Air pollution is rocketing up the political, media and public agenda again after a serious lack of progress by the Government and the Mayor of London in tackling air pollution since the Environmental Audit Committee’s (EAC’s) two excellent reports on air quality.
Most recently we have had major reports and statements by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Commission’s (Commission’s) ‘Clean Air Policy Package’ (produced in December 2013 at the end of the ‘Year of Air’), the Commission (rightly) singling out the UK for legal action for breaching nitrogen dioxide (NO2) laws since 2010, the miss-named ‘Sahara dust’ episode, the EAC’s new inquiry into air quality and the GMB Union last weekend calling for reductions in NO2 and action to cut exposure for street cleaners, refuse and parking staff. ClientEarth’s legal case against the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on NO2 succeeded in the Supreme Court in May 2013 and is currently referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a judgement that will bind all 28 Member States. Let’s remember that NO2 is a toxic gas and the only modern gas regulated of all the gases in air pollution. Important further developments are expected today and tomorrow.
There are many signs of failure to act on air pollution across Government. For example, HM Treasury seems intransigent on fiscal and financial measures and the Department of Transport (DfT) still myopically prioritises greenhouse gases over air pollution measures e.g. a DfT Minister stated last year that he would take no action to improve air pollution that [increased] carbon dioxide (CO2), two others have since made hollow promises to stop the removal of factory-fitted diesel particulate filters from vehicles and most recently offered a laughably small £500,000 from its ‘Clean Vehicle Technology Fund’ to tackle problems across the whole of London. Defra must be singled out though for the worst failures –
Clean Air in London(
CAL) has shown it misled the Commission and has systematically hidden information about air pollution including breaches of legal requirements to warn people during smog episodes (while insisting on controlling (in)action by other Departments) i.e. the worst combination of authority without responsibility or accountability. CAL is getting the impression that Defra may be shifting from passively covering up the air pollution issue to actively covering up the issue and its role in fighting it. Only the Department of Health (DoH) has begun to take necessary and long overdue action e.g. by publishing estimates of the number of deaths attributable to air pollution, including air pollution in the Public Health Outcomes Framework and issuing the first proper smog warnings in April 2014. However, despite its other achievements, the DoH is still refusing to comply with British and Europe air quality standard EN13779 in hospitals including operating theatres, intensive care wards and public areas.
In London, the Mayor has made little progress in reducing air pollution concentrations while continuing to make claims that vary from the sublime to the ridiculous e.g. London is doing more than any city to fight air pollution and air pollution is reducing in London when it’s not. It is possible, after adjusting for the effect of a number of very wet years, that a busy fool might have achieved greater reductions in air pollution concentrations and/or done more to warn the public about air pollution than the current Mayor. In reality, London has a serious particle (PM2.5 and PM10) air pollution problem responsible for up to 8% of all deaths in some boroughs and may have the highest officially monitored levels of NO2 in the world at over three times WHO guidelines and legal limits in places, mostly caused by diesel vehicles. Despite this public health catastrophe, the Mayor continues a ‘love affair’ with diesel vehicles that defies belief and logic and has resulted in emissions of NO2 from diesel cars increasing sharply in London since 2008 so they are now the biggest single source of such traffic pollution. In stark contrast, compare Berlin banning the oldest diesel cars from the most-polluted parts of the city in 2010 and the Mayor of London’s plans for a small, weak and late ultra-low emission zone in 2020. The Mayor has also failed to act on ‘tube dust’ in the London Underground which was described at a recent meeting of leading UK public health officials and scientists as the ‘elephant in the room’.
The full extent of these failures by the Government and the Mayor and their consequences has become much clearer since the EAC’s last report. For example, the health evidence of the dangers of short but particularly long-term exposure to modern, largely ‘invisible’, air pollution has increased in certainty, seriousness and amount. Recent scientific studies suggest the health effects of NO2 on mortality may be as great as those of PM2.5 and independent to them. Health impacts of NO2 were not included in the Commission’s cost impact assessment for its ‘Clean Air Policy Package’ despite at least two-thirds of the NO2 impact not being accounted for by PM2.5.
In other developments, taxi drivers are expected to bring central London to a standstill today as they protest against Uber and other issues. At the heart of their complaints is the Mayor failing to regulate the taxi and minicab industries properly and his turning circle requirement making black cabs increasingly uncompetitive in recent years by forcing drivers to choose between two large and expensive diesel vehicles when they want to buy a new vehicle. This afternoon Commissioner Potocnik is due to give oral evidence to the EAC on ‘resource efficiency’ in a session that may stray into the UK’s failings on air pollution. On Thursday, UK Ministers are expected to attend the European Union’s Environment Council discussion on the Commission’s ‘Clean Air Policy Package’ and lobby again for ‘flexibility and exemptions’ in existing and new legislation that is needed to impose further limits on harmful emissions from industry, traffic, energy plants and agriculture with a view to reducing their impact on human health and the environment. Instead, we need an ambitious new National Emissions Ceilings Directive that sets binding emission reduction commitments for 2020, 2025 and 2030 for all air pollutants including methane and mercury. We also need tighter air pollution standards for medium scale combustion plants by 2020 that are based on what is achievable using best available techniques. These should be backed by site-specific permitting conditions and close monitoring of their emissions. Instead of demanding backward steps, UK Ministers should congratulate Commissioner Potocnik for his leadership, commitment and action to fight air pollution and encourage him to be bolder still.
In summary, as the UK approaches the sixtieth anniversary of the first ‘Clean Air Act’ for the City of London Corporation on 5 July 1954 that fought short term exposure to ‘visible’ air pollution we must warn the public about the dangers of ‘invisible’ air pollution and grasp the opportunity to re-engineer our cities to fight air pollution which the WHO calls the world’s largest single environmental health risk.
This is the first of six articles being written by Clean Air in London for PoliticsHome over the next 12 months. More at:
http://cleanairinlondon.org/legal/response-to-environmental-audit-committee-call-for-evidence-on-air-quality/
See all
12 of the cartoons by Andy
Davey
about
air pollution in London
here