‘Year of Air’ in 2013
A longer version of this article, with more links included, can be seen at CAL website. This is the first of six articles by Simon Birkett for Politics Home in 2013. Other articles are expected to include: health; legal issues; sources and trends; indoor air quality; and next steps.
Government is expected to lobby for weaker public health protections at an informal meeting of EU Environment Ministers in Dublin next Monday and Tuesday.
Instead, we must hammer harmful emissions against the anvil of air quality laws.
European Union (EU) Environment Ministers are meeting in Dublin next Monday and Tuesday to advance policy discussions in the areas of air quality and climate change. The UK Government is expected to lobby for weaker public health protections despite 2013 being the ‘Year of Air’.
The European Commission (Commission) declared 2013 to be the ‘Year of Air’ in January 2011. It decided air pollution needed to be considered holistically after considering the need to update the National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD) and its duty separately under Article 32 of Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe to ‘review the provisions related to dangerous airborne particles (PM2.5) and, as appropriate, other pollutants, and [present] a proposal to the European Parliament and the Council [of Ministers]’.
Commissioner Potočnik launched the ‘Year of Air’ at a major event in Brussels on 8 January 2013. He highlighted the Commission’s latest estimates of 420,000 premature deaths from air pollution in the EU in 2010 and that two-thirds of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites is currently affected by eutrophication from air pollution. Continue reading
As a consequence of the many sources of pollution in buildings, 