Air quality

In March, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) published a report titled “Electric Vehicle Capitals of the World – Demonstrating the Path to Electric Drive” assessing major cities around the world with high electric vehicle uptake ..

If everybody who takes their car to work in Stockholm County and has less than a 30-minute bike ride to work, cycled to work instead, the number of cars in rush hour traffic would be around 111,000 fewer.

On 6 March 2017 the Catalan government and Barcelona metropolitan, provincial and city administrations agreed to cut pollutant emission levels from traffic, particularly those of NO₂, by 10 per cent within five years and by 30 per cent within 15 years.

In a bid to crackdown on air pollution, Madrid’s city government has announced a plan that includes the creation in 2018 of a “zero emissions zone” in the entire city centre open only to residents’ vehicles, taxis and deliveries.

In March, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo presented the Global Urban Air Pollution Observatory (GUAPO) to the Paris city council, and Abidjan, London, Mexico and Rotterdam have already committed to joining, while Athens, Montréal, New York City, Peking and Tokyo are in discussions to join.

A plan adopted in early May by the outgoing French environment minister, Ségolène Royal, sets new legal limits on air pollutant emissions up to 2030, in line with the emission reduction commitments under the EU’s National Emission Ceilings (NEC) directive.

The recent decision from the EU Court of Justice opens the door for the Commission to take more robust action in relation to air quality infringements and will facilitate legal actions before national courts by individuals and NGOs.

On 27 April, Italy received a final warning from the European Commission because of failure to address persistently high levels of particulate matter (PM₁₀). More than 66,000 people die prematurely ..

Following a court order, the UK government published on 5 May a new plan to control nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Levels of NO₂ have been above legal limits in almost 90 per cent of urban areas in the UK since 2010 and are estimated to cause 23,500 early deaths a year.

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”..

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).

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