Sarajevo tops world's most polluted cities list

Air quality in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is so bad some people are wearing masks.

Transcript

00:00 Bosnia's capital Sarajevo has been intermittently engulfed in a toxic haze since the start of

00:11 December. Its air quality is so bad it has ranked top on a list of the world's most polluted

00:17 cities for two days in a row. The Swiss air technology company IQ Air compiles a real-time

00:25 list of city air quality, rating from good to hazardous. On Wednesday, it put Sarajevo's

00:30 air quality in the "very unhealthy" category. It's not a new problem. There have been protests

00:35 by locals dating back to 2020. At the time, experts said air pollution in the Balkans

00:41 was due, in part, to the use of coal-fuelled power plants and old cars. Since then, the

00:46 Sarajevo authorities have pledged to make the city carbon-free by 2035. But a cost-of-living

00:53 crisis has forced people to rely on cheaper, dirtier fuels to heat their homes, and there's

00:58 just no money to buy new cars. Many locals feel the need to wear masks when the pollution

01:03 gets bad.

01:04 "I think masks are not necessary. The most dangerous part of air pollution is the so-called

01:12 fine dust, PM2.5 and PM1. Every mask that enters the airway barrier passes through without

01:22 a mask. We had and we don't have masks."

01:26 Sarajevo has to do something, and the city has been included among a hundred others the

01:31 European Union is helping to reach net zero emissions. It's currently developing action

01:36 and investment plans for climate neutrality across all sectors.

01:40 (electronic music)