The state and the municipalities together must create and develop carbon neutral zones for the industry across the country. This was states by the Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov today in a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development, Innovation and Growth, the Thrace Economic Zone (TIZ), and the Plovdiv regional governor’s office.

“The Plovdiv Economic Zone with its already developed concept for carbon-neutral industrial parks is a first in Bulgaria. It is good to use the experience and knowledge gained so far in this region and create a model that can replicated in other cities,” added the minister. In his view, the aim of such inter-institutional efforts is to create carbon neutral zones in other regions - there is interest and potential for this in Burgas, Ruse, Sofia, and Stara Zagora.

“Climate policies and carbon neutrality in recent years have become an area of extreme global industrial and economic competition, all high technologies are oriented towards this goal. We need to develop the framework that can lead to higher investment interest in Bulgaria,” higjlighted Minister Popov.

Separate business and institutional meetings were agreed to discuss the provision of the capacity and infrastructure sought by investors towards carbon neutrality. Minister Julian Popov called for presenting, within Bulgaria’s participation at the climate summit in Dubai in December, “the achievements of the Bulgarian business in this area so that we can establish ourselves as an attractive destination for carbon-neutral investments”.  He reminded that for the first time Bulgaria will have a pavilion funded by the Ministry of Innovation and Growth at the Dubai forum.