The most important strategic documents related to air pollution in Montenegro have not been adopted, and the Air Quality Management Strategy has been in draft since 2019, while the National Energy and Climate Plan has been in the works since 2018, while air pollution in several Montenegrin municipality at a worrying level, said the executive director of NGO Green Home Azra Vuković at today’s workshop dedicated to solving this problem.
The goal of this workshop, organized by the NGO Green Home, was to raise awareness and strengthen the capacity of local institutions in addressing the impact of climate change and air pollution on the quality of life in the municipalities of Bijelo Polje, Nikšić, Pljevlja and Podgorica.
The workshop discussed the aforementioned two strategic documents, and the event itself was aimed at local self-governments, with the intention of obtaining information on whether and to what extent, at the level of local self-governments, measures are implemented that can contribute to the improvement of air quality in cities, before especially in those cities where high air pollution is recorded, as well as to emphasize the limiting factors that prevent local governments from implementing these measures.
Vuković said that the number of days with exceedances of permitted polluting substances in the entire central and northern region is high, and that this pollution has an impact on the environment, as well as on the health of citizens.
“We have very high concentrations of PM2.5 particles at all measuring points in the Northern and Central air quality zones,” said Vuković.
Air pollution is a challenge shared by the whole of Southeast Europe, with significant
impact on health and at the same time the potential for cooperation, because joint efforts are likely to yield more results, said Bernd Burwitz from the OSCE.
“Coal-fired power plants, industry, residential heating, traffic, agriculture and uncontrolled burning of waste are the main sources of particles and other air emissions in the region. All this affects people’s lives, especially the health of population groups across the region. According to the European Environment Agency, air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk in Europe and the main cause of premature death and disease. In addition, poor air quality can threaten agriculture, forestry and ecosystems and thus increase the insecurity of livelihoods”, said Burwitz.
He pointed out that solving the problem of air pollution in Southeast Europe is an opportunity to achieve progress in solving gender challenges in the region.
“Health risks are generally strongly correlated with gender, especially for low-income households. Women, who are often responsible for household chores, are more likely to be affected by indoor pollution. Children are particularly sensitive to poor air quality because pollutants can have a lasting impact on their development, and the impacts begin before birth. Compared to adults, children spend more time outside and have a faster breathing rate, which leads to greater exposure to pollutants,” Burwitz pointed out.
Dr. Borko Bajić from the Institute of Public Health said that from a health point of view, it is very clear that polluted air can affect all organs in our body.
“This leads to inflammation, oxidative stress and immunosuppression, as well as mutagenicity in cells throughout our body, affecting our vital organs such as the heart, brain, lungs, and all other organs. I will remind you that strokes, ischemic heart disease and lung cancer are the three most common causes of death in Montenegro, to which air pollution greatly contributes,” said Bajić.
Mina Brajović from the World Health Organization emphasizes that air pollution is a serious public health problem in Montenegro, but adds that it is also a worldwide problem.
“Data from the World Health Organization indicate that 99 percent of the world’s population breathes polluted air today. What is extremely important to keep in mind is that polluted air is a cause of premature mortality. This is a problem that knows no borders, and regional as well as global cooperation is of key importance for overcoming it”, believes Brajović.
The municipality that has a serious problem with air pollution is Bijelo Polje, which is why the local administration, according to the first man of the municipality, Petar Smolović, has already taken certain steps to solve this problem.
“We have adopted strategies and plans for reducing pollution, which include short-term and long-term measures. In the short term, we applied measures to install filters on the biggest polluters in the territory of the municipality. The long-term plan, which includes the cooperation and support of the Government and international institutions, is the heating of the municipality in order to eliminate 14,000 fireplaces, which are the main polluter of the air,” says Smolović.
Solving the problem of air pollution is the primary responsibility of the Ministry of Energy and Mining, which, according to its representative Božidar Pavlović, has intensified activities to improve the legislative framework in the field of energy and plans to prepare and put into procedures a set of laws in the fields of energy, renewable energy sources and cross-border energy exchange in the first half of this year.
“The adoption of the national energy and climate plan as the most important strategic document in the field of energy is also planned by the end of June this year. After updating the legal framework, it is important to work on mechanisms for its implementation. Special attention will be devoted to reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of energy obtained from renewable sources”, concluded Pavlović.
The workshop is part of the project “Raising awareness of the impact of heating on air pollution, climate change and health”, which is financially supported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
