{"id":3159413,"date":"2021-06-05T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/green-lungs-driving-environmental-change-in-albania\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:08:21","slug":"green-lungs-driving-environmental-change-in-albania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/green-lungs-driving-environmental-change-in-albania\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Green lungs&#8217; driving environmental change in Albania"},"content":{"rendered":"\nBetter data, better decisions \u2013 a first mapping of air quality carried out with EU support sheds fresh light on Albania\u2019s pollution problem. Now it\u2019s up to decision-makers to act.\r\n\r\nAlbania\u2019s capital, Tirana, is a vibrant city with 850,000 inhabitants, and growing every day. A limited public transport infrastructure prompts residents to drive cars ever more frequently, and the demand for housing has led to a construction industry boom in the last three decades. All this is taking a toll on the levels of air pollution.\r\n\r\nWithout data, Albanians could only make assumptions about the quality of the air that they breathe. The environmental organisation, <a href=\"https:\/\/milieukontakt.org\/\">Milieukontakt<\/a>, wanted to offer precise information so that better decisions could be made, based on data. Their plan was to measure pollution on a large scale \u2013 at over five hundred locations \u2013 and at the same time to involve as many people as possible in order to increase awareness of an environmental problem which is invisible but nevertheless makes such an impact.\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>\u201cEveryone living in Tirana is aware of the poor air quality, but now we have the data to show exactly how bad it is.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\u201cEveryone living in Tirana is aware of the poor air quality, but now we have the data to show exactly how bad it is,\u201d says Arion Sauku, Project Coordinator for Milieukontakt\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/greenlungs.al\/index.php?lng=en\">Green Lungs<\/a> project which was the first to provide such comprehensive data on the problem. The project measured pollution with mobile meters in hundreds of locations across the capital, including the bustling city centre and the busy areas near schools, as well as at stops along Tirana\u2019s longest bus routes.\n\n\u201cThe greatest air polluters are the transport and construction industries. The levels we\u2019ve measured regularly exceed EU standards. In some cases, they are three to four times higher,\u201d says Sauku.\n\nOver a three-year period, and with EU funding, Green Lungs extended its monitoring to three other large cities \u2013 Durr\u00ebs, Elbasan and Shkod\u00ebr. The results showed the same pollutants, caused by what is most in demand: housing and cars.\n\nThe European Union has identified depollution, including of water and soil, as one of the main areas that need to be addressed within its <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/neighbourhood-enlargement\/sites\/default\/files\/factsheet_wb_green_agenda_en.pdf\">Green Agenda<\/a> for the Western Balkans. This is a new growth strategy aspiring to switch from a traditional economic model to a sustainable economy, in line with the European Green Deal.\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>\u201cThere is plentiful information for decision-makers to act on \u2013 we\u2019ve generated data, illustrated maps and narratives to indicate hotspots.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n<strong>About the programme <\/strong>\n\nThe Green Lungs project designed and implemented a platform for monitoring air quality and noise pollution, and evaluating the service provided by urban greenery. Green Lungs was supported by the EU-financed Civil Society and Media programme in Albania which is designed to strengthen cross-sector cooperation between the government and civil society, and to develop the capacity of civil society organisations.\r\n\r\nGreen Lungs\u2019 online database means that anyone in the project cities can identify the air quality hotspots in their neighbourhood and the project has also educated young people about this issue in schools. In addition to air quality measurements, the platform established by Green Lungs also monitored human-made noise pollution and urban greenery. \u201cThere is plentiful information on all three components for decisionmakers to act on \u2013 we\u2019ve generated data, illustrated maps and narratives to indicate hotspots,\u201d says Sauku.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Better data, better decisions \u2013 a first mapping of air quality carried out with EU support sheds fresh light on Albania\u2019s pollution problem. Now it\u2019s up to decision-makers to act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3159414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":[],"area-of-cooperation":[484,415,417],"country":[245],"opportunity-type":[],"class_list":["post-3159413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","area-of-cooperation-civil-society","area-of-cooperation-climate-action","area-of-cooperation-environmental-protection","country-albania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Green lungs&#039; driving environmental change in Albania - WeBalkans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/green-lungs-driving-environmental-change-in-albania\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Green lungs&#039; driving environmental change in Albania - WeBalkans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Better data, better decisions \u2013 a first mapping of air quality carried out with EU support sheds fresh light on Albania\u2019s pollution problem. 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