Air pollution has blighted Serbia for years. This is due to the country’s heavy reliance on coal, which in 2021 powered around 70% of its electricity. Old diesel-powered vehicles and authorities move to tamper with air pollution criteria have also been part of the problem. In turn, activists have taken to the streets and courts.

Our correspondents Lizi Auskery and Milivoje Pantović discuss the situation with activists, whistle-blowers and health workers in order to assess the scale of the problem. In addition, Boris speaks to Mirko Popović, the programme director of Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI), an organisation that conducts environmental and climate lawsuits in the Balkans.

The Eurasian Climate Brief is a podcast dedicated to climate issues in the region stretching from Eastern Europe to Russia down to the Caucasus and Central Asia.

This episode is supported by n-ost, The Moscow Times and the European Climate Foundation, and made by:

• Natalie Sauer, a French British environmental journalist and English-language editor for The Conversation. A former reporter for Climate Home News, her words have also appeared in international media such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Politico Europe, Open Democracy, Euractiv and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
• Boris Schneider, European Journalism Project Manager at Clean Energy Wire (CLEW). Prior he has worked as a specialist on Eastern European climate and energy topics, amongst others for n-ost and the German Economic Team. He graduated from the Free University of Berlin with a M. Sc. in Economics and is interested in the intersection of political economy and ecology in Eurasia.
• Angelina Davydova, an environmental journalist from Russia. Angelina has been writing about climate change in the region for Russian and international media and attending UN climate summits since 2008. She also teaches environmental journalism and environmental and climate policy and communication in a number of universities and regularly organises training for journalists from Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus on environmental and climate reporting. Angelina left Russia in March 2022 and is now a fellow of the journalistic programme Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) in Berlin.

Production by the www.thepodcastcoach.co.uk