Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova was a key-note speaker at the International Air Quality and Climate Solutions Summit at London City Hall together with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. On July 19, 2022, representatives of over 20 global cities – from Seattle to Johannesburg, from Warsaw to Los Angelis, from Lima to Quezon City, from Nairobi to Montreal - got together to discuss how to reduce the emissions by half within one decade to promote health and social justice and foster sustainability.

The speech of Mayor Fandakova came only 2 days before the upcoming vote in Sofia Municipal Council on the introduction of the low emission zone is Sofia – not only the first one in Bulgaria, but the first one in Eastern Europe. The low emission zone introduction was prepared in the framework of INNOAIR with research, three pilots and a white book and the proposed Ordinance is published for public consultations.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan congratulated Sofia for the brave climate leadership and shared the effects of the low emission zone in London: 20% less NO2 concentrations in inner London as 94% of all vehicles in the zones meet the strict eco standards, up from 37% in 2017.

The plans of Sofia were supported by the World Health Organization, whose representative Dr Maria Neira expressed her wish to visit Sofia, get first-hand experience and promote its achievements in stopping the invisible health crisis.

During the summit the delegation of Sofia had bilateral meetings with Clean Air Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, representatives of cities, businesses and international organizations.

C40 is a network of mayors of nearly 100 leading world cities committed to cooperate and take urgent actions to address the climate crisis.

INNOAIR project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.