Published 10 Dec 2013
Last modified 10 Dec 2013, 09:46 AM
Black carbon is an air pollutant which harms
human health and can contribute to climate
change – so cutting emissions may have many
benefits. The European Environment Agency
(EEA) has published a report on the measurement
of black carbon in the air.
The EEA report, ‘Status
of black carbon monitoring in ambient air
in Europe’, looks at the monitoring networks
currently measuring black carbon, measurement
methodologies and how this data is used.
As the effects of this
pollutant have become better understood
in recent years, it is increasingly seen
as an important target of environmental
control. Authors of the EEA report hope
that the study will encourage more comprehensive
monitoring of this pollutant, which is currently
patchy.
Health and climate effects
Black carbon is the
sooty part of particulate matter (PM) formed
by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels
and biomass. It is mostly emitted by vehicles,
non-road mobile machinery such as forestry
machines, ships, coal or wood burning stoves
in homes. Another important source is open
biomass burning including forest fires and
agricultural waste burning.
Of all air pollutants,
PM is the most harmful to health in Europe.
The black carbon part of PM is particularly
harmful as it represents a mixture of very
fine, partly carcinogenic particles, small
enough to enter the bloodstream and reach
other organs.
There is currently a
lively debate about whether reducing this
pollutant could have significant gains in
reducing climate change, with a recent study
suggesting that black carbon’s effect on
the climate is more potent than previously
thought. In the atmosphere the carbon-containing
pollutant effectively absorbs solar radiation
leading to a warming of the atmosphere.
When it settles on snow or ice, the darker
colour absorbs more heat, accelerating melting.
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Global megatrends shaping
Europe's environment
Published 06 Dec 2013
Last modified 06 Dec 2013, 10:56 AM
Surging economic growth in many emerging
economies is increasing global competition
for resources and the burden on natural
systems. The European Environment Agency
(EEA) is analysing these changes and their
implications for Europe’s environment in
an updated assessment of 'global megatrends'.
Today the EEA has published
two new chapters of its revised 'Assessment
of global megatrends', following two published
this year.
Global economic growth
is projected to continue in coming decades,
according to 'Continued economic growth?'.
Emerging Asian economies are expected to
play an ever larger role, with India and
China together accounting for almost half
of global output in 2050. The environmental
and political implications of these changes
will be significant.
As described in 'From
a unipolar to a multipolar world', markets
are becoming ever more integrated. Partly
as a result of these changes, the global
middle class population (associated with
high per capita consumption levels) is expected
to grow very rapidly — from 27 % of 6.8
billion people today to almost 60 % of 8.4
billion people in 2030.
The trends are likely
to augment unprecedented levels of resource
extraction, according to 'Intensified global
competition for resources'. This has implications
for Europe, which is heavily reliant on
the imports of many materials, including
more than half of its supply of metal ores,
metal products, and fossil energy. Commodity
prices more than doubled in real terms between
2000 and 2012, suggesting global resource
demand is outpacing supply. Future projections
are uncertain, however.
Energy may be in particularly
high demand in coming decades. For example,
South Korea's per capita oil consumption
increased more than 25-fold as it rapidly
transformed into an advanced economy in
the last half century. If Brazil, China,
India and Indonesia were to replicate this
pattern of development with their much larger
populations, global energy demand would
be dramatically affected, the assessment
says. However, it does point to some positive
trends in some advanced economies, where
GDP has continued to increase while energy
demand has stabilised, albeit at high levels.
Many new technologies
require critical raw materials – for example
wind turbines, photovoltaic cells and electric
car batteries all require some of the 14
raw materials listed as critical by the
European Commission. Reserves of such materials
are often concentrated in a few countries,
the assessment says, increasing the uncertainty
of future supplies and potentially constraining
Europe's transition to a low carbon economy.
Pressures on ecosystems
are also likely to intensify over the coming
years – something explored in 'Growing demands
on ecosystems'. For example, increasing
wealth and growing populations are likely
to boost meat demand, which is likely to
intensify global competition for scarce
land resources. This is reflected in a dramatically
increasing number of large-scale transnational
acquisitions of land during recent years,
mostly in developing countries. Bioenergy
production is also set to grow over the
coming years. Both trends may mean forests
and other habitats are converted to farmland.
Climate change is putting
pressure on ecosystems, the assessment notes.
There is a risk that thresholds may be passed,
leading to systemic change. For example,
rising temperatures could cause the Amazon
basin to dry out, eventually causing the
forest to die back to a savannah-like habitat.
Nonetheless, the assessments
present several positive opportunities for
the future. Although Europe's global influence
may be shrinking in some areas, increasing
integration means that environmental policies
pioneered in the EU may also be taken up
worldwide, the assessment says, citing the
example of EU vehicle emissions standards
which have been rapidly adopted in many
Asian countries.
Background
Today's updates, addressing
increasing global demand for resources,
follow the publication in September of two
chapters addressing global economic growth.
A further seven chapters will be published
in coming months.
The European environment's
status, trends and prospects have always
depended in part on events outside its borders.
Moreover, the growing importance of global
networks and flows has augmented this interdependence.
The 11 global megatrends assessments will
cover topics within the areas of society,
environment, technology, economy, and governance.
In 2014 the chapters
will be consolidated into a single EEA report
and will provide the basis for the analysis
of megatrends included in the EEA's next
assessment of the European environment's
state and outlook, 'SOER 2015'. The SOER
is published every five years.
