Tashkent needs to invest in and develop public transport to reduce air pollution emissions, Rae Kwon Chun, former adviser to the UN Secretary General on climate change, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, told Gazeta.uz on the sidelines of the International Nobel Festival in Tashkent held on October 24-27.
“On the day of my arrival in Tashkent (October 24), fortunately, it was raining and the air was clean. But when the rain stopped, I felt that the air quality got worse. The reason is too many cars, which emit a lot of emissions and quickly worsen the air quality in Tashkent,” he said.
To solve this problem, it is very important to develop public transport, said Rae Kwon Chung.
“If everyone will drive own cars, the situation will worsen. Therefore, you must invest in public transport and improve it so that people can move around the city without driving a car. This should be a vision for solving the Tashkent’s problem,” he said.
The expert also touched upon the tragedy of the Aral Sea. “I know about the problem of the Aral Sea. I think that its solution is very difficult because of the economic interest. We all know why this happened. Unless we change the paradigm of thinking, it will be difficult [to solve the problem] thinking only about profit maximization,” he said.
At a briefing on Thursday, Narzullo Oblomurodov, chairman of the State Committee for Ecology and Environmental Protection, said that 58% (1.4 million tons) of total harmful emissions into the atmosphere in Uzbekistan come from road transport. In Tashkent, this figure is much higher - 93% (397 thousand tons).
