The European Union and 3 United Nations agencies launched a €2 million program in Yerevan on Wednesday to overhaul how Armenia monitors, analyzes, and regulates the quality of its air, with a public air quality portal and mobile application planned inside the 3-year window.
The Joint Programme is titled “Clean Air for Health and Green Growth in Armenia,” shortened to EU4Clean Air in Armenia. The EU funds it, with additional contributions from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Those 3 agencies will implement the program jointly with the Environment Agency Austria (UBA), working in partnership with the Government of Armenia, the UNDP Communications Department said in a statement. The stated goal is healthier communities and green growth Armenia can sustain past the life of the funding.
The launch brought representatives of the Armenian government, the EU, the UN system, and international experts into one room to discuss the country’s air quality problems and the priorities for fixing them.
The work falls into 3 tracks over 3 years:
- Monitoring. The national air quality monitoring network will be modernized and expanded, so Armenia has reliable readings to assess and act on.
- Law. Armenia’s legal and regulatory framework for air quality will be brought in line with European standards.
- Capacity. The institutions responsible for managing air quality will be trained and equipped to run the upgraded system.
The portal and the mobile app are the parts residents will touch directly. Both will carry air quality information the public can act on day to day, and both will feed the same data to policymakers building regulation on top of it.
Konstantin Sokulskiy, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in Armenia, said the program builds on progress Armenia has already made on air quality legislation and institutional structure while closing the gaps that remain. He said strong national ownership combined with the expertise of the UN partners will go toward air quality governance, modernized monitoring, better public access to information, and Armenia’s obligations under its agreement with the EU.
Vaclav Sterba, Deputy Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Armenia, said the launch reflects a shared, evidence-based approach to the country’s air quality problems, and called it a chance to reaffirm the partnership between the EU, the Armenian government, and the implementing agencies.
Also welcoming participants were Arpine Panoyan, Head of the Atmospheric Policy Department at Armenia’s Ministry of Environment; Siddhartha Sankar Datta, WHO Representative and Head of the WHO Country Office in Armenia; Carolin Sanz Noriega, Environmental Affairs Officer at UNECE; and Wolfgang Dolezal, Senior Client Manager for EU and International Cooperation at the Environment Agency Austria.
Air pollution sits among the most serious environmental and public health problems Armenia faces. The program is tied directly to the country’s commitments under the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), signed in 2017, which obliges Armenia to bring its environmental rules closer to European standards.
