04.November
THE Visual Aerial Application, which compiles data from ground sensors around the world, last Thursday ranked Belgrade the most polluted city in the world. The Air Quality Index (AQI) – which rates air quality as good between zero and fifty – reached an unhealthy score of 179 in the Serbian capital that day. Air pollution was more than seven times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual guideline value for air quality.
“The heating season has increased air pollution,” public broadcaster RTS explained the next day. “More than 90 percent of the population lives in areas where air quality is below the level prescribed by WHO. It is estimated that air pollution is responsible for several million deaths per year. Serbia ranks first in Europe and among the top ten countries in the world in terms of mortality from air pollution.
The Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection announced coordinated checks by national and local inspectors starting November 1 to ensure that the restrictions of the Air Protection Law have been implemented at air protection facilities. municipal heating and organizations with their own boiler rooms.
The Serbian Environmental Protection Agency highlights that among the main causes contributing to high pollution levelsthe dominant sources are individual ovens, poorly regulated emissions from industrial plants, aging vehicles running on poor quality fuel, and lack of air purification initiatives.
Bank watcha network of NGOs based in Prague, reports that the Coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkan countries produced six times more sulfur dioxide than allowed over the past three years.
It is estimated that between 2018 and 2020, 3,700 people died in the Western Balkans and 7,000 in the EU, just from exceedance of pollution limits by these coal-fired power plants. Nearly 1,000 more people are estimated to have died in other areas from harmful air pollution from the same power plants.
However, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić frequently repeats that Serbia will not close its coal-fired power plants – although it is a major source of air pollution.
“I was told I was crazy because I didn’t want to close the coal mines… (but) you can’t balance electricity with wind and solar energy,” Vučić told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last month in Belgrade.
At a critical moment when the rest of the world united at the COP26 summit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent further poisoning of the planet’s air, the Serbian government has doubted its ability to pass to greener energy sources while providing electricity, infrastructure and jobs for its citizens.
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