The SAO hosted a conference on air quality, waste, and circular economy

Press release — 18 September 2019


On 17 September, the Supreme Audit Office held a conference called Air Quality and Circular Economy at its headquarters. The conference looked into current environmental issues in the Czech Republic, such as air quality, waste management and the circular economy. The SAO has been dealing with environmental audits for a long time and, by holding this conference, the SAO offered a platform to discuss current issues. Therefore, the SAO invited representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, senators from the Committee on Public Administration, Regional Development and the Environment, a representative of CENIA, environmental and law experts from the Charles University, the Institute of the Circular Economy, and local governments. The conference was also attended by a delegation from the Slovak SAO, headed by its Chairman Mr Karol Mitrík.

The first part of the conference was devoted to air quality in the Czech Republic. The Director of CENIA described how the environment in the Czech Republic had changed over the past 25 years. In this way, he offered a look at various components of the environment — air, water, and waste management — and pointed out what had been improved in the Czech Republic for that period and where we had not progressed as fast as it would be necessary.

Afterwards, Mr Michal Rampír from the Czech SAO presented the results of the audit 18/04 on air pollution, which showed that while the Czech Republic had complied with its international obligations, it had had a problem in meeting its own non-exceedable emission values as of 2020.

Mr Milan Damohorský, Head of the Department of Environmental Law, Charles University, presented about the environmental legislation. The environmental law, and in particular in relation to air, is a specific area in which both international commitments and the EU legislation play an important role. The interconnectedness of the legislation, which is designed to protect the environment, with other legal norms is also important, be they construction, agriculture or other areas.

The poor air quality in the Czech Republic and its causes were addressed by Mr Lubomír Patroha and Mr Jiří Morcone from Ascend. According to them, a weak point is, e.g., work with programming tools to improve air, the use of which is very much dependent on the interest of local authorities, which is low. Also, the industrial and agricultural sources of pollution at systemic level are not sufficiently addressed in the Czech Republic.

The second part of the conference was devoted to the circular economy and the waste sector. Ms Laura Mitrolisos from the Circular Economy Institute presented the benefits of the circular economy. In contrast to the linear economy, when entering the market, the possibility of using non-primary raw materials is being considered by their recyclability and the use of products after they have been used.

Mr Jan Maršák from the Ministry of the Environment presented the strategy for the circular economy in the Czech Republic. He also covered European directives on waste, as well as a European strategy on plastics. It focuses on dealing with plastics in the long term and on rules for the use of disposable plastics. Both material and energy recovery in the Czech Republic is below the EU average. There are 5.7 million tonnes of municipal waste per year landfilled, and this should be improved by the new Czech Republic’s strategy. The most powerful tool for supporting the circular economy is the Waste Act, the amendment of which is already in the legislative process.

The deputy mayor of Prague 7 Ms Lenka Burgerová and Mr Martin Vaněček from the City Council of Brno presented how the circular economy is applied in practice at municipal level.

print the page