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© Cetinje
About the region
The territory of the Old Royal Capital Cetinje covers an area of 910 km2 with the population of 14 465 people. When it comes to the city itself, it is located on an area of 6 km2 and hosts most of the municipality's population, 12 460 people. The borders of the Old Royal Capital Cetinje include two national parks “Lovćen” (Mountain area) and "Skadarsko jezero” (Skadar Lake).
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© Cetinje
Main climate risks
floods
Flooding is the most common climate hazard in Montenegro, especially in riverine, coastal, and urban areas like the Skadar Lake region and Cetinje. Although total rainfall hasn’t changed much, there are now more dry days and more intense rain events, raising the risk of both droughts and floods [1]. Cetinje, the rainiest city in continental Europe, faces particular flood risk, worsened by more frequent extreme weather due to climate change.
wildfires
Forests make over 60% of Montenegro's territory [2]. Over the last 15 years, there has been 1007 major forest fires in the country [3]. The peak fire season occurs in mid-June and lasts around 12 weeks. Because of the krast geography of Montenegro, forest fires are often spread in areas that are difficult to reach. Because of the vast amounts of woods, the entire area of the Old Royal Capital Cetinje is susceptible to forest fires. In the future a combination of increasing temperatures, changed precipitation patterns, more frequent droughts will increase the likelihood of wildfires.
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© Cetinje
heatwaves
Montenegro’s warm summers, historically around 20°C, are getting significantly warmer. Recent decades show notable increases, and projections for 2041–2070 indicate the annual mean could rise by over 2°C, with the warmest quarter about 4°C hotter than historical averages [4]. More frequent, intense heatwaves—especially worsened by urban heat islands—pose serious health risks for vulnerable groups [5] and threaten economic sectors like agriculture and tourism.
Focus during Pathways2Resilience
Cetinje recognise low adaptive capacities and seeks to promote the KECs so that they can improve their institutional and governance capacities, promote sustainable development practices, and foster international cooperation to mitigate the climate change impact in Montenegro. One of the ways they will promote this is by extensive plans for community stakeholder engagement which they will pursue as part of P2R. In terms of funding, they see P2R as a way to explore avenues to fund a more comprehensive economic case study for the adaptation mission and create mission mission-aligned investment mechanisms for the region. Through these efforts, in P2R they hope to improve the overall community capacity for climate adaptation.
Interesting highlights
Montenegro has not yet adopted the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, and its reparation is taking longer than four years. It is a key document for a systemic approach to climate change adaptation and this project is implemented by the UNDP office in Montenegro with the support of the Green Climate Fund and in cooperation with the Government of Montenegro.
Through the implementation of the mentioned project, Montenegro is expected to strengthen its institutional framework, expand technical capacities, improve the information base needed for effective decision-making and define a resource mobilization strategy. Identified priority sectors in the process of adaptation to climate change in Montenegro are - agriculture, water, health and tourism.
Regional Resilience Journey
Cetinje has low readiness for all 3 RRJ steps.
Cetinje has the highest capacities in Governance, Engagement and Collaboration and Capabilities and Skills.
Key community systems priority areas
water-management
infrastructure
Key enabling conditions priority areas
knowledge-data
finances-resources