On Monday, February 11, 2019, training for participants in civil monitoring and air quality measurement, which will be conducted in cooperation with the Belgrade Open School, was organized in Veliki Crljeni. Citizens interested in measuring the quality of air, who applied for participation in the measurement, had the opportunity to hear more about the issue of air quality in Serbia, to meet with the project team of the Belgrade Open School and to inform about the upcoming measuring of air quality.
Mirjana Jovanović, Project Coordinator at the Belgrade Open School, held the opening presentation on the training. In her presentation she refered to the frequency of the topic of air pollution in the media in Serbia, as well as to the wider context related to the issue of air quality in Serbia: the causes of pollution and the conseqences for the public health. Further, she presented the meaning of the concept of civil air quality measurement, along with examples form the world practice.
Jasminka Jang, Programe director of the RES Foundation, during her presentation talked about public policies in the aera of air quality in Serbia, which strategic, law and by-law acts regulate this field, the competencies and work of the Environmental Protection Agency as the key institution in this sector, the division of competencies between central and local authorities. The accent was put on the issue of availability and interpretation of existing air quality data.
Predrag Momčilović from Belgrade Open School presented the project within wich the measuring of air quality is conducted, as well as the technical elements of this process. Along this, participants had chance to inform about luftdaten.info, the platform for civil measurement of air quality, where result of the measuring will be presented. Currently, there are only two strations in Serbia, dealing within this network.
During the training, the organizers and participants together recognized the overall problem of air quality in Serbia, the public policy instruments and availability of air quality data, and agreed on the objectives of civil air quality measurement. The aim of this project is not confronting to existing official data, but bringing citizens closer to this issue in order to find and understand air quality data and their implications. Also, through the measurement, nteractions and exchanges of experiences, an interested public can make some additional impact to the decision makers, in order to improve air quality.
Measuring the air quality, which will last from February to April this year, was launched within the project of the Belgrade Open School "Local actors for clean energy and air", which the Belgrade Open School conduct with the support from the European Climate Foundation.
Photo source: Belgrade Open School