Belarus—Support to Effective Air Emissions, Radiation Monitoring, and Improved Environmental Management

Belarus has made significant progress towards reducing air pollution in the last decades. However, the air quality in the country is not in compliance with standards and is often the cause of serious health impacts.

One of the main goals of this project is to harmonise the relevant legislation in the fields of air quality monitoring and management and data collection systems. This project addresses the needs of the country to improve air quality management and monitoring and align its environmental permitting regulations with international and European Union (EU) standards.

The intervention supports investments in natural capital and cleaner technologies to encourage low-carbon development and reduce adverse impacts on public health in Belarus.

Sample Activities

• Assist Belarus in improving air quality management and carrying out air quality monitoring in full compliance with the EU Acquis and the Convention on Long-range Trans-boundary Air Pollution and other relevant international environmental agreements.
• Align environmental permitting regulations in Belarus with international and EU standards.
• Contribute to developing Belarus capacity in the field of air quality modelling and management.
• Elaborate Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans for four major cities using urban air quality models and transport policy support tool which will allow for evidence-based decision making.

Select Results

• Prepared an outline of legislative and regulatory amendments to be incorporated in the country’s current legal frameworks related to air quality monitoring and management.
• Compiled a list of main national regulatory legal acts and respective principal provisions to introduce the best EU policy approaches and experience in the field of air quality management in Belarus.
• Drafted key provisions for Belarusian legislation and regulations to be adopted to achieve harmonization of the national system of environmental permits with EU’s best practices.
• Reviewed legislative acts recently prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (MNREP) staff concerning the integrated environmental permits.