site.btaAir Pollution Cases Drop by 60% in Eight Years

April 12 (BTA) - The exceedances of air quality standards registered by monitoring stations dropped by close to 60 per cent between 2011 and 2018, Environment and Water Minister Neno
Dimov said on Friday at the opening of the SOFAIR European Air Quality Conference, organized by Sofia Municipality and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The forum is attended by mayors and deputy mayors of cities including Thessaloniki, Schiedam, Tirana, Katowice, Cologne and Porto.

Dimov recalled that the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against Bulgaria over high levels of air pollution in 28 cities in 2017. According to preliminary data as of 2019, nine of those cities already meet the standards and are no longer subject to the infringement procedure, and six of them have sustainably achieved the objective. There are still 25 per cent of monitoring stations across the country that report high air pollution levels, the Minister said, adding that this must be remedied over the next few years.

Dimov noted that economic development and poverty are directly linked to air quality, which is why the Cabinet's priority to increase income levels is in turn also connected with environmental protection.

Addressing the participants in the conference, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova said that cities could be the driving force behind large-scale solutions on the national level, because cities are the first to see what works and what does not, what is accepted by the people and what they are willing to participate in.

She noted that it is up to the local authorities to attract more people to this cause. "I believe that people participate when they see that we, the local authorities and institutions, are doing our job," she said, adding that the conference is a place for exchange of experience and for creation of a favourable climate for finding effective solutions. IG/MY



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