Environmental protection representatives of the civil society express deep concern about the promotion of a bill registered on July 22, 2019 in Parliament. The draft proposes an age limit increase, from 10 to 15 years, for the import of vehicles designed for more than 20 passengers. Additionally, a 3 year age limit increase is proposed on the import of vehicles with a capacity of up to 20 passengers, from 7 years to 10 years.
Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov, executive director of "EcoContact", at an IPN press conference, said that this bill also establishes the maximum age limit for cars, especially those providing paid passengers transport services. The age limit will be 25 years for buses and 18 years for minibuses and cars. The environmental representatives say that if the bill is signed into law, an air pollution hike will occur. The hike will happen due to the age limit increase of the automobile fleet, which is one of the primary environmental pollution factors of the air, water and soil.
Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov noted that “In particular, the City of Chisinau is overcrowded with automobiles. The city does not have the necessary infrastructure to cope with an increased transport flow and it does not have public transport dedicated lanes. As a result, many traffic jams are generated, which are major sources of pollution, because idling cars emit harmful emissions into the atmosphere".
Andrei Isac, an independent environmental expert, mentioned that climate change research in the Republic of Moldova shows a strong link between increasing automobile pollution and overall pollution level increases. In his opinion, import of old cars, minibuses and buses, which are usually high capacity diesel engines, leads to increasing automobile pollution. The expert said that "This fact worries us a lot. European Union member states and other European countries have adopted very clear policies to reduce or even ban the use of diesel engine cars, due to high pollution rates. At one point they were introduced as being cheaper, but it was detected that they are more polluting”.
According to the Action Plan for the Association Agreement implementation with the European Union on environmental protection, the Directive on air quality and cleaner air for Europe must be implemented in 2019. It stipulates the obligation to provide information regarding air pollution reduction measures, which have been implemented at the local, regional and national levels. The president of the National Environment Center, Ina Coșeru said that If we aspire to integrate into the European Union, then we shouldn't consider lax car import rules, but should consider banning diesel engines, in order to meet our commitments under the Paris Agreement, which implies the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The environment NGOs state that "The proposed initiative is alarming, as we risk loading the road traffic of the Republic of Moldova with outdated, second hand polluting transport units, especially in urban areas, which historically have not been designed for crowded traffic." Among the approximately 30 signatories of the declaration are "EcoContact", "Ecological Movement of Moldova", "International Association of River Keepers", "Eco-Tiras", "Association of Environmental Journalists and Ecological Tourism of Moldova", ARD "Habitat ", "Concordia", Ecological Society "Biotica", etc. The declaration remains open to other signatories.
