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bne June 2017 Special report I 29
wants to buy a car,” says Lin O’Grady, deputy director for municipal and environmental infrastructure at the EBRD, whose Green Cities Programme is intended to encourage systematic plan- ning at the city level to address environ- mental challenges. Giving the example of an investment into compressed natural gas buses in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, she explains that “this invest- ment is to try to stop that modal shift to cars, to provide high quality public trans- port that people are incentivised to use”.
Other issues faced by cities across the EBRD’s region of operations include low energy efficiency, and the lack
of well functioning waste collection
and disposal systems and waste water facilities. However, Lin’s colleague Nigel Jollands, senior manager for policy and climate finance, points out that air qual- ity is often the most pressing and visible problem.
“Air quality would be one of the first drivers for a city incentivising them to work with us. It has an immediate impact on people’s health and wellbeing,” he says. In addition to cars, “We know for sure that many
of the cities in our countries of operation don’t use energy efficiently, and they also in many case use fuel types that are detrimental to health like burning coal and wood for heating in an urban environment.”
Air pollution from coal-fired power sta- tions, especially those located close to major cities, is another problem in the Western Balkans, as well as countries like Poland that rely to a large extent
on coal power. While the EU has set the target of boosting renewable genera- tion to 20% of total generation by 2020, investments into solar and wind power have been held back in the eastern part of the bloc by issues such as powerful hydrocarbon lobbies and confusing and ever-changing legislation.
A study from Brussels-based NGO the Health and Environment Alliance (Heal) found that air pollution from coal-fired power stations could result in public health costs of up to €8.5bn for govern- ments in the Western Balkans.
The figure is made up of costs directly related to air pollution including prema- ture deaths, respiratory and cardiovas- cular hospital admissions, new cases of chronic bronchitis and respiratory prob- lems, medication and days of restricted activity due to ill-health, including lost working days.
“Patients with asthma and other respira- tory problems suffer greatly during smog episodes. Children with breath- ing conditions cannot play outside and may not be able to go to school. Some adults may be prevented from going to work because of the air pollution and older people are more likely to need hospitalisation,” pneumologist Professor Dr. Zehra Dizdarevic told Heal’s March 2016 press conference to present the report in Sarajevo.
Air pollution is a global problem, and cit- ies around the world have experimented with various solutions from car-free days
particle pollutants emissions, and increased controls on construction sites. Back in 2015, Skopje-based steel mill Makstil was forced to install air filters. However, these steps were not enough to solve the problem.
The Western Balkans is one of the areas initially targeted by the EBRD’s Green Cities Programme, along with the Cau- casus, Belarus and Moldova.
In 2015, the bank approved a new green economy transition approach, with the goal of 40% of its investment volume – which totals around €10bn a year – being in the green space by 2020, a target Jollands describes as “pretty ambitious”. He and O’Grady came up with the idea as the EBRD municipal team’s response to the green agenda;
it involves taking the bank’s existing business in this area and packaging ad hoc investments into something more systematic.
to congestion charging to investing into better public transport. However, efforts to address the root causes of air pollu- tion and mitigate its impact on cities have been mixed.
People in Skopje and other polluted cit- ies in Macedonia, for example, say they are mostly left alone to cope. When the level of PM particles in the atmosphere is extremely elevated they stay at home as far as possible or put on masks, a cheap but inconvenient solution to the prob- lem. Many complain of claustrophobia as they are unable to open the windows in the evenings or at night, when the pollution is particularly acute.
Some official steps have been taken. When air pollution hit record high levels in Skopje in February, free public transport was offered to reduce the use of cars. Other measures taken included more intense street cleaning, the use of calcium magnesium acetate to reduce
Under the Green Cities Programme, which has a lifetime of five years and
a budget envelope of €250mn, the bank works with cities to draw up a Green City Action Plan (GCAP), which identi- fies investment priorities. The bank is working with cities with a population of over 100,000 that are willing to under- take a GCAP and where there is a “trig- ger project” – an investment project that clearly tackles environmental issues.
It has already signed two investment projects – the green buses in Tbilisi and a programme for energy saving in public buildings in Chisinau – and has GCAPs up and running in Tbilisi, Tirana and Yerevan. More GCAPs will be imple- mented in 2017. “The idea is that once we have a track record we will start to expand to the other countries of opera- tion, and at the moment we are looking seriously at SEMED [the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region] and Mongolia,” says O’Grady.
“Patients with asthma and other respiratory problems suffer greatly during smog episodes”
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