Stricter standards for motorcycles

It is now 2013, the year declared by environment commissioner Potočnik as the year of air, and in a speech at the EEB air quality conference on 8 January, he said that poor air quality was the cause of 420,000 premature deaths in the EU in 2010 ..

EU SO₂ emissions have been cut by 80 per cent and NOx emissions halved between 1990 and 2010. Things are going to get even better, thanks to the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD), introduced in 1988.

Significant additional emission reductions and accompanying environmental improvements can be achieved in the EU over the next 10-15 years. Health benefits alone far outweigh the extra costs for emission control.

Two-thirds of EU ecosystems are currently exposed to more nitrogen deposition than they can cope with and one-tenth is receiving too much acid fallout. Significant additional reductions in the emissions of ammonia, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide ...

On 19 January, after four years of deliberation, more than 140 countries agreed on the first global treaty to cut mercury pollution. It contains a mixture of mandatory and voluntary elements intended to control the growing global mercury crisis.
 

Introducing road charges for heavy goods vehicles that reflect the varied health effects of traffic pollution in different European countries would mean charges should be much higher in some countries compared to others.