Last-gasp plans for air quality

March 08, 2020 / By mobanmarket

Last-gasp plans for air quality

MEPs have been putting pressure on the European Commission to come up with new rules on the quality of the air that we breathe

The European Commission is to adopt a package of rules on air quality at the last college meeting of 2013 (18 December), the final opportunity to do so during the Commission’s self-designated “year of air”.

The proposals have been a long time in coming. This week MEPs from across the political spectrum held up a giant inflatable pair of lungs outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday (10 December).

“Delays from the European Commission in proposing new laws on air quality are unnecessary and irresponsible,” said Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout. “People will shortly ask if this year should have more appropriately have been termed the ‘European Year of Hot Air’.”

The draft package, which has yet to be approved, would set new national emission ceilings for 2020 and set long-term targets for 2025. The package would also introduce source- control measures for 2030, cutting emissions from small combustion installations below 50 megawatts.

A study published in medical journal The Lancet on Monday (9 December) found that current EU air-quality legislation is not strong enough to protect Europeans’ health. The study estimates that for every five-micrograms-per-cubic-metre increase in annual exposure to fine-particle pollution, the risk of death rises by 7%.

However, industry groups have been fiercely resisting the new limits. In October, 13 industry associations issued a joint statement warning that the abatement technologies required by the proposals would be unaffordable. The groups included electricity association Eurelectric, chemicals federation Cefic and mining association Euromines.

In particular, the associations object to a long-term goal of closing 50% of the gap between legislative requirements and what is technically achievable by 2030. These should instead aim for what is “cost-effectively achievable”, they said.

At a European Voice event on lung health on Tuesday, Tonio Borg, the European commissioner for health, said that the Commission would hold a summit on chronic diseases, including respiratory illnesses, in April 2014.

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