Large diesel-powered equipment that emits black carbon and contributes to climate change and air pollution will not have to limit emissions of ultrafine particulate matter (PM) under a draft EU law being considered.
Receive them directly in your inbox. Delivered once a week.
According to EurActiv, the draft Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) directive limits nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions for electricity generators and other equipment with a power rating of less than 560KWh, but it exempts higher-polluting diesel engines over 560KWh from having to filter the most dangerous forms of PM.
As well as increasing greenhouse gases and local air pollution, these emissions affect the health of the machines’ operators. Failing to set a particle number standard for equipment over 560KWh will also lead to a market distortion, encouraging sales of the largest and more polluting equipment that will not need to be fitted with a diesel particulate filter that removes more the 99 per cent of the particles.
Diesel exhaust is carcinogenic, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and diesel machines are a major local source of urban air pollution near some railways stations and construction sites. For example, in London, construction machines account for 15% of all PM emissions and 12% of NOx. In Europe every year air pollution causes 100 million sick days and more than 400,000 premature deaths.
Eight groups lodge formal complaint against the Commission’s rushed dismantling of key pillars of the Green Deal.
T&E's assessment of the impact of the IMO's draft Net-Zero Framework
Negotiators in London agreed for the first time on a framework that will require ships to switch away from fossil fuels, but the rules as they stand w...