Air pollution - Why care? (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

Information indicates that the balance of the atmosphere has been disturbed over recent decades. Phenomena that are difficult to control continue, and huge amounts of pollutants are released into the air causing acidification, damaging the biosphere, affecting soil, etc., and are having negative impacts on human health and the environment. And man-made accidents such as oil leakages, industrial accidents involving emissions of toxic substances into the air and forest fires seem occur more frequently.

Taking into account these pressures at the global level, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has made efforts to improveme of the state of the environment, especially air quality. The country has implemented the requirements of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and its Protocols, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. The country is also working on the adoption of a series of legal acts in accordance with the EU acquis, aimed at implementing actions for air quality improvement. To this end, it has been necessary to carry out assessments of air pollutants to determine their amounts and distribution and measure their background concentrations.