EU members failing their citizens over air quality

The European Environment Agency’s latest report shows just 14 of the 27 member states will achieve targets to reduce sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ammonia to required levels. Spain will hit the target for only one of the four, while France, Germany and the Netherlands will meet only two. The news is better than feared at the end of 2008, when only 11 countries were on track to hit their targets.

As the figures are based on 2007 data, it is possible the global economic recession will have led to decreases in pollutants that will help some countries meet more targets. However, adjustments made specifically for Spain show that the ceilings would still be missed.

T&E policy officer Kerstin Meyer said, ‘No-one should be surprised that so many of these targets are being missed because the member states’ approach to them has been so poor.

‘Pollution readings from vehicle test cycles were known to be unreliable eight years ago, yet governments still pinned their hopes on them. And in many cases governments simply didn’t work out how much a given measure would contribute to reducing pollution, opting instead for measures of least resistance which made the best headlines.’