Greenpeace Calls on Sofia Citizens to Campaign for Cleaner Air

Until December 20, citizens can submit proposals to Sofia Municipality for more efficient measures to ensure the cleaner air in the capital with a public consultation on a project "Comprehensive program for improving ambient air quality on the territory of Sofia Municipality for the period 2021-2026"

The environmental organization Greenpeace - Bulgaria offers possible solutions to the problem of polluted air, which citizens should include in their letters to the municipality.

Greenpeace proposals for measures to be included in the municipal program are based on the evidence that a major polluter are solid and poor-quality heating fuels. The environmentalists propose to introduce alternative sources of heating combining energy efficiency with the use of energy from renewable sources.

They insist that this principle should also be applied to the city's central heating, as the municipality should reconsider the incinerator project and start developing heating projects in the city based on renewable energy sources, without burning of waste, fossil gas or biomass.

They are also pushing for changes to the Sofia budget in order to have funds to implement such a program, stressing that currently about 80% of it is earmarked for metro and other infrastructure projects in transport, which will be implemented without an air pollution program. It is proposed that priority measures in transport should be aimed at expanding ground public transport, cycling, walking and regulating traffic and parking, at the expense of major infrastructure projects serving road transport.

Today, Greenpeace activists submitted a formal invitation to a meeting to be held in a week in front of the municipality building in order to present their ideas to Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova.

The campaign for more effective air protection measures in Sofia comes after a 2017 conviction by the Court of Justice of the European Union for Bulgaria for non-compliance with ЕU air quality standards and following a new action before the court by the European Commission a month ago, after Bulgaria had not solved the problem for three years.

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