“It is impossible to breathe” – Nobel Prize winner talks about air pollution in Tashkent

I felt that it is impossible to breathe in Tashkent because of the pollution of the air, the Nobel laureate Rae Kwon Chung, who was a guest of the city, said.

During his career, the Korean professor worked as an advisor to the UN Secretary General on climate change issues, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. On October 24-27, he took part in the 5th Nobel Festival held in Tashkent for the first time.

“On the day of my arrival in Tashkent (October 24), luckily, it was raining and the weather was very clean. But when the rain stopped, I felt that the air was really dirty and it was difficult to breathe. Due to the large number of private cars and the toxic fumes emitted from them, the air in the city is getting worse than normal. These are the causes of air pollution in Tashkent. It is necessary to find a solution,” he said in an interview with Gazeta.uz.

Rae Kwon Chung said public transportation should be developed to reduce air pollution in the city.

“You should pay attention to public transport and increase their number. This is a very important issue. If people continue to drive their own cars, the situation will get worse. It is better that people do not enter the city in their cars,” he said.

According to the guest, if the speed and quality of public transport is maintained, people will definitely use it.

According to the information given yesterday by the Ecology Committee, 93% (397,000 tons) of harmful emissions into the atmosphere in Tashkent are caused by cars. On the republican scale, this figure is equal to 58% (1.4 million tons) on average.

It should be recalled that on the evening of October 17, Tashkent city was ranked 1st in the ranking of world cities in terms of air pollution.