Azerbaijan, Lankaran, 2 December / Trend corr. P.Aliyeva/ A Program, preventing emission of harmful substances, has submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers and is being discussed at the Ministries, the Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources said.
"Most of all, ban on import of old cars is being discussed. Moreover, it is planned to limit use of old cars of the Russian and European production," Huseyngulu Bagirov, the Minister, told journalists on 2 December.
If offers of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources are approved, import of five-year used cars from the develop countries will be banned, three-year used cars - from Russia and other CIS countries. Ecologists believe, most of all old cars pollute atmosphere in Azerbaijan. The Ministry's Measures plan on adapting technical norms of car wastes to the European standards has been submitted to the government. Role of cars in pollution of atmosphere makes up 40%-50%. It has been confirmed that the Russian cars, which were produced in the Soviet period or recent years, pollute atmosphere very much. Supervision norms on car waste in the country was specified in the Soviet period and this fact creates prevents solution of the problem. The Government targets to shift to Euro-2 and Euro-3 standards. When offers come to power, five-year used cars from the developed countries and three-year used cars from Russia and other CIS countries will not be imported to the country. The government seeks to reduce number of old cars in the country though this way. In accordance with the draft, the country will shift to Euro-2 standard in 2010 and Euro-3 - in 2012. At present the European countries are prepared to shift to Euro-5 standard.
Equipments at petrol production enterprises will be upgraded to solve ecological problems in the capital, Bagirov said. Another program should be developed with this purpose.
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