Emissions of key air pollutants have been reduced considerably over the past few decades as a result of integrated air pollution management strategies developed under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention). Notwithstanding, progress has been uneven across the UNECE region. In particular, in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, owing to the increase in energy production, industry growth and urban development, further efforts are needed.
To assist countries in the subregion to improve their air quality management, UNECE has organized a number of activities in the framework of the Air Convention assistance programme.
To encourage ratification of the Convention and its key protocols by Tajikistan, UNECE organized a round table in Dushanbe on 24 October to present and discuss the results of the analysis of the national legislation on air quality management and the recommendations on the steps towards ratification. Representatives of the Committee on Environment Protection, several ministries and non-governmental organizations participated in the discussion.
It was agreed that a step-by-step approach, starting with the ratification of the Convention and the Protocol on Long-term Financing of the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP Protocol), and then moving on to the ratification of the Protocol on Heavy Metals and the Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants, was feasible within the framework of the current legislation. The ratifications are important to make the Convention more effective in reducing air pollution both in Tajikistan and regionally.
Further to the round table, UNECE organized a workshop to support Tajikistan in developing its air pollutant emission inventories in accordance with the Convention’s requirements (Dushanbe, 25–26 October 2017). The workshop focused on the practical work with the country’s national data in relation to its priority activity sectors.
For more information on capacity-building under the UNECE Air Convention, please visit: http://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/conventions/envlrtapwelcome/capacity-building.html.