Local Environmental Action Plans

LEAP – Local Environmental Action Plans

Local Environmental Action Plans are basic strategic planning documents for development and improvement of environmental performance of local municipalities. LEAP require identification of main environmental problems and placing clear set of goals and actions for better environmental performance and resolving identified problems.

LEAP document covers the current state of the environment, including in formal planning processes.

Objectives of LEAP
Local Environmental Management Plan (LEAP) should:

• Identify, evaluate and rank environmental problems within the territory of a local government unit (LGU), bases on health, environmental and overall quality of life risks;
• Develop an environmental action plan for the LGU territory;
• Promote public awareness and responsibility for environmental protection and increase public support for investments in the field;
• Involve the general public in the planning and drafting process;
• Create an appropriate document in order to access financial resources for environmental protection from regional, national and international sources;
• Support capacity building and motivate local community to deal effectively and sustainably with environmental issues so that all stakeholders are included in the LEAP document.

 

Energy Efficiency Program

The Energy Efficiency Program is a planning document that adopts a unit of local self-government, that is, another mandatory energy management system, on the planned implementation and size of the planned energy-saving expenditure over a period of at least three years.

The Energy Efficiency Program (EE Program) of local government unit (LGU) must contain the elements prescribed by the Energy Efficiency Law. Since the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter: NEEAP RS) and the EE Program of LGU should form a single entity, the methodology of energy savings calculation in the EE Program of LGU should be identical to the methodology used in the preparation of the NEEAP RS, i.e. a methodology for calculating energy savings developed in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission and the recommendations of the EMEEES project. At the same time, the energy savings target defined by the EE Program of LGU must be aligned with the goal defined in the NEEAP RS, as well as with the goal prescribed by the Regulation on setting the limit values of annual energy consumption, which determines which companies are obliged to the energy management system (EMS), annual savings goals, energy and the application form for energy consumption (hereinafter: Regulation on annual energy savings targets of EMS taxpayers).

Within the scope of the EE Program of LGU, that is, within the scope of EMS in LGU, there are public-purpose facilities, facilities used by public services (PS), public utility companies (PUC) and public enterprises (PE) founded by LGU, other facilities for which local community directly or indirectly bears the costs of energy consumption or energy sources, current and/or investment maintenance, and utilities provided by PUC founded by the LGU.

EMS LGU do not include the industrial sector (except, possibly, the work of PUC and PE), the transport sector (except transport within the PUC and PE), nor the household sector.

The energy efficiency program must include:

• Confirmation that the planned energy savings target is defined in the EE Program of LGU in accordance with the planned goals of the Strategy, the Strategy Implementation Program and the NEEAP RS,
• Review and assessment of annual energy requirements, including an assessment of the energy performance of facilities within the scope of EMS LGU;
• Proposal of measures and activities to ensure efficient use of energy, namely:
  ◦ A plan for energy rehabilitation and maintenance of facilities within the scope of EMS LGU,
  ◦ Utility improvement plans (district heating systems, district cooling systems, water supply, public lighting, waste management, public transport, etc) provided by the PUC established by LGU,
• Other measures planned in terms of energy efficiency;
• Holders, deadlines and evaluation of the expected results of each of the measures envisaged to achieve the planned goal;
• The resources needed to implement the programs, the sources and the way they are provided.

 

Air Quality Plan

An air quality plan is a basic document for managing local air quality. The air quality plan shall be adopted on the basis of an air quality assessment and shall cover all major pollutants and major sources of air pollution that have led to the pollution, as well as measures to be taken to prevent or reduce pollution and improve air quality.

 

Local Sustainable Development Strategy

The Local Sustainable Development Strategy is the most important long-term strategic development document of any local community, municipality or city.
Strategic planning documents (strategies, plans and programs) are the basis for realizing the concept of good management of local community resources and one of the main mechanisms for implementing local development policy.

Local self-government (municipality or city) enacts development programs and takes care of environmental protection, adopts programs of use and protection of natural values and environmental protection programs, i.e. local action and rehabilitation plans, in accordance with strategic documents and its interests and specificities and determines special compensation for environmental protection and improvement (Law on Local Self-Government, Official Gazette of RS No. 129/07, 83/14- other law, 101/16- other law and 47/18; Article 20, indents 1 and 11; in accordance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government).

Developing a strategy also involves drawing up action plans for priority areas identified in line with EU pre-accession funds. The development of action plans should make local government more competitive in the process of approximation to European standards, and staff more trained in the use of IPA (pre-accession assistance instruments) components.

 

Local municipal waste management plan

Article 13. from the Law on Waste Management (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 36/2009, 88/2010 and 14/2016, 95/18 – other law), defines that the preparation of a Local Municipal Waste Management Plan is an obligation of the local government. This plan shall be adopted for a period of 10 years and shall be reviewed every five years, and if it is necessary, revised and adopted for the next 10 years.

The plan should include, among other things, all relevant information on the current situation in the direct and indirect relationship with waste management at the local level, their movements from the previous situation, projections of future developments, legal, strategic and institutional frameworks for action, ways waste management, identified problems, defined the most acceptable models for achieving full control over all waste streams from generation, separation, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal, new concepts of waste management, specific goals, financial investments and activities to achieve the goals.

The Local Waste Management Plan aims to make a measurable contribution to the improvement of the state and system of waste management in the territory of local government in the future and to initiate a change in the way of thinking about waste towards a more rational use of resources, economization of waste management, investment approach of the waste – energy, technological development of waste management, and ultimately the consequent minimization of adverse environmental impact.

 

The content of the Local Waste Management Plan should contain:

1) expected types, quantities and origin of total waste in the territory of the LSG;
2) the expected types, quantities and origin of the waste to be utilized or disposed of within the territory covered by the plan;
3) expected types, quantities and origin of waste to be accepted from other local self-government units;
4) expected types, quantities and origin of waste to be transferred to other local self-government;
5) the objectives to be achieved with regard to the reusing and recycling of waste in the area covered by the plan;
6) household waste collection program;
7) household hazardous waste collection program;
8) commercial waste collection program;
9) industrial waste management program;
10) proposals for reusing and recycling of municipal waste components;
11) a program for the reducing of the amounts of biodegradable and packaging waste in municipal waste;
12) a program for developing public awareness of waste management;
13) location of waste collection facilities, treatment, reuse and disposal of waste, including information on location conditions;
14) measures for the prevention of movement of waste not covered by the plan and measures for the management of waste arising in emergency situations;
15) remediation measures for wild landfills;
16) supervision and monitoring of planned activities and measures;
17) cost estimates and sources of funding for planned activities;
18) possibilities for cooperation between two or more local self-governments;
19) deadlines for implementation of planned measures and activities;
20) other data, goals and measures of importance for effective waste management.

 

Illegal Landfills Cadastre

Increased amounts of generated municipal waste is one of the major problems of our civilization. When it is deposed at the landfills without any control, generated waste represents big danger. At such locations occurs pollution of all environmental parameters, especially water, both surface and underground.

According to Article 5 of the Law on Waste Management, the illegal landfill is a place, a public area, where various types of waste are disposed and which does not fulfill the conditions determined with the regulation governing the landfill.
The number of wild landfills has been very changeable as they are formed very fast in short time period, so cleaning up and transferring of the waste to a sanitary landfill often doesn’t have significant effects.

The purpose of developing the Wild Landfill Cadastre identifies the number, locations and quantities of deposed waste at the landfills for the development of databases, based on which would be planned the rehabilitation of existing wild landfills, expanded the territory of organized separate waste collecting, obtained additional equipment for collection, selection and transportation of waste.