Experts assess options for cleaner European air
Researchers also recommend adding limits on emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to the protocol. If this happened the EU would be forced to introduce first-ever emission caps on PM.2.5. Up to now it has only considered ambient air quality standards for the pollutant (EED 25/06/07).
Air pollution continues to pose serious environmental problems in Europe, says the review, carried out by the International institute for applied systems analysis (IIASA) in Austria and the Dutch environmental assessment agency (MNP).
Their report assesses the impact of the 1999 Gothenburg protocol on air pollution. The protocol was agreed under the UN's economic commission for Europe (UNECE) and sets limits for emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and ammonia. It entered force in 2005 (EED 04/03/05).
Efforts under the protocol have led to less improvement than initially estimated, the report says. Nitrogen deposition remains a 'widespread' problem for European ecosystems. And no clear downward trend in ground level ozone emissions can be detected. Levels of fine particulate matter pose significant health risks.
The report recommends increasing the number of ratifications by governments in order to improve the protocol's effectiveness. This will have little effect on EU countries, however, since all 27 are already subject to equivalent or stricter emissions standards under the bloc's national emissions ceilings directive (EED 26/06/01).
Reducing shipping emissions also offers large air quality improvement potential (EED 31/05/07), the report says. Any new measure should be assessed in conjunction with other policy objectives in areas including climate change, energy security, transport and agriculture, it stresses.
Courtesy of ENDS Europe Daily
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