Download: an321.pdf

WHO tightens guidelines for air quality

October 2021

WHO has recently released the new Air Quality Guidelines. New scientific evidence has led to lowering of the air quality guideline level for annual nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) by 75% to 10μg/m³. Levels of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) have been halved to 5 μg/m³ and levels for particulate matter (PM₁₀) have been adjusted to 15 μg/m³. For the first time WHO includes a peak season level for ozone, which is set to 60 μg/m³. More than 15 years of research have been conducted since the old guidelines. Scientific knowledge has improved with more precise methods in measurements, modelling and exposure assessment methods.

Source: WHO press release, 22 September 2021

Illustration: © Lars-Erik Håkansson

Call to protect the cloud forests

Where the Andes meet the Amazon, you will find one of the earth’s richest and most important biomes. Its role has been overlooked in our efforts to mitigate climate change.

Protester holding a banner with the message "Future is greater than or more important than fossil fuels", at a climate demonstration in Vienna. Photo: Flickr.com / Ivan Radic CC BY

Editorial: GHG emissions must be halved by 2030

In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the UN body for climate science – adopted the first report of the IPCC 6th Assessment Cycle.

Symbolic CO2 threshold crossed

Concentrations of CO₂ are now 50% higher than at the start of the industrial revolution.

Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii Photo: Flickr.com / Christopher Michel CC BY

A binding renewable energy target of at least 50 per cent by 2030 is needed to be in line with the Paris Agreement. Photo: © Josep Suria / Shutterstock.com

Energy targets need to be bolder

The European Commission’s proposal “Fit for 55” includes new targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency. They have to go further to be in line with the 1.5°C goal.

Czechia has been in breach of its ammonia celing for ten consecutive years. Photo: © Jan Toula / Shutterstock.com

Emission limits still breached

While most EU member states met their binding national emission limits in 2019, significant further action is needed to achieve the reduction commitments set for the period 2020–29 and for 2030 onwards.

Material recovery opportunities from the clean energy sector

The exponential increase in renewable energy sources is vital, and it is important to enable the vast circularity potential of these technologies.

Wind energy farm turbine destroyed by fire after a lightning strike. Ninety per cent of the total mass can be recycled. Photo: © Copter Ural/ Shutterstock.com

Photo: © mipan / Shutterstock.com

Toxic threat from wood burning

The burning of wood and coal for domestic heating is a major source of air pollutant emissions, contributing to more than half of primary PM_2.5 emissions in the EU. A new study compares the emissions from various types of heating options.

Norwegian fishermen protesting against new oilfields close to the Lofoten islands. Photo: Flickr.com / Sven-Kåre Evenseth CC BY-NC-ND

Norway’s future without oil

A rapid shut down of Norwegian gas and oil extraction is necessary to be in line with the Paris agreement. The loss of GDP may only be 1% in 2050 compared to business as usual.

Norway’s oil and gas market grows – NGOs call for phase-out

The major factor driving the market is the increasing development of new oilfields in the country over the forecast period 2021–2025.

Photo: Flickr.com / Stig Nygaard CC BY

Paying farmers for carbon

Although costs for monitoring, reporting and verification are high for many result-based schemes, the European Commission favours a wider implementation.

Assembling and installing a floating solar farm in Colorado, United States. Photo: Flickr.com / National Renewable Energy LAb CC NY-NC.-ND

The rise of floating solar photovoltaic farms

Solar power is now the cheapest source of electricity in history. To continue its expansion many have looked to the benefits of floating solar farms.

New EU farm policy supports business as usual

In the coming years the European Union will continue to fund intensive farming practices with only marginal tightening of environmental requirements.

Photo: © VRstudio / Shutterstock.com

Photo: Annika Lund Gade

Towards climate-friendly food production

We need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and nitrogen from what we eat. Nordic farmers and food producers show how it can be done in practice.

Extinction Rebellion protest against the fossil fuel oil industry lobby. Photo: © Vincenzo Lullo / Shutterstock.com

12 mega oil and gas projects to wreck 1.5°C chances

Five Years Lost: how finance is blowing the Paris carbon budget.

No future for nuclear power

Nuclear power has tried to reinvent itself for two decades with the so-called Fourth Generation and Small Modular reactors. Both have failed.

Fourth generation nuclear power, so far, nothing but a dream. Photo: © Art Furnace / Shutterstock.com

WHO tightens guidelines for air quality

WHO has recently released the new Air Quality Guidelines. New scientific evidence has led to lowering of the air quality guideline level for annual ...

More wind farms needed in southern Germany. Photo: © Klaus Wagenhaeuser/ Shutterstock.com

100% renewable energy system in Germany 2030

An economically viable 100% renewable energy system for all energy sectors in Germany is possible by 2030 according to a new study by ...

Too high nitrogen dioxide levels in Athens. Photo: © Kozlik/ Shutterstock.com

Greece goes to court for breaching NO2 limit

The European Commission has taken Greece to the EU Court of Justice for poor air quality caused by high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).

Photo: Too high nitrogen dioxide levels in Paris. Photo: © Ekaterina Pokrovsky/ Shutterstock.com

Court fines French state over air pollution levels

France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, has fined the state €10 million for failing to improve air quality in several areas of the country.

People of Warsaw could on average live another year if WHO guidelines were met. Photo: © Piotr Szczepankiewicz/ Shutterstock.com

Global PM pollution cuts life short

Across the world, 6.3 billion people – 82 per cent of the global population – live in areas where levels of PM2.5 exceed the ...

Photo: © sirtravelalot/ Shutterstock.com

Fireplaces and stoves greatest PM source in UK

Fireplaces and stoves are now the largest single source of primary particle pollution in the UK, greater than traffic and industry.

Illustration: © Aleks Melnik / Shutterstock.com

Need for stricter vehicle emission standards

Later this year, the European Commission will finalise the next iteration of EU road vehicle emission standards, known as Euro 7 for cars and vans, and Euro VII for trucks and buses.

Ships calling at EU and European Economic Area ports in 2018 emitted around 140 million tonnes of CO2. Photo: © GreenOak / Shutterstock.com

Environmental impacts of shipping analysed

On 31 August, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) jointly launched the “European Maritime Transport Environment Report” ...

IMO boss, Kitack Lim, posing next to the 13th sustainable development goal – just what CAN wants to see realised. Photo: Flickr.com / International Maritime Organization CC BY

International shipping must act now

“Actions taken under the International Maritime Organization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have ranged from disappointing to completely ineffective,” ...

Polluting discharge from scrubbers is a potential threat to marine life. Photo: Flickr.com / Hans Hillewaert CC BY-NC-ND

Global scrubber washwater discharges

A new report from the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT) provides the first global assessment of the mass of washwater discharges expected from ships using scrubbers ...

Dutch farmers may be forced to sell emission rights and land, to protect nitrogen sensitive nature areas. Photo: © VanderWolf Images / Shutterstock.com

Netherlands plan to cut livestock numbers by 30%

Dutch politicians are considering reducing livestock numbers by almost a third over the next decade. The background is a court decision from 2019 ...

The Turow Electric Power Station in Bogatynia, Poland. Photo: © canon_photographer / Shutterstock.com

Excess pollution from large combustion plants

From 16 August, EU governments are required to comply with the revised best available techniques reference document for large combustion plants, known as the LCP BREF.

In brief

EU Zero Pollution Action Plan

Launched on 12 May, the European Commission’s new Zero Pollution Action Plan sets out broad 2030 targets covering air, water, soil, biodiversity, noise and waste – but green groups argue it contains little in the way of concrete new commitments or targets.

The 2030 targets for air pollution include reducing the number of premature deaths attributed to air pollution by 55 per cent, and reducing by a quarter “the EU ecosystems where air pollution threatens biodiversity”, in both cases compared to base year 2005. The Commission also said it planned to bring limits for air pollution more closely in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

But civil society was largely unimpressed by the plan. The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) said it “falls short on ramping up action to prevent pollution at source and instead mainly lists existing legal obligations and ongoing reviews”. The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) said “What is urgently needed is full alignment of EU’s legally binding air quality standards with the regularly updated WHO guidelines and the latest science.”

Sources: ENDS Europe Daily and EurActiv, 12 May 2021. More information: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/zero-pollution-action-plan_en

New European city air quality viewer

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has launched a “European city air quality viewer”, where you can check how the air quality has been over the past two years in the city where you live and compare it with other cities across Europe. In the viewer, more than 300 cities are ranked from the cleanest to the most polluted, on the basis of average levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) over the past two calendar years.

Source: EEA, 17 June 2021. https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air/urban-air-quality/european-city-air...

1.5°C to survive – Evidence from the IPCC Special Reports

Climate Analytics has prepared science policy briefings¹ for Climate Action Network and AirClim that summarise the impacts of global warming at and above 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels. Key information is extracted from the Special Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its sixth assessment report cycle (AR6), including Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5°C, Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. The IPCC Special Reports are clear according to Climate Analytics: “limiting warming to 1.5°C can avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Compared to 2°C of warming, 1.5°C would see much less severe extreme events. The 1.5°C warming limit is still within reach. Limiting warming to below 1.5°C is still possible but requires very urgent and rapid action now”.

¹Read the briefings produced from the IPCC Special Reports: https://caneurope.org/1-point-5-degrees-to-survive-evidence-from-ipcc-sp...

Climate toolkit for Russian municipalties

The Russian Socio-Ecological Union has in cooperation with AirClim published new material (1) that includes positive examples of sustainable transport and energy solutions in Europe, including climate plans for municipalities, mitigation and adaptation, energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, climate and waste problems. One briefing summarises boreal forest and climate discussions in Russia (2). During 2022 circular economy concepts and sustainable production and consumption patterns will be an important issue for discussion and cooperation.

(1) https://rusecounion.ru/climateinfokit
https://rusecounion.ru/eng/climateinfokit
(2) https://rusecounion.ru/sites/default/files/inline/files/forests_eng_0.pdf
https://rusecounion.ru/ru/climateinfokit/forests