North Macedonia’s Clean Air Agenda: Understanding the Relationship Between Air Pollution and Human Mobility
Across Europe, urban centres are especially prone to pollution that comes from energy generation, car emissions and residential heating exposing many people to respiratory risk. Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital, was ranked as the third most polluted city globally in 2022. With air toxicity levels exceeding the World Health Organization safety limits by 28 times, the North Macedonian Government introduced emergency measures to address the dangerous levels of air pollution.
While the headline figures are alarming, they tend to cloud the disproportionate impacts of poor air quality and access to clean energy on those already experiencing societal inequities due to gender, age, or disability. Population groups that may be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of exposure to poor air quality also include internal migrants such as rural-to-urban migrants and urban-to-urban migrants .
Though the linkages between migration and exposure to air pollution require more research, rural-to-urban migration is the principal form of internal migration in North Macedonia, which can expose migrants to new risks, especially if they reside in areas that are hazard-prone or have limited public services and amenities. The risks related to air pollution can also mirror migration dynamics and thus vary between male and female migrants, families who stay behind, including women and children, and socially marginalized groups such as the Roma.
“There is limited understanding of how the experiences of different migrant groups influence their vulnerability to air pollution and shape their access to clean energy. This poses challenges for an integrated response.”
Kaja Sukova, Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Republic of North Macedonia
Reducing air pollution is part of North Macedonia’s ambitious clean air agenda. The agenda includes several key priorities for tackling air pollution such as improving the system for air pollution monitoring, improving capacities among relevant ministries and increasing public awareness through educational campaigns.
Critical to this response is a better understanding of the relationship human mobility, air pollution and clean energy, which is often overlooked in policy deliberations. This poses a challenge when forming integrated responses, especially since these impacts are context-specific and require tailored solutions.
Part of the effort to address this gap is a project entitled, ‘A Systems Approach to Assess the Nexus between Air Pollution and Human Mobility in North Macedonia’, which will be the first of its kind to explore these issues in the country.
With support from the IOM Development Fund, the project will contribute to addressing the knowledge and policy gaps regarding the complex interlinkages between human mobility, air pollution and clean energy. It also aims to improve our understanding of the impacts of air pollution on internal migrants, including female migrants, women staying behind and children.
The evidence generated by this project will help raise awareness among relevant stakeholders in North Macedonia and help to integrate the migration perspective into the planned initiatives under the National Plan for Clean Air.
In Spring 2022 when the project was launched, IOM and project partners from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom held the first stakeholders meeting, which included partners from local and national governments and civil society. In addition, IOM North Macedonia had several meetings with the international development community to discuss air pollution, its impacts on North Macedonia and opportunities to address this silent killer.
The discussions promoted a systems thinking approach to addressing air pollution challenges. Participants explored how change happens and it became clear that collective and multi-stakeholder cooperation is needed to address pollution across sectors. Meaningful partnerships would involve a whole-of-society approach where government at all levels, academia, migrants, civil society, the private sector and youth are seen as key ingredients for the development of a coalition for change to drive air quality improvement both locally and nationally.
The meetings highlighted a clear need to generate evidence on the impacts of air pollution on different groups of people on the move. The University of Birmingham and its partner university in North Macedonia, South East European University, are pioneering an academic study by using low-cost sensors, calibrated to local conditions and deployed according to local priorities.
Starting with the city of Tetovo, these sensors are gathering data on how air pollution varies across urban landscapes and measure the impacts of indoor air pollutants on vulnerable groups. The evidence will contribute to a better understanding of the efficacy of interventions to improve air quality. It will also help to inform future interventions on air pollution even after the project formally concludes. IOM is supporting the partner universities in forging connections with national and local governments to ensure the accuracy of data and that the evidence is acted upon. Ultimately, the project aims to support government institutions in integrating the human mobility perspective into planned initiatives under the National Plan for Clean Air.
The project is being implemented in line with the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans under the European Green Deal, which proposes EU actions and commitments to combat air pollution, increase access to clean energy in Europe and transform cities into global standards for sustainability. Migrants and their families are key stakeholders in this agenda and play an important role in realizing its objectives.
