European organisations call for stricter air quality limits

Sixty European organisations have united to encourage the European Union (EU) to impose stricter air quality limits and legislation.

In a paper addressed to the EU the organisations call for air quality limits to be made stricter in line with the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report says that current restrictions are “inadequate to protect our health”.

Furthermore, the EU must enforce infringement action on these limits more quickly, according to the paper, which is entitled NGO priorities for the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution (TSAP).

The paper also called for stricter sector-specific legislation to be implemented. It is hoped that such a move would cut emissions at source.

With regard to tackling emissions at the source it claimed that new standards are needed for products, vehicles or construction machines that are already in place. These updates should be completed by “retrofit incentives, economic instruments, market surveillance and in-use compliance regimes,” it said.

The EU should also move to introduce more ambitious European emission reduction commitments for 2020, 2025 and 2030, it said.

Furthermore, the paper was also strongly opposed to the application of EU air quality limit values becoming at all flexible. It explained that this could make the limits “unenforceable and therefore meaningless”.

The TSAP is set to be undergo an in-depth review by the EU as part of its 2013 ‘Year of Air’, and a final report is scheduled to be released in September 2013.

It also says: “EU-wide binding limit values set to protect people’s health and the environment have proven to be a very effective tool to improve air quality and trigger local action. In fact, these limits have been the main driver for action in many places in the EU. But the current EU air quality standards are inadequate to protect our health.”