Minister for Environment and Spatial Planning mag. Andrej Vizjak, Mayor of Municipality Nova Gorica Klemen Miklavčič and acting Director-General of the Slovenian Environmental Agency Joško Knez attended the opening ceremony of the renovated air quality monitoring station in Nova Gorica. The project supported by EU funding will add to improving air quality in Nova Gorica and the wider area.
The abovementioned monitoring station is one of the 22 monitoring sites under the national air quality monitoring network, renovated by the Slovenian Environmental Agency in the frame of the EUR 6.3 million project Sininca with the majority of funding, i.e. EUR 5.35 million coming from the Cohesion Fund. Air quality data is used to warn inhabitants about air pollution, as well as to develop measures for improving air quality and monitoring the efficiency of these measures. With the project Sininca – Upgrading the air pollution monitoring system, identifying reasons for high air pollution levels and analysing the impact of measures for improving air quality, the Slovenian Environmental Agency ensures reliable, up-to-date, high-quality and spatially representative air quality data. Using the modelling method, the Agency will prepare projections and assessments of air pollution.
At the opening event, Minister Vizjak, inter alia, underlined the necessity of preventing raising of air pollution levels by stressing that through the Climate Change Fund programme ‘the Ministry makes vital investments in replacing old combustion units with newer ones. We are also tackling the challenge of the so-called decarbonisation of Slovenia in the frame of Slovenia’s Long-Term Climate Strategy until 2050. We will, thus, implement actions that make radical changes in terms of CO2 emissions. One of the key areas is transport, using public passenger transport and electromobility. EUR 27 billion is earmarked for investments in reaching climate neutrality after 2050.’
Additional information about the project Sinica – Our air is at stake