UK breaches of EU air quality rules continue

We are now approaching the end of 2013, the year declared by environment commissioner Janez Potočnik as the year of air and the year when the European Commission is to present its new clean air strategy.

The EU must remove unreliable monitoring methods from the MRV, ensure transparency and agree on a market-based measure to meet its climate targets for the shipping sector.

Sulphur emissions show the biggest reductions, while there is much less improvement for ammonia and particulate matter. Cuts in land-based emissions are countered by rising emissions from international shipping.

The European Union as a whole has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 18-27 per cent between 1990 and 2012. To achieve 20 percent reductions by 2020 will be an easy walk.

The first IPPC carbon budget to limit global warming to 2 degrees will be exceeded in three decades with current rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

A one-year delay in implementation and an extension of super credits was the result when member states and the European Parliament renegotiated a CO₂ deal for cars.