Three Slovenian cities to beat air pollution with renewables, sustainable urban mobility

The Slovenian government has announced an investment of €63 million to fight detrimental PM10 air quality pollution in 3 of the most affected areas: Maribor, Celje, and Murska Sobota.

High concentrations of PM10's are tackled by air quality plans using a mix of measures tackling energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable urban mobility. The main idea is to use effective measures at low costs including awareness-raising, education, and communication. More than half of the funds are earmarked for transport and slightly less for heating. Measures will focus on the expansion and upgrade of urban mobility services as well as cleaner vehicles of urban transport and local municipalities fleets. For heating, measures concentrate on building rehabilitation, district heating, and natural gas supply.

Maribor and Celje see the largest part of the budget invested in their area with €28.5 million and €24.7 million, respectively, with Murska Sobota receiving €9.4 million. The air quality plans were prepared by a team of local municipalities, the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO), and the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. Funding sources are the respective local municipalities and EU Cohesion Funds.

Article published first at https://balkangreenenergynews.com on 18 November 2020.