Government of Vojvodina adopts Environmental Protection Declaration – Use of plastic bags to stop by end-2020

The Provincial Government of Vojvodina has adopted the Environmental Protection Declaration, under which the use of coal and mazut for heating at public institutions should stop by 2029, larger places should work on introducing environmentally-friendly vehicles in public transport and the use of plastic bags should be banned by the end of 2020.

In order to come into effect, the declaration needs to be adopted by the Assembly of Vojvodina.

The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, the document states, will take measures for institutions founded by the Provincial Government to prepare project documentation by 2024 based on which the current systems of heating based on mazut and coal would be replaced by energy efficient solutions by the end of 2029.

Also, under the declaration, the priority projects and technologies to be supported over the next ten years, in cooperation with the city authorities of Novi Sad, Vrsac, Zrenjanin, Kikinda, Pancevo, Sombor, Sremska Mitrovica and Subotica, are those pertaining to the improvement of public transport through the procurement of environmentally-friendly vehicles which use alternative fuels. The Provincial Government says in the statement that these alternative fuels are electrical energy and gas.

Upon the expiration of this period, in the next five years, the measures will also be taken in the municipalities in Vojvodina with organized public transport, the declaration reads.

Local self-government units will be recommended to define measures for ameliorating the damage done to ecosystems due to unsustainable use and disposal of plastic products within their plans and programs of managing natural resources and goods.

Within this, there will be a recommendation to ban the use of plastic bags and other disposable plastic products by 2020, the document reads.

The declaration also covers the activities towards protecting natural goods and biological diversity, as well as improving the systems of protected areas and increasing areas under forests.

The declaration says that the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina will take measures to raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection and sustainable development as part of the education of young people. They especially encourage civil society organizations to get involved in making decisions in this field.

Vlada AP Vojvodina

Skupština Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine

Environmental Protection Declaration

use of coal and mazut

electric public transport vehicles

ban on use of plastic bags

use of alternative fuels

renewable energy sources