Topic 3 - Clean Air in the EECCA region

While emissions of key air pollutants have been reduced considerably over the past few decades as a result of integrated air pollution management strategies developed under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention), progress has been uneven across the UNECE region. In particular in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, due to the increase in energy production, industry growth and urban development, further efforts are needed. To assist countries in the subregion to improve their air quality management, UNECE has organized a number of activities in the framework of the Air Convention assistance programme.

To avoid damage to the environment, public health and the economy, adopting targets to reduce emissions and introducing measures to enforce them is important. Providing a framework to facilitate these measures, the Convention assists countries in formulating policy responses to the air pollution challenge. Ensuring the implementation and ratification of the Convention and its protocols, most notably the three latest, amended protocols to the Convention — namely, the Gothenburg Protocol, the Protocol on Heavy Metals and the Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants, within this region is imperative for the effectiveness of the Convention.

The idea for this session is to have an open discussion about the barriers to ratification and implementation of the Convention and opportunities and benefits in countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia to work on reducing air pollution. The first part of the session will focus on identifying the barriers. The second part of the session will zoom in on options to overcome these barriers and benefits of improving air quality in the subregion. The idea is to get a clear picture of the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats for countries in the subregion to work on improving air quality and to implement the Convention.

A questionnaire will be sent out to countries in the subregion in preparation of the session. The analysis of this questionnaire will help in identifying the main barriers that pose challenges in the implementation of the Convention. It will form the basis for the discussions at this session.

Contact person:
Ketevan Kordzakhia ketevan.kordzakhia@un.org

There will be simultaneous translation between English and Russian in the plenary sessions. Interpreters will also be available at the workshop session.