Climate change mitigation - Drivers and pressures (Slovenia)

In 2005 a total of 51 % of Slovenia’s inhabitants lived in urban areas, which is much less than the European average of 72 % (IMAD, 2009). The population is moving from the bigger cities to surrounding areas, increasing pressure on farmland and on the existing municipal and social infrastructure. Daily mobility is also increasing.

In the economic sphere, the period of the last ten years has been marked by a relatively slow restructuring towards the strengthening and growth of services, with a rapid decline in the importance of farming and a gentle decline in the share of industry. Compared to the rest of the EU, Slovenia has a relatively high proportion of manufacturing industry, and the structure of the economy points to above-average shares of energy-intensive industrial processes in the metallurgical, non-metallurgical, and paper industries. These are sectors that rank among the worst in terms of the intensity of atmospheric emissions per unit of production (IMAD, 2009).

Since 1999 Slovenia’s ecological footprint has grown steadily. The major contributing factor is energy sector. According to data from the Global Footprint Network (GFN), in 2006 Slovenia’s footprint amounted to 3.9 gha /person, slightly below that of Europe – 4.5 gha/person. Since 1999, Slovenia has been in an environmental deficit, amounting in 2006 to –1.5 gha/person (GFN, 2009).