Skopje, 20 November 2024 (MIA) – Up until and including this October, around 40 environmental complaints were sent to the Ombudsman’s Office. Half of those were regarding air quality and the rest were in relation to other aspects of polluted environment.

This was announced by Ombudsman Naser Ziberi, who is hosting Wednesday and Thursday an international conference on ombudsmen and national human rights and environment institutions, organized as part of a project on increasing the Ombudsman’s role in environmental justice. Funded by Norway’s foreign ministry, the project is implemented in cooperation with UNDP and the Skopje office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Nature strikes back, Ziberi stressed opening the conference, listing natural disasters that are frequently being recorded, including floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, greenhouse garden effects, extreme heatwaves, etc.

The Ombudsman urged that a balance between development and environmental justice must be found. “Environmental justice is an imperative this century, because if adequate climate change measures are not found, it’ll lead to collective dying.”

Ziberi expressed concern over the situation involving the environment in the country, saying “it is against the constitutional commitment to guaranteeing the right to healthy environment.”

We’re already paying the price, according to him, as a result of inhumane construction expansion, intensive exhaustion of mineral resources, illegal landfills, burning waste, inadequate collection, transportation and treatment of waste and excessive emission of harmful gases into the air. “Residents of the capital Skopje are breathing air that is highly polluted. The residents of Tetovo, Strumica, Kochani and other cities live in similar circumstances. Our citizens live in the top ten most polluted cities in the world. A UNICEF study showed disastrous results – one in ten newborns in our country dies due to polluted environment,” said Ziberi.  

Speaking at the conference, UNDP Resident Representative Armen Grigoryan noted that environmental protection is not only an environmental issue, it is also justice and a fundamental human right, which is why ombudsmen and human rights protection institutions play an increasing role in promoting environmental justice. 

In the Western Balkans, some 30 percent of all complaints sent to ombudsmen’s offices involve environmental issues, he said.

“UNDP is proud to support North Macedonia and the institutions for human rights and the Ombudsman’s office to strengthen their capacities in protecting the right to healthy environment. This is a wider commitment of UNDP in the region – efficient responses to environmental injustice,” said the UNDP official. 

Asked by reporters what measures the government is taking to curb air pollution in the country, First Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Izet Mexhiti responded that policies have been directed to address the reasons rather than the consequences. 

“I’d rather we deal with the reasons than the consequences and we implement concrete projects that would solve the issue on the long run. Studies show that households in urban areas burn whatever comes their way for heating, not because they want to but because they have no choice. With the government’s ‘green fund’, the Environment Ministry will subsidize to increase the number of those using thermal energy to heat the homes in urban areas as it is greener than gasification. It is also being considered to shut down coal-burning power plants by 2030 and replace them with new systems that will improve the environment,” Mexhiti told reporters.