Ana-Maria Boromisa

Introduction: Climate change and the implementation of mitigation and adaptation policies have significant socioeconomic implications. Conversely, socioeconomic developments shape the capacity to design and enforce climate policies, creating a feedback loop. This paper localizes the impact of Climate change in Croatia and explores the feedback between socio-economic development and climate change. The starting hypothesis is that limitations in human capital critically hinder climate-resilient development in Croatia.Methods: The study uses climate data and literature to contextualize Croatia's climate vulnerability. A sector-specific analysis is conducted to identify key sectors for climate-resilient development based on their potential for emissions reduction, climate vulnerability, and current and potential economic importance. The current economic importance is evaluated based on contribution to GDP and employment, and key opportunities and obstacle for future growth are identified.Results: Climate data and literature indicate that Croatia, a high-income EU member, is experiencing warming faster than the global average and ranks among the least climate-resilient high-income countries. A sector-specific analysis identifies the most critical sectors for Croatian climate-resilient development based on their emission reduction potential, climate vulnerability, and growth opportunities. Among these are sectors that contribute the most to GDP and employment—such as tourism, construction, and healthcare —which already suffer from significant labor shortages. The results indicate that a shrinking workforce is the key constraint for implementation of climate-resilient development.Discussion: Significant improvements in labor productivity, higher participation rates, integration of foreign workers in the labor market, and efforts to address skills shortages are necessary. This presents a challenge, given increasing damages from extreme climate events, ongoing depopulation, a limited supply of a highly educated workforce, and low participation in lifelong learning. For climate-resilient development, it is essential to design policies that adequately address aging and depopulation –both of which limit economic growth and reduce capacity for climate adaptation.Conclusions: Findings of the Croatian case offer insights for Mediterranean and island countries reliant on climate-sensitive sectors like tourism (e.g., Greece, Thailand). The high-income yet low-resilience paradox is relevant for regions such as Southern Europe, Australia, and California. EU membership highlights institutional misalignments between supranational climate agendas (e.g., the European Green Deal) and subnational demographic realities. These dynamics are relevant to aging societies (Japan, Germany) and post-industrial economies (Poland, Canada) navigating green transitions, emphasizing the need to integrate demographic strategies into climate governance.

The problem of marine litter is becoming more visible in Croatia. The main goal of this paper is to investigate issues related to marine litter in the Croatian Adriatic, from the current state of sources and quantities of marine litter, through marine litter monitoring and legislation, to stakeholders’ awareness about the marine litter issue in Croatia. The topic was designed as a case study and was covered by the method of document analysis and the survey method. Quantitative analysis was done for involved stakeholders and their level of interest. The mean value method and method for stakeholder mapping for marine areas was used. In addition, an exhaustive review of Croatian marine litter studies was done. The results of the research indicate that our knowledge about marine litter sources and quantities in the Croatian Adriatic is still quite scarce and that the stakeholders in Croatia have a moderate level of interest in the marine litter issue. Conclusions indicate that in Croatia particular attention is committed to strengthening both bilateral and multilateral relations with the neighboring countries given the transboundary nature that allows marine litter to spread over long distances.