Skopje is hosting MEF 2026 - the regional forum on climate, energy transition and sustainable development in the Western Balkans, held on June 1st and 2nd. The theme is "Advancing Climate Resilience and the Energy Transition toward COP31," and among the speakers is prime minister Hristijan Mickoski.

The forum, organised in partnership with the EU Delegation and the Environment Ministry, bills itself as one of the most important regional platforms for climate diplomacy in Southeast Europe. It sounds impressive - a conference on a green future in a country still hooked on coal, where the winter air ranks among the most polluted in Europe.

And there's the discomfort these forums carry. It's easy to talk about energy transition from a podium; it's harder to see it in the homes of people still heating with firewood because the alternative is too expensive. Climate resilience isn't built with panels and speeches, but with concrete measures that actually reach the ordinary citizen.

So the forum is worth welcoming - but also worth measuring by results, not rhetoric. The question for Mickoski and everyone who'll take the floor isn't whether they know the right words for "green transition" - everyone does. The question is what will change in the life of a Skopje resident next winter, when the smog covers the city again, far from the halls where forums like this are held.