Since the beginning of the year, the Sofia Municipality has introduced four times - on January 9, 10, 19 and 20 - a "green ticket" for public transport in Sofia as a preventive measure against air pollution with fine dust particles (FPM). On days with potential air pollution, the Municipality encourages drivers to leave their cars in free buffer parking lots and use an eco-ticket worth 1 lev for the public transport network, which is valid for the entire day, BTA summarized.
In December, a low-emission zone for cars was effectively introduced in the capital, prohibiting cars from eco-groups 1 and 2 from entering the so-called small ring, which includes the "Vasil Levski", "Patriarh Evtimiy" boulevards and the streets "Gen. Skobelev", "Opalchenska" and "Slivnitsa". The ban on entering the center of the capital aims to improve air quality and is valid for the period of the winter months - from December 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025, the Municipality announced.
In addition, electric vehicles park for free on the territory of the Capital Municipality, and their right to do so is established with a duly issued sticker.
Similar measures aimed at limiting air pollution are also implemented by other Balkan capitals.
Since the beginning of the year, Belgrade residents have been enjoying free public transport. Thus, the Serbian capital has become the largest city in Europe providing this public service free of charge. The measure aims to encourage Belgraders to travel around the city by trams, buses and trolleybuses, thereby reducing air pollution and congestion.
According to Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić, the number of cars in the city, which is home to around 1.7 million people, has increased by 250,000 in the last decade. The Serbian capital is one of the few European capitals without an underground railway. The metro is planned to be launched by 2030.
Šapić announced plans in December to renew the entire public transport fleet by 2027. The Belgrade mayor promised that by the end of this year there would be no buses older than two years, except for those purchased in 2022. He also said that by the end of this year, all public transport vehicles will be gas or electric, and that private carriers are obliged to buy new vehicles, Serbian media reported.
On its website, the Belgrade City Hall has presented 43 measures to be taken by this year, worth a total of over 6.5 billion euros. They are aimed at reducing air pollution and creating a cleaner and greener city. They are related to transport, communication with citizens, greenery in the city, industry, energy, cleanliness. Plans include the construction of river urban transport, tunnels to ease traffic, more pedestrian and bicycle paths, and green spaces.
The Serbian government, as part of measures to improve air quality, is offering a subsidy of between 250 and 5,000 euros for the purchase of an electric vehicle, depending on the type.
Belgrade often tops the charts of cities with the most polluted air, according to daily data from websites that track air quality worldwide.
According to data from the latest annual report by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency on air quality for 2023, the biggest air pollutants when it comes to particulate matter are individual stoves and smaller heating plants. Then come transport, industry, agriculture.
One of the main measures implemented by Greece in the field of limiting pollution from motor vehicles is the so-called “Ring“ in the capital Athens, which on weekdays on even dates can only be entered by cars with even license plates, and on odd dates - only with odd numbers. The Ring was introduced in 1979, initially as a measure against the oil crisis of the period, but its operation has continued to this day and serves as a means of limiting traffic and pollution. Within the Ring, it is allowed, regardless of the license plate, to enter electric vehicles and hybrid cars, cars of government agencies, doctors, people with disabilities, as well as cars with foreign license plates or rented by foreign citizens for a period of 40 days after their arrival. The Ring is usually in force from autumn to July of the following year.
While the original Ring Road only covered the central part of Athens, since 1993, in very rare cases of extreme air pollution, the so-called “Big Ring Road“ has been introduced, covering the main part of the city. In such cases, the restrictions of the “Small Ring Road“ apply, and private vehicles are prohibited from entering the center at all.
Another tool that the Greek state uses to limit air pollution is to encourage the purchase of electric cars. This is done through the “I move electric“ program, which has already gone through three phases. The last one was interrupted in December due to the exhaustion of funds, but its budget was increased by a third in January and reached 44 million euros, which allowed its renewal, reports the portal gocar.gr. Within the framework of the program, individuals receive a subsidy of 30 percent of the price of the car excluding VAT up to a maximum amount of 9,000 euros. An incentive of 2,000 euros is provided for scrapping an old car, as well as various additional incentives for people with disabilities, large families, young people, etc. Companies can also participate in the program, for which the subsidy is limited to 6,000 euros per car when purchasing up to 20 cars and up to 4,000 euros for more.
The problem of air pollution is also well known to the capital of North Macedonia, Skopje, which is regularly in the top ten, and sometimes in first place in the world among the cities with the most polluted air. In North Macedonia, during the heating season, Strumica, Tetovo, Bitola and Veles also seriously exceed air pollution standards. According to the authorities, the reasons are mainly related to the method of heating - stoves, which burn not only wood and coal in winter, as well as cars crowding the streets. A problem for the capital is the old, but also insufficient number of buses for public transport, which is practically the only mass mode of transportation in Skopje - there are no trams, trolleybuses, or metro.
With an action plan and a regulation adopted in November 2024, with criteria set by the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning for the concentration of various pollutants in the air within two consecutive days, measures such as free public transport should come into force in the relevant cities, employers are recommended to exempt pregnant women, people over 60 years of age, and people with certain diseases from work, as well as to reorganize working hours for those working outdoors, not to organize sports competitions and other cultural events outdoors, and the administration is recommended not to go to work by car. Since the adoption of the Action Plan and the Regulation, only Strumica has declared a situation in which the measures will enter into force.
The current mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, was elected four years ago with the promise to provide free public transport for all residents and guests of Skopje, but due to deteriorating political relations with the municipal councilors from VMRO-DPMNE, the item on purchasing eco-friendly buses could not be voted on in the meetings. Under an EU program, Skopje recently received six eco-buses from the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, and the government has stated that a public procurement for additional eco-friendly buses will be announced. This, as well as the construction of a gas-fired central heating plant, are among the measures that the current government intends to adopt, and the previous government managed to secure funds for 6,000 vouchers for inverter air conditioners for the entire country.
The environmental associations in the country, which came out to protest, are in turn demanding a car traffic regime that would come into effect after exceeding the maximum permissible values of air pollution, the adoption of regulations for planning, design, construction of infrastructure for cycling, the construction of a network of measuring stations, public buildings and institutions under the jurisdiction of the government, cities and municipalities being obliged to install photovoltaic systems, and subsidies for photovoltaic systems for households.
Meanwhile, the main political parties are blaming each other for the situation with polluted air, which, according to World Bank data, causes almost 3,000 deaths per year in the country.
The Zagreb Metropolitan City Council is currently discussing a Program for Mitigating the Impact of Climate Change, Adapting to Climate Change and Protecting the Ozone Layer of the City for the Period 2025-2028. It envisages new measures to promote the use of bicycles by expanding the already established network of bicycle paths. It is planned to create special routes for cycling to connect the city center with peripheral neighborhoods, as well as to build a bicycle corridor along the railway line from the Zagreb Student Center to Dugo Selo with a total length of 22.3 kilometers.
In addition to the existing practice of using a one-day ticket at an affordable price, valid throughout the day for an unlimited number of trams and buses, the program envisages the development of an integrated passenger transport system not only in the city of Zagreb, but also in the Zagreb County and Krapina-Zagorje Region. For trips to nearby settlements to the city of Zagreb, the use of private vehicles with low occupancy (i.e. with one or two passengers) is still common, leading to high greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, options for the interconnection of larger intercity and urban centers are being considered, which implies the integration of different forms of public transport - rail, tram, bus, public bicycle system. To implement this integration, it is necessary to create a single ticket system and sell a single ticket for the means of transport required by the passenger (train, bus, tram) and coordinated timetables for the means of transport, the program says, adding that this will significantly improve the quality of public transport services and help reduce CO₂ emissions.
In the coming years, the purchase of new trams and electric buses with appropriate charging infrastructure is also planned.
Bucharest is among the most heavily polluted European capitals, and in terms of the average annual level of fine dust particles PM2.5, it is surpassed only by Sarajevo, Skopje, Belgrade, Athens and Tirana, according to data on the Statista.com website, cited by Hotnews. The Romanian capital is facing two criminal proceedings by the European Commission - one for exceeding the maximum permissible level of nitrogen dioxide, and the second - for exceeding the maximum permissible level of PM10 particles, for which the city was even condemned in the European Court.
The National Environmental Protection Agency reported that the level of pollution in Bucharest and the neighboring Ilfov County has doubled in recent days, due to harmful emissions from cars and heating installations, as well as low wind speed, increased humidity and thermal inversion. According to the agency, the increased levels of PM10 and PM2.5 particles hazardous to health in the Romanian capital are mainly due to traffic (58 percent), residential heating (27 percent) and industry and services (13 percent).
Local media remind that in 2020 In Bucharest, pollution reduction measures were to come into force, including the so-called electronic "Oxygen" vignette, which has different tariffs according to the vehicle's pollution rate - from 500 lei (197 leva) to 1,900 lei (747 leva) per year.
Thus, access to vehicles with a higher pollution rate (without eco category or Euro 1 and Euro 2 categories) was to be prohibited in a certain area in the central part of the city, and in the rest of the capital it was to be allowed only after purchasing an "Oxygen" vignette. For vehicles with Euro 3 and Euro 4 categories, access to all arteries was to be allowed only after purchasing an "Oxygen" vignette, and for electric, hybrid and Euro 5 and Euro 6 vehicles, access remained unrestricted throughout the city. In the longer term, the project envisaged a ban on the access of cars without eco-category and Euro 1 and Euro 2 categories in the capital from 2022 and Euro 3 from 2024.
In March 2020, when sanctions were to begin against drivers who did not comply with the new regulation, the then mayor of the capital, Gabriela Firia, however, "backtracked", recalls Radio Bucharest FM. She proposed to the City Council to revoke the decision to impose these measures, and her proposal was accepted.
Last summer, the Ministry of Development submitted to public debate a draft law that would require local authorities in large cities to ban polluting cars from certain areas or charge them to reduce air pollution. According to the ministry, cities should create so-called "Low Emission Zones", and those driving polluting cars would have to pay a fee to enter these areas. The zones would be video-surveilled, and cars belonging to residents would be exempt from the fee. However, Bucharest Mayor Nikusor Dan said he did not agree with "a central authority telling a local authority what to do", and the project was later withdrawn.