The Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation, together with the Yıldırım Beyazıt University in Ankara started to run a new project, in order to raise awareness on climate change. ENV.Net partner from Turkey, TEMA Foundation, participated in the kick off meeting and opening ceremony of the project in Ankara, on 20 January 2016. The project has two components: The education and training component and the local governance component. Thanks to the project, students of all age groups from 192 schools in 16 provinces in Turkey will receive information on climate change. And 14 provinces will be supported for building capacity to take measures against the climate change, in terms of both mitigation and adaptation. The details about the project will be available here
Republic of Macedonia has been actively involved in numerous activities under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) Protocol on Water and Health (hereinafter “the Protocol”), while preparing for accession to the Protocol.
The workshop in Veles was a continuation of the one held on 16-17 June, 2015 in Skopje. It aimed to present a review of the outcomes of the self-assessment of the equity of access to water and sanitation in the Republic of Macedonia, which was carried out between April and December 2015 in three municipalities (Skopje, Kumanovo and Veles). Priorities to ensure equitable access to water and sanitation and recommendations for future action were discussed.
Representatives of ENV.net team from Macedonia took active part in this two-day workshop. The event provided a forum for discussion on the situation of equitable access to water and sanitation and the further steps for designing strategic orientations for an action plan to improve equitable access to water and sanitation in the Republic of Macedonia.
The self-assessment exercise was coordinated by the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia and the NGO Journalists for Human Rights with the support of UNECE.
In the frame of the ENV.net project and its dedication via sub-granting schemes to give citizens a voice and influence public sector reform processes in the environment sector through analysis, monitoring and advocacy, on 14th January, 2016 ENV.net Macedonia announced a restricted call for proposals for the local CSOs, working in the area of environment, titled “Active Citizens for Greener Future”.
The overall objective of the call is to expand the ENV.net, by involving other CSOs from Western Balkans and Turkey in the organisation of public advocacy/lobbying actions. The main aim of these actions is to raise awareness among citizens and influence public sector reform processes on the approximation of Western Balkans and Turkey to the EU environmental standards.
The Specific objectives of this call are:
Awareness raising campaigns on important environmental issues related to water protection, climate change and waste management.
Actions promoting and stimulating citizens’ and youth involvement in environment initiatives at local level, related to marking international environmental days in 2016
Deadline for sending applications under this call is 15th February, 2016.
Municipality of Prishtina has installed 6 sensors for measuring air pollution in six different points in the capital of Kosovo.
So far there were only 2 points. According to local authorities, through this measurement of air pollution, citizen of Prishtina will be informed about the environment they live in as well as about what could they do in future to have cleaner air to breathe. This is only a pilot project and more sensors will be placed in the near future as well. So far, the Prishtina Municipality has also taken several important measures for environmental protection such as order for over 50 new busses for urban traffic causing less pollution, modernizing of public lightening, revitalization and expanding of green areas, tree planting, etc. Prishtina city is considered to one of the cities fighting climate changes.
The Env.net network is proud to launch the new distance learning “CSOs and participation: lobbying, advocacy and Policy Influencing”. A straight-forward course to learn how to develop an effective advocacy and lobbying strategy and how to implement activities to influence the decision making process.
The problems with enormous air pollution in Skopje, Tetovo, Bitoala and Kavadarci, are again the headlines in all news. The data published on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning shows that the enormous pollution in these cities in recent weeks repeated every night and is ten times higher than the permitted levels of PM10 particles.
Following the text published on 15th October, 2015, when the director of Directorate of Environment, an inspector of the State Inspectorate of Environment and а junior associate in the Department for General Affairs at the Directorate of Environment were arrested due to negligence and bribery (according to information of the investigation, to one of the suspects “Feni Industry” from Kavadarci paid a trip to England and tickets to watch the football match of Manchester United, while others received other kind of bribery from different companies) one question that citizens from Macedonia need to have an answer to is: How much is the worth of human life?
On 18 December 2015, a training about EIA legislation and implementations was held in İstanbul by the Turkish ENV.Net Partner TEMA Foundation. The aim of the training was to introduce the commonalities and differences of EIA legislation and implementations between the EU and Turkey, and to develop solutions to improve EIA procedures in Turkey. There were participants from the universities, CSO’s, ministries, private sector.
This was a one day training with two sessions. During the first sessions three talks were presented by the experts from Turkey and the EU. In the first presentation, Prof. Dr Begüm Özkaynak ( from the Boğaziçi University, in İstanbul) summarized the purpose and methods of the impact assessments in general, including not only EIA but also different methods such as Cost-Benefit Analysis, Risk Analysis and Participatory Multi-Criteria Assesment. The focus of the presentation was more on the theoretical aspects of the impact assessment methods.
After Prof. Ozkaynak, Richard Filcak (European Environmental Bureau) explained the current status, challenges, and the NGO perspectives of the EIA& SEA in the EU, also pointing out some case studies in EU. After Mr. Filcak, the morning session was concluded with the presentation by Ömer Aykul (The legal consultant of TEMA Foundation, expert in environmental law), about the current EIA legislation in Turkey.
The afternoon session was organized in two parts. In the first part of the session, the participants talked about the
problems they encountered in EIA processes in Turkey, with a round table format. A lively discussion was held between the participants. After the discussion, participants were asked to write up to five problems they
see as most important on post-its with different colors (each representing a particular stakeholder group), and put them on a board containing the legal steps of an EIA in Turkey. The main problems highlighted during the second session were about public participation, expenses of legal actions and the content of the EIA reports.These problems were then grouped into four general topics by the workshop organizers. The participants were then divided into four groups, each discussing a different topic and solutions were developed to improve EIA procedures in Turkey.
December 2, 2015; Daily news paper “Nova Makedonija”, issue 23629
Citizens’ Behaviour and Habits are the biggest obstacle
In general, the issue comes down to whether to pay a price now, for greater inclination and willingness to change, or to reject the idea, with a risk that in the future we will pay a much higher price. This is the main dividing line according to which those who reject the thesis refuse to pay the price (or vice versa, according to some interpretations), and those who believe, agree to take action, aware (and accepting) that this would make them change their lifestyle
The willingness is weak
“More or less, we are aware of the changes affecting our environment. Some say it is act of God, while others are more aware, recognising that ‘it must be the climate change,” said Dusko Hristov, ENV.net coordinator for Macedonia. According to him, everyone knows that something should be done, but the question is are they ready for it? “Even if we have (as we don’t) perfect, super-capable institutions with super-educated and numerous professional staff that knows how to deal with this phenomenon, still the problem with citizens’ awareness and habits will remain one of the key and most difficult to surpass obstacles for realisation of the planned” – said Mr Hristov.
On 25, December 2015 in Skopje ENV.net Macedonia organised a working meeting with the CSOs, members of the Platform for Green Macedonia. At the meeting attended representatives from Kavadarci, Kumanovo, Veles, Skopje and Tetovo. The purpose of the meeting was to present the results achieved via the ENV.net in 2015, but also to discuss the activities foreseen for 2016, including ENV.net training, e-learning courses, joint events, the web platform.
Related to the re-granting process in Macedonia, participants were given detailed information about the procedure of the forthcoming call for proposals and the application package. The ENV.net team encouraged the participants to take an active part in the call, as well as to consider possibilities for partnering.
The last part of the working meeting was used to discuss the next steps with regards to the initiative for amending the Law on Environment (one of the key laws in the area of horizontal environmental legislation of the Republic of Macedonia), which would prevent construction or reconstruction of facilities of heavy and polluting industries at a distance of less than five kilometres from urban or protected natural area. Participants discussed several possibilities, like a gathering of 10.000 signatures in support of the initiative, lobbying of MPs to present the initiative before the Parliament, organisation of a Public hearing in the Parliament of Macedonia. It was decided to consider all the comments and in the beginning, of next year to come up with a definite plan for action.
In addition, it was discussed how to proceed in strengthening the Green Consortium, in order to be able to monitor the implementation of the legislation pertaining the sector water. Participants also discussed the possibility to engage in the initiative against discharge of cooking oil in the sewage that foresees wide range activities including research, field work, campaign for awareness raising, improvement of the legal framework, etc.
On December 10, 2015 was held the initial meeting within the project “Stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport through a double reduction in fuel consumption: the regional implementation of the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GEFI), which started in May 2015, and will last until June 2018.
The main beneficiary of this project is the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning. Representative of ENV.net Macedonia, together with representatives of government institutions, business and NGO sectors was invited to attend the meeting. An introductory speech and presentation of the project were given by the Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Mr Nurhan Izairi, and representatives from REC (office in Macedonia), responsible for implementation of the project .
The purpose of the meeting, which was held in the Economic Chamber of Macedonia, was to inform participants about the general goals and work plan and to present the findings of the implemented activities: determination the initial state of specific emissions of CO2 from light vehicles in traffic for 2005, 2008 and 2013” and preparation of “Review on transportation and implementation of the relevant EU directives regulating emissions of CO2 “. Considering the inter-sectoral character of the transport sector and the need to involve a variety of governmental institutions, as well as representatives from the private sector and civil society, the project envisages establishment of a working group to discuss the needs and views of stakeholders in the national policy on fuel economy and to offer appropriate recommendations for measures that need to be implemented.
he working meeting was used to discuss the next steps with regards to the initiative for amending the Law on Environment (one of the key laws in the area of horizontal environmental legislation of the Republic of Macedonia), which would prevent construction or reconstruction of facilities of heavy and polluting industries at a distance of less than five kilometres from urban or protected natural area. Participants discussed several possibilities, like a gathering of 10.000 signatures in support of the initiative, lobbying of MPs to present the initiative before the Parliament, organisation of a Public hearing in the Parliament of Macedonia. It was decided to consider all the comments and in the beginning, of next year to come up with a definite plan for action.