Air quality rules fit for purpose

Text by: Christer Ågren
 |  May 2020

After a one and a half year long fitness check process, the European Commission has concluded that its two Ambient Air Quality Directives “have been broadly fit for purpose” despite a failure on the part of many member states to meet legally binding limits on air pollutants.

In its press release, the Commission states that the EU air quality legislation has led to the establishment of high-quality monitoring of air quality, set clear air quality standards, and facilitated the exchange of reliable, objective, comparable information on air quality, including to a wider public.

It recognises however that the legislation has been “less successful in ensuring that sufficient action is taken by member states to meet air quality standards and keep exceedances as short as possible”.

But according to the Commission, the directives have nevertheless “contributed to a downward trend in air pollution and reduced the number and magnitude of exceedances”.

In its Commission Staff Working Document, the Commission notes it currently (i.e. in October 2019) has thirty open infringement procedures against twenty member states for breaching limits on particulate matter (15 cases), nitrogen dioxide (14 cases) and sulphur dioxide (1 case). Two member states are also in breach of the directives’ air quality monitoring requirements. 

The European Court of Auditors has recommended that the Commission accelerates enforcement, as infringement cases have been taking between six and eight years from the initial exceedance to a referral to the EU Court of Justice, and have not yet ensured compliance with the directives.

Moreover, there have been numerous, often successful, proceedings before national courts brought by environmental NGOs demanding the elaboration or implementation of air quality plans, as required by the legislation.

According to the Commission’s analysis, the fitness check shows that:

  • Air pollution continues to be a major health and environmental concern to the citizens of the EU, which underlines the relevance of the Ambient Air Quality Directives;
  • The EU air quality standards have been instrumental in driving a downward trend in exceedances and exposure of populations to exceedances;
  • The current air quality standards are not as ambitious as established scientific advice suggests for several pollutants, especially fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅);
  • Trends in exceedance levels indicate that limit values have been more effective in facilitating downward trends than other types of air quality standards;
  • Enforcement action by the European Commission and by civil society actors in front of national courts has resulted in actionable rulings, and the legislation is enforceable;
  • Additional guidance or implementing acts could help to further harmonise approaches applied to monitoring, information provision, and air quality plans and measures;
  • The successful establishment of an EU-wide e-reporting system based on machine-readable formats now allows for further efficiency gains.

Environmentalist organisations were generally supportive of the Commission’s conclusions.

ClientEarth lawyer Ugo Taddei said that the air quality directive and its enforcement, both by the Commission and civil society, have been essential to accelerate action to fight harmful air pollution and protect people’s health across the EU. Nevertheless, he stressed that better implementation is key to addressing the ongoing health crisis, and that the Commission should immediately produce implementing acts to ensure better air quality monitoring, more harmonised modelling and stronger air quality plans.

Margherita Tolotto at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) concluded that even though EU legislation has been the main driver to reduce air pollution over the last decade, much still needs to be done. Stressing the need for coherent policies to deliver clean air, she specifically pointed out the Common Agricultural Policy, and emphasised that full implementation of the National Emissions Ceilings Directive is key to delivering improved air quality.

Anne Stauffer at the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) welcomed the Commission’s conclusions, which she said demonstrate that the legally enforceable air quality standards are a key instrument to protect the health of Europeans. She also urged the Commission to present new legislative proposals, including “putting forward a strong and ambitious Zero Pollution Strategy as part of the Green Deal, as well as presenting a timeline for the updating of the current standards to WHO’s health-based recommendations”.

Christer Ågren

Sources: Press releases from the European Commission, HEAL and ClientEarth, 29 November 2019.

The Commission’s full evaluation of the fitness check as well as the evidence collected can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/aqd_fitness_check_en.htm

Europe can be climate neutral by 2040 with solar and wind power

According to a new study, conducted by Finland’s LUT University and SolarPower Europe, Europe’s energy system could be fully renewable by 2040 in a “leadership scenario”, or by 2050 in a “moderate scenario”. 

Editorial

CCS is not needed – new production methods can reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions

The real issue is not technology nor economics, but creating incentives to make industry green without using CCS.

Trump weakens US air pollution control

Over a period of only three weeks, the Trump administration has eroded the basis for air pollution control in coal-fired power plants, declined to strengthen air quality standards, and finalised a rollback of vehicle fuel efficiency standards.

Short-term benefits of coal phase-out outweigh costs

Shutting down coal power plants is necessary to halt global warming and would have net benefits even in the short term, once health and environmental impacts are factored in.

Offshore wind energy development in the Baltic sea must accelerate

One of the areas with high wind power potential but a low proportion of offshore wind farms is the Baltic Sea

Recurring extreme climate events are devastating to coral reefs

In the last five years, there have been three severe marine heatwaves that have caused significant bleaching of corals at the Great Barrier Reef.

Switching from coal to fossil gas is not an option

The European Commission wants to finance 32 fossil gas infrastructure projects, but finds it increasingly hard to present this as compatible with Paris. And the Corona crisis demonstrates that Europe can manage with much more renewables and less of both coal and gas.

Air pollution impacts fall as a result of Corona-related measures

The improvement in air quality as a result of the coronavirus lockdown led to 11,000 fewer deaths from pollution in western and central Europe in April.

Climate change threatens biodiversity in the Tropical Andes hotspot

 A new report compiles evidence on how global warming can exacerbate biodiversity loss in one of the most important and severely threatened natural areas globally. 

 

Citizen science for air quality monitoring

Air pollution is the biggest environmental health threat in Europe and more and more people are taking action to claim their right to clean air.

EU governments agree to do more to improve air quality

Environment ministers acknowledge that action taken at local, national and EU level has not been sufficient to meet the EU air quality standards.

Climate, Nature and our 1.5°C Future

A new report, Climate, Nature and our 1.5°C Future – A synthesis of IPCC and IPBES reports, clearly points towards nature being part of the solution to the climate crisis.

Air quality rules fit for purpose

The EU air quality limit values are enforceable and have been instrumental in driving a downward trend in air pollution exceedances and exposure.

Decarbonise shipping by 2034

Ships need to improve their CO₂ intensity by at least 80 per cent by 2030 and reach zero emissions by 2034, according to a new proposal to be discussed at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

In brief

A fair comparison of organic and conventional farming requires improved methods

The environmental impact of food and agriculture is intensively discussed. A com-mon method to assess these environmental impacts, including climate change, is life cycle analysis (LCA). Several studies based on this method conclude that organic agriculture is worse for the climate than conventional agriculture, due to lower yield and hence greater land use per unit of food. This gives a faulty picture, according to three researchers who have analysed a wide range of LCA studies in a recent report. They found that LCAstudies often give too narrow a view of agricultural systems and miss out on important benefits of organic agriculture. Previous studies have found that organic plantations host 30% greater biodiversity than conventional. Moreover, organic management promotes soil fertility due to crop rotation and nutrient recycling, and does not use any pesticides. These effects are not taken into account in many LCA studies, which results in an unbalanced picture of the environmental performance of different agricultural systems that may in turn result in bad political and societal decisions. 

Another problematic aspect is when hypothetical “indirect effects” are in-cluded in the studies. As an example, it is often assumed in LCA studies that the total consumption of meat will remain unchanged if there is a shift to organic production. Thus, it is not taken into consideration that consumers that are motivated to buy organic meat for ethical and environmental reasons are likely to consume less meat. More knowledge of this kind of consumer behaviour is needed. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0489-6

International Day of Clean Air

The United Nations General Assembly has designated 7 September as the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies. 2020 is the first year for this event, introduced to build on the “increasing interest of the international community in clean air, and to emphasise the need to make further efforts to improve air quality, including reducing air pollution, to protect human health”.

More information at: http://www.un.org/en/observances/clean-air-day

EEA Air Quality Viewer

The European Environment Agency (EEA) published on 4 April an online viewer that tracks the weekly average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). This is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been developed to assess how it has affected concentrations of air pollution.

The EEA viewer, along with information on the methodology used, can be found at: 

http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air/air-quality-and-covid19.

Air pollution shortens life by 3 years worldwide

By using a new method of modelling the effects of various sources of air pollution on death rates, a new study has estimated that globally air pollution caused an extra 8.8 million premature deaths a year in 2015. This represents an average shortening of life expectancy of nearly three years for all persons worldwide. It is the first study to show the effects of air pollution on deaths according to age, type of disease and its effect on life expectancy at the level of individual countries and regions.

The study distinguishes between avoidable, human-made air pollution and pollution from natural sources such as desert dust and wildfire emissions, which cannot be avoided, and shows that about two-thirds of premature deaths are attributable to human-made air pollution, mainly from fossil fuel use; this goes up to 80 per cent in high-income countries. This means that five and a half million deaths worldwide a year are potentially avoidable.

The researchers estimate that if air pollution was reduced by removing fossil fuel emissions, the average life expectancy worldwide would increase by just over a year, and by nearly two years if all human-made emissions were removed.

Source: Science Daily, 2 March 2020.

The study: “Loss of life expectancy from air pollution compared to other risk factors: a worldwide perspective”, by Jos Lelieveld et al. Published in Cardiovascular Research. DOI: 10.1093/cvr/cvaa025

World’s most polluted cities ranked

ISwiss monitoring firm IQAir has published its latest World Air Quality Report, which ranks the world’s most polluted cities in terms of levels of particulate matter (PM2.5 ) and reveals that climate change events are impacting on air pollution more than ever.

Using a weighted population average, Bangladesh is the most polluted country for PM2.5  exposure. Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan and India follow behind respectively, deviating from one another by less than 10 per cent.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is the highest-ranking country in Europe for PM2.5  pollution, featuring as the 14th most polluted country globally, with only 4µg/m3 less than China’s national PM2.5 weighted average. Lukavac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has several chemicals factories, is Europe’s most polluted city, with an average PM2.5  level of 55ug/m3.

The report also shows that climate change events, such as sandstorms and wildfires, elevated levels in countries and cities such as Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Los Angeles, among numerous others.

Source: AirQualityNews, 26 February 2020.

More information: https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities

Domestic coal and wet wood to be banned

Sales of the two most polluting fuels, wet wood and house coal, burned in household stoves and open fires will be phased out in England from 2021 to 2023.

The pledge was a major part of the country’s Clean Air Strategy, published a year ago, which stated that domestic burning of solid fuels accounts for around 39 per cent of all PM pollution in the UK. By comparison, industry and road transport contributes 16 and 12 per cent, respectively.

Source: The Guardian and AirQualityNews, 21 February 2020

Dutch measures to cut emissions after court ruling

By using a new method of modelling the effects of various sources of air pollution on death rates, a new study has estimated that globally air pollution caused an extra 8.8 million premature deaths a year in 2015. This represents an average shortening of life expectancy of nearly three years for all persons worldwide. It is the first study to show the effects of air pollution on deaths according to age, type of disease and its effect on life expectancy at the level of individual countries and regions.

The study distinguishes between avoidable, human-made air pollution and pollution from natural sources such as desert dust and wildfire emissions, which cannot be avoided, and shows that about two-thirds of premature deaths are attributable to human-made air pollution, mainly from fossil fuel use; this goes up to 80 per cent in high-income countries. This means that five and a half million deaths worldwide a year are potentially avoidable.

The researchers estimate that if air pollution was reduced by removing fossil fuel emissions, the average life expectancy worldwide would increase by just over a year, and by nearly two years if all human-made emissions were removed.

Sources: The Guardian, 24 April and Dutchnews.nl, 25 April 2020.

Urgenda’s 54 actions to cut emissions: https://www.urgenda.nl/en/themas/climate-case/dutch-implementation-plan/

Electric cars emit less CO₂

Electric cars in the EU emit, on average, almost three times less CO2 than equivalent petrol or diesel cars, according to a new online tool developed by Transport & Environment (T&E) that allows the public to compare the lifecycle emissions of an electric vehicle (EV) to fossil-fuelled vehicles.

Including the additional emissions created by manufacturing batteries, it takes about one to two years of driving an electric car to reach parity with diesel and gasoline, T&E notes. That time decreases to less than a year for vehicles powered by the cleanest grids, such as those in Sweden or France, using batteries produced with low-carbon electricity. 

Even in the worst-case scenario, an electric car with a battery produced in China and driven in Poland still emits 22 per cent less CO2 than diesel and 28 per cent less than petrol. In the best-case scenario, an electric car with a battery produced in Sweden and driven in Sweden can emit 80 per cent less CO2 than diesel and 81 per cent less than petrol.

The tool draws on the most up-to-date data to allow users to compare the vehicles in several different scenarios based on vehicle segment, where the battery was produced, and in what country the car was driven. The tool also allows users to compare cars driven in 2020 and 2030, when the EU electricity grid will be even cleaner.

Source: T&E News, 21 April 2020.

Can hydrogen replace ship fuel oil?

Regular hydrogen-powered containership services on the transpacific could be a common sight by 2030, according to a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The study found that 99 per cent of container ship voyages between China and the United States in 2015 can be powered by hydrogen with only minor changes to fuel capacity or operations – i.e. by replacing 5 per cent of cargo space with more hydrogen fuel or by adding one additional port of call to refuel. Moreover, 43 per cent of the 2015 voyages can be made without any such changes.

The results show that the bunkering needs of some of the largest ships in the world can be met with hydrogen with only minor changes to operations. Other potential alternative fuels, including ammonia and methanol, carry more energy per unit volume than hydrogen, and are thus promising areas for future research.

Source: Splash247.com, 2 March 2020.The study: https://theicct.org/publications/zero-emission-container-corridor-hydrog...

The role of soil carbon in mitigating climate change

Soil holds three times more carbon than the atmosphere. Building soil carbon is an appealing way to mitigate climate change in land-based systems. Apart from increasing carbon sinks and reducing further emissions from land use change, building soil carbon gives benefits to agriculture such as soil fertility, reduced erosion and enhanced resilience to climate change. A recent study that quantifies the role of soil carbon in (land-based) natural climate solutions (NCS) shows that soil carbon makes up 25% of the total potential of NCS, of which 60% is restoration of depleted stocks and the rest is protection of existing soil carbon. The study also shows that soil carbon makes up 47% of the climate mitigation potential of agriculture. 

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0491-z

A 30-year-long study found organic farming to outperform conventional

The results of a 30-year trial that has compared organic and conventional agriculture side by side since 1981 were presented earlier this year. They show that the organic agriculture system in the study produced 40% less greenhouse gases, was more energy efficient, built soil carbon rather than depleted the soil and matched the yields of the conventional agriculture system. The organic agriculture system was also found to be more resistant to drought. 

Source: https://rodaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/fst-30-year-report.pdf

California moving towards zero-emission trucks

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) presented on 28 April amendments to its proposed Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation, including increasing the percentage of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales in California across all vehicle groups from 2024 to 2030 and to increase the percentage requirements from 2030 to 2035. They also propose to include pickups in the ZEV sales requirement, beginning with the 2024 model year.

In combination, these changes would increase ZEV sales in all vehicle size categories. CARB says that this would provide a clear path towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. The proposals are open for consultation until 28 May 2020 and can be found at: ww3.arb.ca.gov/regact/2019/act2019/30daynotice.pdf.

Source: AECC Newsletter, April 2020.

Luxembourg first country to make public transport free

From 28 February, Luxembourg has abolished fares for trains, trams and buses in what the government said was a bid to tackle road congestion and pollution, as well as supporting low earners. This means that all standard-class journeys on public transport are now free of charge.

To cope with the increase in commuters, Luxembourg plans to invest €3.9 billion in railways between 2018 and 2028, upgrade the bus network and add more park-and-ride sites on the border.

Source: EurActiv, 2 March 2020.

New policy instruments needed for shipping

A Swedish research project called “Carrots and whips in shipping to achieve environmental quality goals” has analysed which policy instruments and measures are most cost-effective to reduce ship emissions into the air. The study focussed on the impact of ship emissions on four of the Swedish environmental quality targets related to air pollution as well as on the IMO’s climate goals. Analyses of new emission scenarios up to 2030 and 2045 showed that the environmental targets for shipping emissions will not be reached with current legislation. Even the most optimistic scenarios with relatively large changes in the shipping fuel mix are not expected to lead to the attainment of the climate targets.

In the case of greenhouse gas reduction, the researchers propose to include shipping in the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) or a similar global system. Speed reduction is another suggestion. To reduce NOx emissions, a (Northern) European NOx fund that provides incentives for investments is proposed. Using electricity for the propulsion of ships and for onshore power in ports can be societally profitable, according to the analysis.

“We also recommend more research and development on different types of renewable fuels as well as policy instruments to promote the production of such fuels,” said lead author Inge Vierth, at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI).

The main report “Policies and measures to reduce air emissions from shipping”, VTI notat 24A-2019, is available at: www.vti.se/en/publications

Shipping in the EU ETS?

In February, the European Parliament’s Environmental Committee backed a bill that aims to include the shipping industry under the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). Jutta Paulus, member of the Greens, has been in charge of formulating the parliament’s proposal on how the so-called MRV legislation, which sets the rules for measuring ships’ CO₂ emissions, should be updated.

The European Commission had previously announced that they think a new study needs to be conducted, and that they may present a proposal for including shipping in the ETS in 2021.

The Environmental Committee will vote on the issue in May, and the full parliament will vote in June. Once this is done, negotiations will commence on the final MRV legislation, involving the European Parliament, the EU Council and the European Commission.

Source: ShippingWatch, 20 February 2020.