Instead, we must hammer harmful emissions against the anvil of air quality laws.
European Union (EU) Environment Ministers are
meeting in Dublinnext Monday and Tuesday to advance policy discussions in the areas of air quality and climate change. The UK 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/ECon 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 Potocnik launched the ‘Year of Air’ at a major event in Brussels on
8 January 2013. He
highlightedthe 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.
Health
The launch of the ‘Year of Air’ was followed three weeks later by a
landmark eventorganised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Health Effects Institute. They presented the results of the WHO-led project ‘Review of evidence on health aspects of air pollution –
REVIHAAP’. The WHO: recommended tightening EU law as the current limit value for PM2.5 is twice as high as the Air Quality Guideline (AQG) recommendation; recommended the development of AQGs for long-term average ozone concentrations; and highlighted health risks at or below the current EU limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The REVIHAAP report also drew attention to the WHO’s
classificationin June 2012 of diesel exhaust as a class one carcinogen for humans.
On 1 April 2013, Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWB) were established formally in the UK under the Health and Social Care Act 2011. Laudably, the HWB have been provided with
public Health Indicatorsby the Department of Health (DoH) including Air Pollution 3.1 under ‘Health protection’. DoH published in 2012 the attributable fraction (i.e. the percentage of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to PM2.5) for every local authority in England and Wales. Very oddly, they have still not published the other metrics recommended by the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP) namely the number of attributable deaths and the total years of life lost for each such local authority. The omission is particularly odd since the calculation can be done in few minutes once the percentages are known (as they have been for months) – perhaps Ministers want to hide the estimates after the media coverage the ‘percentages’ received in London.
Separately, CAL found the Government told the Commission in September 2012 that the population weighted annual mean level of PM2.5 in the UK
increasedfrom 12.5 ug/m3 in 2009 to 13.0 ug/m3 in 2010 and 13.5 ug/m3 in 2011. This gross failure to protect public health should trigger a requirement under Directive 2008/50/EC to a 15% reduction in population weighted PM2.5 between 2010 and 2020 (as Annex XIV sets exactly 13.0 ug/m3 as the threshold for 15% not 10% reductions between 2010 and 2020).
Defra is due to publish its annual report on air quality in April. CAL
respondedto a fast-track consultation by Defra late last year to object to it hiding further the UK’s air pollution problems by reducing, in amount and frequency, the information it publishes about air pollution. Clearly nervous about the forthcoming
results, Defra published a
pre-releaseon 14 February (link no longer available) which warned that new Daily Air Quality Index bandings, which are better aligned with health standards (other than for PM), would result in more exceedances being reported. London has had
eight smog episodes already in 2013, two more than this time last year.
Many people are concerned. Over 60 non-governmental organisations from across Europe
respondedto a recent Commission consultation on the future of air pollution laws by urging continuity and the further tightening of health and legal protections.
Legal
Meanwhile legal pressures are also coming to a head. The Supreme Court heard
ClientEarth’s caseagainst Defra on 7 March 2013 to enforce NO2 laws and a judgment is expected imminently. Defra has admitted to the Court that the UK is breaching NO2 limit values in 16 zones and won’t comply with standards, in legislation since 1999 to be complied with by 1 January 2010, in 15 zones until 2020 and in London until 2025. ClientEarth has challenged the judgment of lower courts that legal remedies are for the Commission to pursue not the UK courts and insisted that Article 23 of Directive 2008/50/EC requires Member States to produce a plan to comply with these standards by 1 January 2015.
Although the Commission has closed its case against the UK for breaching PM10 limit values in London in 2011 the media has reported it is still investigating CAL’s claim that the UK ‘cheated’ in reporting compliance for that year. In particular, CAL has submitted
video evidenceto the Commission showing that air pollution monitors, for example in Neasden Lane in Brent, from which the Government refuses to accept results, show breaches of these public health standards.
CAL also expects the Commission to prioritise infraction action against the UK for NO2 in 16 zones and has urged it to do so. It seems unlikely to act before the Supreme Court judgment.
Government and the Mayor lobbying to weaken air pollution laws
While pressure has been building to tighten and comply with air pollution laws, the Government and the Mayor have been
lobbyingto weaken these laws.
The Government’s
coalition agreementincluded the promise ‘We will work towards full compliance with European Air Quality Standards’. However, despite this promise, the Government has committed to ‘Working in partnership with other Member States, we will also use the European Commission review of air quality legislation, expected in 2013, to seek amendments to the Air Quality Directive which reduce the infraction risk faced by most Member States, especially in relation to nitrogen dioxide provisions’. It seems a small number of right wing anarchists in the Government and the Mayor of London’s administration want all regulation and controls removed. These people and their philosophy are similar to those who took the world to the edge of a financial abyss in 2008. In any event, the facts remain, the Government has not introduced a single significant new policy to improve air quality since it was elected and the Mayor had none in his manifesto in May 2012.
We had a stark reminder of the seriousness of these issues earlier this month when CAL published a
reporton its
investigationinto the Government’s failure to control carcinogenic diesel exhaust. CAL found the widespread commercialised removal and tampering with diesel particle filters (DPFs) and emission control units designed to protect public health.
Stephen Hammond MPtold The Rt. Hon Andrew Smith MP this week ‘The Department’s officials have been asked to ensure that suitable advice to motorists and repairers on the removal of factory-fitted DPFs from vehicles is available on the Government website’.
Next week
There is much at stake therefore at the informal Council of Environment Ministers in Dublin next Monday and Tuesday. Let’s hope the Irish Government proves its ‘
greenness’.
NO2 laws, where the Government and the Mayor are focusing their attention, are the most powerful tool citizens have to hammer down carcinogenic diesel exhaust and other toxic pollutants from combustion. NO2 laws are breached by a factor of two or three near London’s busiest streets.
Perhaps we will learn the outcome during an oral debate in the House of Lords on 24 April when Lord Dubbs (Labour) asks about ‘
Action to improve air quality in London and other cities’.
A
longer versionof 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.