Facts and figures
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia , in south Central Europe . The country shares borders with Italy , Austria , Hungary and Croatia as well as access to the Adriatic Sea .
Ljubljana has a population of just under 300,000 out of the national population of 2.06 million . It is an ancient settlement site , with archaeological remains found dating back to 2000BC . Today the medieval layout and significant Baroque and Vienna Secession style architecture dominate the city ’ s picturesque centre .
Ljubljana is located in a river basin , with hills surrounding the city . This can exacerbate air pollution in the area , alongside weather conditions with cold winters and hot summers leading to inversions as well as demand for winter heating .
Lovely Ljubljana
In each edition we introduce one of our six pilot areas . Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and a proud member of ClairCity .
City success
Ljubljana has achieved some air pollution improvements over the past few years . Nitrogen dioxide annual levels in the city centre have remained within the accepted range for the last three years thanks to traffic management improvements , including pedestrianising 10ha of the central area .
However , PM10 levels are still exceeding EU levels in winter months so more effort is required . District heating systems now provide almost 75 % of heating energy needs in the city centre and are being expanded to the city outskirts and neighbouring towns .
Find out more at www . ljubljana . si
Comparing our cities
As expected , circumstances and policies regarding air quality and carbon management are quite different across our pilot cities . Whereas Amsterdam and Bristol mainly struggle with NOx and PM emissions from traffic , in other cities emissions from household boilers play a more prominent role .
Site visit to Ljubljana , 2017
In particular Sosnowiec also has to deal with high concentration levels of Benzo-a-pyrene , contributing to alarming smog levels on cold winter days .
While public and policy attention to air quality and carbon management vary substantially between areas , all cities and regions have some policies implemented . These include measures to stimulate walking and cycling , improvements in public transport and discouraging private cars from entering the city . For energy , policies vary from subsidising more efficient domestic boilers to stimulating private renewable energy cooperatives , and from expanding district-heating systems to encouraging all-electric solutions in households .
The next step for our team will be to analyse the room for change that cities and regions in each national context .
Stephan Slingerland
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