Conference on air quality planning at the local level

Arandjelovac, 6 April 2023 – Within the project "EU for Green Agenda in Serbia", yesterday and today, a National Conference on planning the improvement of air quality in cities and municipalities in Serbia was held in Arandjelovac. The conference brought together more than 30 representatives of local self-governments, with the aim to exchange experiences and present the results of their work in this area.

Miroslav Tadić, team leader for environment and climate change in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that the organization is putting in significant efforts into solving air quality challenges at the national, and especially at the local level.

"We will be able to provide extra support to the most active local self-governments in the implementation of specific measures. We will make efforts to identify the measures which are crucial for those local governments that want to start resolving these problems," announced Tadić.

Head of the Department for Air and Ozone Protection in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Vesna Mitrović, pointed out the importance of this opportunity for local self-governments to gain a deeper understanding of air quality improvement at this conference by exchanging experiences.

"A face-to-face conference enables us to find the best solutions and draft documents which will give us the best results in the implementation," Mitrović said.

During the first day of the conference, Mitrović presented the National Air Protection Program as well as the Ministry’s current activities in the area of air quality improvement.

The representative of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Antoine Avignon, emphasized the importance of institutional cooperation for air quality improvement.

"Reducing air pollution is not possible without cooperation between institutions and citizens. Scientific research shows that air quality is essential for the health. Hundreds of thousands of people die every year because of air pollution, and I think that the Balkans cannot afford that, especially considering the demographic trends," concluded Avignon.

On the second day of the conference, the participants were presented with a draft of guidelines for the preparation and adoption of Air Quality Plans and Short-Term Action Plans for air quality protection in local self-governments, as well as the importance of communication with the citizens in the process of preparing and implementing those plans.

Twelve local self-governments receive direct support from the "EU for Green Agenda in Serbia" project in the development and improvement of local action plans for air quality management, while the representatives of additional 17 local self-governments have the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills through training, so that they could better plan and implement air protection measures.

It was also announced that within "EU for Green Agenda in Serbia" project support for the local self-governments will continue, especially in the development or improvement of air quality management plans, as well as in the implementation of air protection measures.

The project "EU for the Green Agenda in Serbia", with the technical and financial support of the European Union and in partnership with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, is implemented by UNDP, in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden and the European Investment Bank (EIB), with additional funds provided by the governments of Sweden, Switzerland and Serbia.