High air pollution levels found on cruise ship’s deck

Bulgaria faces court for air quality failure

Bulgaria breached EU limits for particulate matter (PM₁₀) across all its urban areas between at least 2007 and 2013 and its plans to achieve compliance were “flawed”, according to the advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Juliane Kokott.

The plan submitted by Bulgaria to the European Commission to reduce PM₁₀ concentrations had “structural deficiencies” as it lacked a timetable for implementing air quality measures and did not describe the improvements they would bring, Kokott said in her opinion for the ECJ. It remains to be seen whether the court will follow the opinion of the advocate general when it rules on the case, which should take place in the first half of 2017.

Poland also faces a similar lawsuit, which was brought by the Commission in June 2016 for an alleged breach of PM₁₀ limits across 35 ambient air quality zones.

Source: Ends Europe Daily, 16 November 2016.
The opinion of advocate general Kokott: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=185257&pa...
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Air pollution linked to fifth of pre-term births

Close to a fifth of premature births worldwide could be associated with mothers’ exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to a study by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). It showed that up to 2.7 million of the 14.9 million births worldwide considered as pre-term, i.e. taking place before 37 weeks of gestation, can be linked to mothers’ exposure to particulate matter PM_2.5 levels above 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air (μg/m³).

“Pre-term births associated with this exposure not only contribute to infant mortality, but can have life-long health effects in survivors,” said Chris Malley, the study’s lead researcher.

According to the European Environment Agency, around 85–90 per cent of Europe’s urban population is exposed to PM_2.5 levels above the WHO annual average threshold of 10 μg/m³.

Source: Ends Europe Daily, 17 February 2017
The study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016305992

No improvement in fuel efficiency for years

New cars consume on average 42 per cent more fuel on the road than advertised in sales brochures, according to Transport & Environment’s latest Mind the Gap report. Despite auto industry claims of their vehicles’ ever-improving fuel economy, the gap between real-world fuel consumption and official figures has grown from 28 per cent in 2012 and 14 per cent a decade ago. In practice this means that a typical driver spends around €550 more per year in additional fuel costs compared to what might be expected from the official test figures.

Greg Archer, clean vehicles director of T&E, said: “There has been no improvement in the average efficiency of new cars on the road for four years because carmakers manipulate tests to achieve their CO2 targets instead of designing the car to be efficient on the road. As a result, drivers are being tricked and forced to buy more fuel; governments defrauded of tax revenues; and climate targets undermined.”

Source: T&E News, 9 January 2017. Link: https://www.transportenvironment.org/news/no-improvement-average-efficie...

Four of world’s biggest cities to ban diesel cars

Diesel vehicles will be removed from Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens by 2025, as part of an effort by mayors to improve the quality of air for their citizens. These cities also pledged to incentivise alternative vehicles and promote walking and cycling infrastructure.

“Mayors have already stood up to say that climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and new Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. “Today, we also stand up to say we no longer tolerate air pollution and the health problems and deaths it causes – particularly for our most vulnerable citizens. Big problems like air pollution require bold action, and we call on car and bus manufacturers to join us.”

Source: C40 press release, 2 December 2016. Link: http://www.c40.org/press_releases/daring-cities-make-bold-air-quality-co...

Trucks and buses cleaner than diesel cars

The research group International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), reports that heavy-duty vehicles (mainly buses and trucks) tested in Germany and Finland emitted on average about 200 milligrams of NOx per kilometre driven, less than half of the average 500–600 mg/km pumped out in real-world driving by diesel cars that meet the highest Euro 6 standard.

As the buses and trucks have larger engines and burn roughly five time more diesel per kilometre, this means that heavy duty vehicles are ten times better than light-duty diesel vehicles at reducing NOx emissions.

The ICCT report: http://www.theicct.org/nox-europe-hdv-ldv-comparison-jan2017

China forecasts stable or declining CO2 emissions

China is forecasting a significant drop in CO₂ emissions of approximately one per cent, according to Greenpeace East Asia’s analysis of China’s National Energy Administration forecasts for 2017. This would be the fourth year in a row of either zero growth or a decline in CO₂ emissions. Statistics released today from the Statistical Communique on Economic and Social Development show that coal consumption in 2016 fell for the third year in a row, by approximately 1.3 per cent. Data released in January shows that China is also smashing records for solar panel installations, installing enough panels to cover three football pitches every single hour of the year.

US greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2015

After two years of increases, greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2015, reducing America’s overall climate pollution to below 1994 levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The decline in 2015 was mainly because that year’s mild winter reduced demand for heat across the country, and electric power companies were using less coal and more natural gas to generate electricity than in previous years, the report says. Emissions fell 2.2 percent overall. The draft report is required to be produced annually under an agreement with the United Nations. It is open for public comment and scheduled to be finalised in April, according to an EPA statement.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/americas-climate-pollution-falling-ep...

Portugal halts oil exploration

The government has scrapped the Tavira and Aljezur onshore oil exploration and extraction contracts. The concession contracts covering offshore exploration blocks are also to be halted as the government recognises that the Algarve is serious in its opposition to hosting an oil industry. No company will be drilling for oil or gas.

http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/10603-government-halts-oil-explorat...

Global soil carbon losses in response to warming

In a recent study published in Nature, 50 researchers from around the world confirm the concerns that they have had for a long time: soils will release a large amount of carbon in response to the rising air temperature.

The study is a summary of 49 empirical studies that have investigated carbon emissions from the soil in different places around the world. Although the results varied slightly from area to area, the team saw a pattern in which the carbon losses were higher in those regions that have had the largest rise in temperature so far. The largest losses of carbon were seen in the Arctic areas where the soil is warming up rapidly and is quite deep. They also saw high losses along the mid-latitude areas. The study only considered the upper layers of soil, and if the soil turns out to release carbon from the deeper permafrost layer, emissions could be even more devastating.

The researchers believe that if we continue with a “business-as-usual” scenario, the soil will release 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide by the year 2050. Even if the planet’s vegetation can reclaim some of this carbon, it will not compensate for the losses that have occurred.

Source: The Washington post, 30 November, 2016. Scientists have long feared this ‘feedback’ to the climate system. Now they say it’s happening.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/30/the...

WHO air quality guidelines – report

A new report “Evolution of WHO air quality guidelines: past, present and future”, was published in February 2017 by WHO Europe. It summarises the development of the WHO air quality guidelines since the 1950s and outlines the evolution of the scientific evidence on the health effects of air pollution and how this was used for setting outdoor and indoor air quality management strategies worldwide. Current WHO activities and their future directions in this field are also presented.

The report: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/331660/Evolution-air...

High emissions from chainsaws and trimmers

Tests organised by the German environmentalist group Deutsche UmweltHilfe (DUH) show that 18 of the 24 tested chainsaws and trimmers significantly exceed the EU standards for emissions total of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (HC+NOx).

In 2016, DUH tested machines from the German, Swedish and French markets. Of a total of 33 devices measured, only seven complied with the current limit values of the EU’s Non-Road Mobile Machinery Directive.

According to the DUH, the current lack of controls and sanctions by the responsible authorities mean that manufacturers and traders can bring products into circulation that do not comply with the legal limit values.

The DUH report: http://www.duh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/download/Projektinformation/Hand...

Chinese ship emission control areas

Last year Chinese authorities introduced three domestic sulphur emission control areas (ECA) – setting a maximum limit on sulphur in fuel of 0.5 per cent – in ports in the coastal regions of the Yangtze River Delta (from 1 April 2016), the Pearl River Delta (from 1 October 2016), and in the Bohai Sea (from 1 January 2017).

From 1 January 2018, ships will have to shift to low-sulphur fuel before berthing at all ports located within the three ECAs, and from 1 January 2019, the 0.5-per-cent fuel sulphur limit will extend to ships operating within the designated ECAs and they will be required to make the fuel changeover prior to entry. The ECA boundaries have been clearly designated, mostly extending 12 nautical miles from shore.

Towards the end of 2019, the Chinese government is scheduled to determine if the fuel sulphur limit in its domestic ECAs should be reduced to 0.1 per cent. This would bring the Chinese ECA requirements into line with regulation MARPOL Annex VI of the International Maritime Organization.

Source: green4sea.com, 19 December 2016.