Martin Tais: The only way to solve pollution is to ban coal burning, as was done in London

Martin Tais, an expert on air quality and climate change, explained why pollution has increased and offered proposals for long-term solutions, reports Patria.

-Environmental protection is primarily achieved through meaningful spatial management, which requires a thorough knowledge of the area, its characteristics, values, sensitivity, and vulnerability. Only then is it possible to objectify problems, identify causes, and find the most effective solutions for improving the state of the environment.

Air, as a limiting factor for the development of the City of Sarajevo due to natural and orographic conditions, is a significant limiting factor.

This is especially true during the colder part of the year, when temperature inversions and weak air circulation lead to the accumulation of pollutants in a limited layer of the atmosphere above the city.

Namely, research has shown that the boundary of the inversion layer, which in most cases rises to a height of 300 meters above the base of the valley, represents a barrier and a limit above which pollutants are not transported.

When stable weather conditions persist for several days, pollutants accumulate in the city's atmosphere, leading to episodes of high concentrations. In such weather situations, there are almost no general air currents in the ground layer of the atmosphere – below the inversion boundary.

Of course, there are local winds that move polluted air from east to west during the night and from west to east during the day, but everything remains within the Sarajevo valley below the temperature inversion boundary.
All solutions for improvement essentially come down to reducing the emission of pollutants into the air.

How to do this is a question that must be addressed through long-term and short-term measures, which have already been listed in the goals and measures.

-Before the war, Sarajevo introduced gas as an energy source for heating. In recent years, there has been a trend of increasing SO2 and black smoke in the city's atmosphere, which is a consequence of the growing consumption of coal in households and some boiler rooms. The coal used is of questionable quality – with an increased sulfur content.

-There are decisions in the legal regulations of the Sarajevo Canton regarding the type of coal that can be used in the Canton's territory. There is no control over which types of coal are used in the Canton or in what quantities.

-It is necessary to find solutions to discourage the use of coal and to encourage the use of gas or alternative fuels – biomass, solar energy, wind, and the like.

-Long-term solutions for reducing air emissions should be adopted, because the capacity of the Sarajevo valley during the colder part of the year is limited by the height of the temperature inversion layer.

The measures and the Order declaring a STATE OF READINESS in the Sarajevo Canton, in this acute situation with increased concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere of the Sarajevo Canton, is the only possible measure to mitigate and improve air quality.

The measure must be respected and implemented at all levels to achieve the best possible results. Of course, the measure should improve air quality, but it certainly does not solve our acute problem situation. This is a short-term measure and necessary in this situation.

However, such situations, and even worse ones, will occur every year during the winter period. To prevent such situations, it is necessary to develop strategic goals and longer-term measures to reduce air emissions.

The goals and measures must be very clear and implementable within a period of 5 to 10 years, but at the same time, they must be effective.
The first goal is a complete BAN ON THE USE OF SOLID FUELS, especially COAL.

In the long term, the use of coal should be replaced with the use of gas. Of course, people cannot be banned from heating with coal without offering them an acceptable solution. Therefore, gas prices should be subsidized during the three winter months in the Sarajevo Canton so that it is the same or cheaper than coal.

The installation of gas systems in cars should be encouraged, and city traffic should use only gas.

Building insulation should be encouraged, as a well-known measure worldwide, to achieve savings in energy and fuel consumption. This measure can reduce energy consumption by up to 40%, and consequently reduce air pollution while also generating financial savings.

These and other measures will certainly have effects on improving air quality, as they reduce emissions into the air – air pollution. We must keep in mind that London also had major problems with smog – polluted air – in the 1960s and solved it. How did it solve it? By banning coal burning.