European leaders are aiming to make 2013 the “Year of Air” to highlight the problems of pollution and air quality.
Discussions are ongoing to launch the “Year of Air” programme to help European cities achieve the “Holy Grail” of ensuring air pollution does not pose any significant risk to human health and the environment.
Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Environment, said the proposal had already been debated with fellow chiefs and current European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso.
In a speech yesterday, Potočnik said he was confident the year-long event would happen as he highlighted the problems of tackling air pollution and introducing new anti-pollution measures.
He added: “The results were encouraging. Everyone recognised that improving air quality is a pressing need and a shared responsibility requiring our joint efforts. Everyone accepted the need for a renewed and comprehensive air quality policy, to be launched in 2013 at the latest, and it was agreed that this wider review should also include a revision of the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NEC Directive).
Initiatives to highlight “Year of Air” will likely include the early introduction of clean vehicles in urban areas with air quality problems as part of demonstration projects and the greater promotion of retrofitting old vehicles with new 'air-friendly' technology.
Potočnik described the challenge to address acknowledged shortcomings in a decisive and co-ordinated way, and added: “This will require the good will of policy-makers at all levels – European, national, regional and local – as well as of other stakeholders such as the car and oil industries.”
A report released this week by the European Environmental Bureau revealed the average life expectancy in Europe's most polluted cities is cut by more than two years.
It added: “Although the release of many air pollutants has decreased since 1990, the quality of our air has improved little in the past decades. Poor air quality remains a major public health problem, with concentrations of particulate matter and ozone remaining very high.
“The health cost of bad air quality is estimated to be nearly half a million premature deaths each year in the European Union. In economic terms, the annual cost to society of health damage from air pollution in 2000 was estimated to amount to between €277 and €790 billion.
“The average life expectancy in the most polluted cities in Europe is reduced by over two years. However, local solutions do exist and some of them have already been implemented with success.
“There are concrete solutions that show that cutting air pollution is possible and would improve the lives of some 40million Europeans exposed to high levels of air pollution.”
In his speech yesterday in Brussels, Potočnik said the EU's air quality policies should be seen as an overall success story.
He described how since the Nineties, air pollution has been reduced by almost all relevant identified pollutants. Nitrous oxides (NOx) are down by 39%, sulphur dioxide by 78%, heavy metals between 60-90%.
“These reductions – and the improvements in air quality they bring – have been achieved through continuous legislative action for land-based or moving sources, like vehicles,” he said.
“So some real success. But we are still some way from reaching our 'holy grail' – to ensure that air pollution does not pose any significant risk to human health and the environment.”
He added: “The reasons for poor air quality in our cities are well known. The main culprits are industry, transport, energy production, agriculture and households. Particulate Matter, Nitrogen dioxide and ozone are the main causes of concern with regard to health.
“And it's not just air pollution from within cities that's the problem. Air pollution from outside cities can be as high as 40% of the air quality levels, as is the case in London.
“Weather and geography also have an influence. Some major cities (such as Milan) have a much harder task bringing down air pollution levels than others simply because of local weather conditions. Some think that this should be factored into our objective setting, which I think would be wrong.
“We cannot have different levels of health protection in different cities. It is important that we have the same level of ambitious protection for every European. Of course this doesn't mean we will ignore difficult local conditions when we're looking at how we can solve specific air quality problems.
“Now we must all take a deep breath of that precious air and get down to the business of reviewing air policy, so that we can make 2013 a successful "Year of Air".
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