Kosovo has abundant domestic reserves of low-quality brown coal and is heavily dependent on electricity supply from coal-fired power plants that use brown coal as their energy source. Especially in urban areas, air pollution caused by emissions from coal-fired power plants as well as from home heating systems and automobiles has become a serious environmental problem. Air quality concentrations in Prishtina are particularly severe, exceeding the EU environmental standards to which the country adheres. The Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (MESPI), the competent ministry for air quality administration, has developed an air quality strategy to address air pollution problems in urban areas, with a view to complying with EU environmental standards, and prepares an air quality action plan every three years based on this strategy. As a signatory to the EU Energy Charter Treaty, the country is also required to achieve EU emission standards for dust, SO2, and NOX at large stationary sources in accordance with the National Emission Reduction Plan developed in 2018.
This cooperation will strengthen MESPI’s capacity to manage air quality based on technical evidence by providing support for air quality monitoring/measurement analysis, air pollution structure analysis, and policy development in the air quality sector in the Prishtina city area, and will contribute to strengthening the Kosovo government’s capacity to promote air pollution control measures aimed at protecting citizens’ health and the environment. The project will contribute to strengthening the capacity of the Government of Kosovo to promote air pollution control measures aimed at protecting the health of its citizens and the environment.
© Source JICA