Nevertheless, harmful impact of industry on environment is very broad. Chemical industry, petrochemical industry including oil refineries and machinery industry are the biggest polluters.
The most serious environmental problem in Belarus is the contamination after the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl’ nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, 16 km south of the Belarusian border. More than 60 percent of the high-level radioactive fallout  was spewed into the atmosphere landed in Belarus, affecting about one-fifth of its territory and more than 2 million people. The explosion initially posed its greatest threat in the air, as winds immediately carried the radioactive plume over Belarus. More than 160,000 Belarusians were evacuated from their homes in the most heavily contaminated regions of Gomyel’, Mahilyow, and Brest. In the villages in the contaminated zones, food and other goods are now in short supply and radiation-linked diseases are on the rise.
Belarus has vast forest areas such as pine, fir, and birch forests, dominant in the north, and oak, elm, and white beech prevalent in the south. Little of the country’s woodland is protected, however, in total, 4.2 percent of Belarus’s land area is protected.Another area of concern is the number of threatened species.

The country has a big potential for renewable energy use. It has 9 million ha of forest out of which 53% are for commercial use.
Being locked between other European countries,Belarus is already suffering consequences of climate changes reflected on yield, river flow and average annual temperature rise. Today floods represent a great problem for the country.