Jun 06, 2013 - Air-related
legislation in the EU aims to protect human
health and the environment from pollution.
But this legislation is not always fully
implemented. Bridging this gap is the subject
of a new publication from the European Environment
Agency (EEA).
We are risking human
health and the environment when clean air
legislation is not fully implemented. The
air pilot project demonstrates the potential
for cities and European partners to build
capacity and learn from each other in improving
implementation.
The report is the result of collaboration
between the EEA, the European Commission
and 12 cities which participated in the
Air Implementation Pilot project: Antwerp
(Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Dublin (Ireland),
Madrid (Spain), Malmö (Sweden), Milan
(Italy), Paris (France), Ploiesti (Romania),
Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Prague (Czech Republic),
Vienna (Austria), and Vilnius (Lithuania).
The report, ‘Air implementation
pilot – Lessons learnt from the implementation
of air quality legislation at urban level’,
will be launched today in Brussels at Green
Week, the annual EU environmental policy
conference.
Several air quality
standards are still regularly exceeded in
Europe, even though some of these limits
were established more than a decade ago.
The most problematic pollutants are particulate
matter (PM10), nitrogen oxides (NO2) and
ozone (O3), which still affect people’s
quality and length of life in many areas.
Janez Potocnik, European
Commissioner for the Environment, said:
“We must resolve the implementation deficit
urgently, to pave the way for deeper reductions
in air pollution and its impacts on our
lives. That is why I asked the EEA to set
up the cities pilot, and the lessons learned
will be taken up in the forthcoming review
of EU air policy.”
Hans Bruyninckx, EEA
Executive Director, said: “We are risking
human health and the environment when clean
air legislation is not fully implemented.
The air pilot project demonstrates the potential
for cities and European partners to build
capacity and learn from each other in improving
implementation.”
Main findings of the
project
Almost all cities kept
emissions inventories listing the pollutants
released, but using different methodologies
– making it difficult to compare between
different cities or regions. Many of these
inventories do not take into account all
pollutants, the report says. Some experts
from cities underlined the need for better
input data to inventories and more training
and guidance.
Air quality modelling varies significantly
between different cities. In some cases,
modelling is hampered by issues with data
in the original inventories. Some cities
also had problems with other input data
used in modelling, for example meteorological
data or city topography. Many city representatives
said that the results of models were often
highly complex, and therefore required a
lot of resources to interpret.
Experts participating in the Air Implementation
Pilot suggested more detailed requirements
regarding the location and representativeness
criteria for monitoring stations.
Most of the pollution-reduction measures
taken by cities are traffic-related. Some
representatives of the cities said they
were uncertain about how to evaluate the
effectiveness of measures, and their costs
and benefits. This situation would be improved
with better inventories and modelling tools,
the report concludes. The experts also asked
for further support in the form of new EU
regulations.
Most cities are promptly providing information
to the public as required by legislation,
mostly through dedicated air quality websites.
In general, the cities make little use of
mass media, social media and new technologies
like smartphone applications, the report
says.
Potential of industrial emissions reductions
In a forthcoming assessment,
the EEA will look at the potential for cutting
air pollution from selected power plants
in the European Union. The analysis will
consider the emissions reduction if all
plants had met the emission limit values
set by various pieces of EU legislation
and guidance documents, including the Industrial
Emission Directive (IED).
+ More
Our Natural Europe:
conservation stories show importance of
local action
Jun 17, 2013 - When
fishermen in the Koster Sea in Southern
Sweden understood the value of the ecosystems
beneath the waves, they voluntarily agreed
to change fishing practices. The area became
Sweden’s first marine national park in 2006.
The Swedish story is
one of three new publications from Our Natural
Europe, or ‘ONE’, a series of articles published
by the European Environment Agency (EEA)
and Eionet partners demonstrating the importance
of biodiversity and its connection to people.
Overall, they highlight the importance of
local action in addressing biodiversity
loss.
A story on Romania describes
efforts to maintain populations of the red-footed
falcon (Falco verpertinus), which is classified
as 'near threatened' on the IUCN Red List.
Numbers of the birds, which live interdependently
with rooks, have fallen since the 11000s
when agriculture intensified in Romania.
The Turkish story focuses
on Lake Tuz in the middle of the Anatolian
plain. The salt lake is the source of most
of Turkey’s salt, and is also renowned as
a unique ecosystem with its rare and endangered
halophytic (salt-loving) plants and insects,
some of which are found only in this area.
The three stories published
today follow others including a story on
organic apple production in Switzerland,
webcap mushrooms in Finland and Poland's
Bialowieza Forest, the last refuge of the
European bison.
Taken as a whole, the
ONE stories illustrate the biodiversity
of Europe and its varied ecosystems, showing
the threats and pressures they face, including
habitat fragmentation and destruction, invasive
alien species, pollution, over-harvesting
and climate change.
