential for change is least developed and
recognized. The paper explores the challenges they deal with, namely, the
perceptive, institutional, and legal constraints and goes on to investigate
how these constraints could be overcome, or reduced. On the other hand, there
are some opportunities that local communities have on hand. The paper takes
to the light their strengths, and presents how they could be integrated into
the development processes, and employed in order to further empower local
communities in making their towns and places more carbon sensitive.
Forms of local media relations in local communities — case studies
