Irregularities and Weaknesses of the Clean Air Act Compared to the Prevention of Air Pollution Act

After half a century from the first provisions on air pollution of Iranian cities in the Amendment of Some Provisions and Addendum of New Provisions to the Municipal Act of 1967 and on the basis of experiences gained from 22-year enforcement of the Prevention of Air Pollution Act of 1995, the Iranian legislative and executive branches passed the Clean Air Act in 2017. Although the Clean Air Act contains many innovations and strengths, unfortunately, this Act has also some weaknesses and irregularities which failure to eliminate them would make its implementation hard and its success impossible. Some of the most important irregularities and weaknesses of this Act that will be examined in this paper include the following: reducing the speed of the detection of emergency situations of air pollution and taking necessary measures in these situations; conflicts and overlapping between some of its Provisions, underestimating the social, economic and political consequences of combating air pollution in some cases; failure to grant the general right of public interest litigation to the Department of Environment; numerous irregularities in criminal provisions, notably the lack of prediction of prompt judicial proceedings and non-use of imprisonment punishment, and finally; ambiguity in some Provisions of the said Act.