On September 13, 2021, the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency published the Annual Report on the State of Air Quality in the Republic of Serbia in 2020, which contains an overview of the results of air quality monitoring at the national and local level. An integral part of this Report is the assessment of air quality by zones and agglomerations, according to which in all agglomerations in the Republic of Serbia (Belgrade, Nis, Bor, Uzice, Kosjeric, Smederevo and Pancevo) during 2020, excessive air pollution was recorded, except in Novi Sad where the air quality is rated as slightly polluted.

In 2020, the air in all agglomerations of Serbia (Belgrade, Nis, Bor, Uzice, Kosjeric, Smederevo and Pancevo) was excessively polluted due to exceeding the limit values ​​for one or more pollutants. In all of these agglomerations, as in previous years, the air was excessively polluted due to high concentrations of PM10 and (or) PM 2.5 particles, with the exception of Bor, which is classified among the cities in the highest category of pollution due to excessive sulfur dioxide concentrations (SO2). As it is pointed out, only in Novi Sad the air quality was assessed clean - while a more detailed analysis of the data shows otherwise. The fact is that there are certain shifting of cities and agglomerations from the clean air category to polluted air quality, as a consequence of the establishment of monitoring or its improvement. Any shifts of cities from the list of excessively polluted to the list of clean (as was the case with Bor, Sremska Mitrovica, Nis and Kragujevac in the past, and this year with Novi Sad), is mainly related to problems with monitoring or controversial assessment of air quality. This means that the issue of the effectiveness of measures implemented to improve air quality should be put on the agenda, especially in cities and agglomerations that, based on air quality assessment, were obliged to adopt and implement Air Quality Plans, as well as Short-term Actions Plans.

This year's Report on the state of air quality of the Environmental Protection Agency did not bring anything unexpected. The air quality assessment confirmed that the air is excessively polluted in a large number of urban agglomerations throughout Serbia, that over three million Serbian citizens officially breathe excessively polluted air, and that the air is assessed as clean mainly in cities where there is no continuous monitoring of particulate matter pollution. For this reason, the first citizen network for measuring air quality, established by the Belgrade Open School in those agglomerations where there is no monitoring in the state and local network, is especially important, with the aim of providing citizens with real-time air quality information.

Whole analysis in Serbian can be found HERE

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