Cleaning Sofia's Air, One Emission Zone at a Time
by Za Zemiata (Environmental Association / Friends of the Earth Bulgaria) · HQ 🇧🇬 Bulgaria
Za Zemiata ("For the Earth") is one of Bulgaria's oldest environmental NGOs, working on air quality, energy, climate and zero-waste issues as the country's Friends of the Earth member group. It has published a series of technical reports backing Sofia's low-emission zone (LEZ), Central and Eastern Europe's first, which restricts the most polluting vehicles from the city center. Za Zemiata's monitoring found NO2 concentrations within the LEZ's 'Small Ring' fell over 20% in December 2024, the first month of camera enforcement, versus the same period a year earlier, while daily entries by the most polluting vehicles collapsed from roughly 20,000 in November 2024 to about 2,000 by February 2025.