Lawmakers on Monday approved the total of 12 articles in the Clean Air Bill that aims to curb environmental damage by industrial units.
One of the most consequential articles targets industries whose pollution exceeds standards, which according to another article, are set by the Iranian National Standards Organization, ISNA reported.
The limits of pollution emitted by each type of activity will be set by INSO.
All units, including factories to workshops whose activities are known to cause environmental harm, will be fined three to five times the amount of damage they inflict on the environment.
The organization must now devise guidelines and, after the approval of the Council of Ministers, communicate them to managers of industrial units.
In the case of violations by highly polluting sectors, such as mining and large factories, a commission comprising the minister of industries, governor general of the province in which the activity is undertaken and head of INSO will decide whether to shut down the unit.
Green Spaces in Industrial Zones
Another key article states that at least 10% of the area assigned to new industrial zones and townships must be green spaces.
The establishment of these spaces is the responsibility of industrial units and they must ensure that the vegetation used in the space is compatible with the local climate.
Green spaces help ease global warming by reducing heat buildup and benefit human health by improving air quality.
The Clean Air Bill, which was drafted by the Department of Environment, aims to improve air quality in Iran’s metropolises by imposing measures such as improving the quality of gasoline distributed in major cities, obliging carmakers to produce at least Euro-4 fuel compliant vehicles and mandating more frequent technical inspections.
The last measure, however, was essentially thwarted by lawmakers last week as they revised the relevant article to reduce mandatory technical inspections from every five years to four as opposed to biennial checkups sought by the original article.
Another measure taken by the government was the banning of the production of highly-polluting, carburetor-equipped motorcycles from September 2016. The administration is urging people to opt for eco-friendly electric motorbikes.
With 26,000 annual deaths due to air pollution, Iran ranks 16th in terms of air pollution-related deaths, according to figures released by the World Health Organization, costing Iran around $30 billion a year.
