Air pollution in the Balkans – independent monitoring
With our own air quality monitoring devices, we have managed to provide independent data on air quality in many selected sites in the Balkans, and have provided some local partners with data on the health impacts of short and long-term exposure to coarse particulate matter (PM10) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
In spite of growing evidence on air pollution from coal and increasing public anger in Balkan countries, and besides the declarative commitments from the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, the European Commission, the Energy Community and the Balkan countries still do not treat air quality as a priority issue. Official air quality data is unreliable in most countries in the region and we suspect the monitoring systems are sometimes turned off or intentionally placed in irrelevant locations.
On this page we provide regularly collected data from a few selected sites. The data is gathered for at least 30 continuous days from each location. It is therefore indicative and is not intended to replace stationary long-term monitoring. As clearly visible on the map below, most of the power plants are not sufficiently monitored: many of them fall outside the monitoring stations’ range and do not cover all relevant pollutants.
Implementation of the Air Quality Directive by Western Balkan countries – 2022 update
In order to join the European Union, these countries must undergo a process of approximation with EU legislation and rules. In the field of environmental protection, all of these countries are struggling to meet EU standards. Ambient air quality is among the biggest environmental problems in the region. Efforts to improve air quality are mostly driven by EU legislation, such as the Ambient Air Quality Directive. This briefing assesses each country’s transposition of the Directive, its approach to monitoring air quality, the legal air quality standards in place, how related information is reported to the public, and any plans it has to improve air quality.
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