Air management and permit issuing

During the previous decade, Azerbaijan’s environmental policy focused on remediation of environmental burdens from the past, e.g. clean-up of contaminated soil, and on waste and water management. Consequently, air quality was not a priority for Azerbaijan, which is why the number of measures and international projects on air quality was limited. As a result, none of eight protocols to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) has been ratified to date. However, this situation changed recently. In the case of stationary sources, it has been decided to close down certain of the most polluting installations in Baku and replace their capacity with newly-built ones located in lower populated areas. In the case of emissions from mobile sources, major measures were prepared and are being implemented, especially as regards improvement of transport infrastructure, management of transport in the Baku City or more efficient vehicle inspection measures. The air quality assessment and management system is being developed and implemented separately from mitigation of climate change (reduction of GHG emissions), which means that potential synergies cannot be exploited.

Related Subject(s): Environment and Climate Change

Countries: Azerbaijan