Alfred Simonis, the acting president of the Chamber of Deputies, also signed on July 10 the memorandum of understanding on solutions to create a green belt around Bucharest and combat the worrying air pollution in the capital city and beyond. His signature was the last one needed to bring together all the relevant political leaders and decision-makers and get their official support for the project initiated under the Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform.

With this memorandum, the civic initiative launched by mountaineer and environmentalist Alex Găvan managed to unite leaders from across the political spectrum. 

Previous signatories of the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health, and the Future, in this order, were Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, REPER co-presidents Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu, UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor, USR president Cătălin Drulă, PNL leader and Senate speaker Nicolae Ciucă, Ilfov County Council president Hubert Thuma, environment minister Mircea Fechet, and PSD president and prime minister Marcel Ciolacu. 

“Far too often, in Romania, naturalness and normality are considered exceptional. I bow with gratitude to each signatory and thank them for choosing to stand together for the Green Belt, stand together for clean air, health, and the future. That is, to be together to translate the exceptional into the naturalness and normality of everyday life. Because, in fact, the essence is simple: the power of together inspires us and teaches us how to love more,” Alex Găvan said.

The memorandum is a seven-point document with solutions for combating air pollution in Bucharest and beyond. It includes the amendments to the new Forestry Code aimed at safeguarding the forests in Ilfov county, which passed the Senate in April and moved to final debates and a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. Protecting these forests would be the starting point for creating the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt. Moreover, the green belt concept is to be extended to other cities as well.

The Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform was launched over a year ago by Alex Găvan and Florin Stoican (president of the associations Kogayon and the Urban Nature Network), and joined by over 150 non-profits, civic groups, and public figures. As its initiators say, it is a public health project with a strong social, climate change mitigation, and anti-pollution component, which also involves environmental actions.

Further details about the Together for the Green Belt platform, an initiative of the Alex Găvan Foundation, are available here (in Romanian).

Bucharest is in the top 3 of the most polluted capitals in the European Union. And air pollution not only means health issues for its inhabitants but also translates into an annual cost of EUR 6.35 billion. At the same time, the forests around Bucharest are systematically decimated, the project initiators say.

A 2020 report by the National Institute of Public Health found that if the authorities met their already assumed targets to combat pollution, Bucharest residents' life expectancy would increase by four years.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Opening photo: Fundația Alex Găvan, Guvernul României, Climate Change Summit)