Clean Air Regions Initiative

On the occasion of the Energy Community Just Transition Forum, 9 Western Balkan municipalities (Banovi?i, Kakanj, Lukavac, Maglaj and Tuzla from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pljevlja from Montenegro, Bitola from North Macedonia and Niš and Novi Sad from Serbia) came together virtually to sign a declaration launching the Clean Air Regions Initiative (CARI). By signing the declaration mayors of the nine participating municipalities committed to undertake voluntary measures aimed to reduce air pollution in their municipalities. CARI is an initiative launched by the Vienna-based Energy Community Secretariat and supported by the Hungarian Western Balkans Green Center (WBGC). The initiative focuses on the most critical sources of pollution such as domestic heating, industry and traffic. Participating municipalities, with the support of the Secretariat and the WBGC, will strive to develop, adopt and implement local air quality action plans with ambitious policies and measures, share their experiences and learn about progress and achievements in other regions and municipalities. In the meantime the municipality of Živinice (Bosnia and Herzegovina) signed the declaration on the Clean Air Regions Initiative, raising the number of participants to ten. A two-day workshop to kick off work on developing ambitious local air quality policies and measures in line with the aims of the CARI declaration was held in September. Participating municipalities exchanged good practices and experience with their EU counterparts, attended trainings on the introduction of measures capable of reducing pollution into the air by addressing the most critical sources of pollution such as domestic heating, industry and traffic. Furthermore, the workshop included presentations on topics such as data collection, public participation and air pollution measurement technologies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j11ynICkOGo