site.btaCircular, Low-Carbon Economy, Resource Efficiency on Eco Ministry's Priority List during Bulgaria's EU Presidency

Circular, Low-Carbon Economy, Resource Efficiency on Eco Ministry's Priority List  during Bulgaria's EU Presidency

Sofia, September 30 (BTA) - Developing a more circular and low-carbon economy and boosting resource efficiency will be the priorities of the Environment and Water Ministry during Bulgaria's upcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Ministry quoted Deputy Environment Minister Atanaska Nikolova as telling a forum in Sofia.

Bulgaria will start its six-month Presidency term on July 1, 2018.

The EU has set itself a target by 2030 of recycling 65 per cent of municipal waste and 75 per cent of packaging waste and a binding landfill target to reduce landfill to maximum of 10 per cent of municipal waste, alongside a ban on landfilling of separately collected waste, the Ministry quoted Nikolova as telling an eco forum that took place on Thursday.

Nikolova noted that 562 million leva have been allocated under Operational Programme (OP) Environment (2014-2020) for resource-efficient waste management and that the first 98 million leva scheme for the construction of installations for the composting of separately collected green waste has already been announced.

In support of the development of sustainable urban mobility, Bulgaria has used funds from OP Environment to purchase 10 subway trains, 126 eco buses, 20 trams and 100 trolley-buses, totaling 320 million leva, Nikolova said.

The Ministry has developed a 1 million leva national initiative to promote this year the use of electric motor vehicles, Nikolova said. The pilot phase of the initiative, involving four state institutions and 22 municipalities, is already underway.

Nikolova said 111 million leva have been allocated for the new programming period to help reduce pollution in the 29 municipalities where ambient air quality is substandard.