SOFIA, December 12, 2023 – The World Bank will provide analytical and advisory support to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water to help improve air quality in the country. An agreement for the provision of Reimbursable Advisory Services in Support of Strengthening Air Pollution Control in Bulgaria was signed today by Lasse Melgaard, World Bank Resident Representative for Bulgaria, Czechia, and Slovakia and Julian Popov, Minister of Environment and Water of the Republic of Bulgaria.
“Clean air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are at the core of the European Green Deal. We are glad to be able to support Bulgarian Government in its endeavor to make the country greener and improving the air quality for the benefit of all Bulgarians”, said Lasse Melgaard, World Bank’s Resident Representative for Bulgaria, Czechia, and Slovakia.
Over the next 18 months, a World Bank team of experts will help develop an Updated National Air Pollution Control Program for Bulgaria (NAPCP) along with suggestions for improvement of the national emissions inventory. An emissions inventory is an estimation of the amount of air pollutants released into the ambient air and must prepared and reported annually by EU member states. A special tool will be created for calculating emissions from the residential heating sector, incorporating data from the latest decennial census data for the residential sector.
The World Bank experts will work under two scenarios – modeling the pollution with the existing measures and reviewing the impact of additional measures.
This is the second contract under the new Framework Agreement for Reimbursable Advisory Services, signed with the Government of Bulgaria last year and designed to provide knowledge support for the 2021 to 2027 EU-programming period. The advisory work builds upon three years of engagement on local programs for air quality management in Bulgaria.
Reimbursable Advisory Services are a special World Bank instrument offered in middle- and high-income countries. Under these programs, the World Bank works with countries at their request, providing advisory services, analytical services, and implementation support. The Bank is then reimbursed for the costs of delivering these advisory services.
