Air quality in Europe
New report by the European Environment Agency shows that Europe is making progress in improving air quality. Nonetheless, it’s time to speed up changes in energy, food and mobility systems to set the right course for a sustainable and healthy environment.
Europe’s air is getting cleaner but air pollution, especially in cities, still exceeds the health-based air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organisation. This is the result of a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which compiles data from more than 4 000 monitoring stations across Europe. The main pollutants measured in 2017 are particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ground-level ozone (O3). Despite persisting pollution, the new EEA data confirm that binding regulations and local measures are improving Europe’s air quality.
The air quality in Austria is analyzed in the annual report, published by the Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria). The Austrian report (available in German only) provides an overview of measurements, limit values and exceedences of key air pollutants in Austria in 2018.
Potential in curbing both air pollution and climate change
Compared with the WHO guidelines, long-term fine particulate matter concentrations were too high at 69 % of monitoring stations across Europe in 2017, including at least some monitoring stations in all reporting countries, except Estonia, Finland and Norway.
Compared with the EU limit values, fine particulate matter concentrations were too high in seven EU Member States in 2017 (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia). In addition, four EU Member States, (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have not yet met the EU’s 2015 target for the three-year average exposure for fine particulate matter.
Road transport, power plants, industry, agriculture and households are the main sources of air pollutants. These sources are closely linked to Europe’s core systems of production and consumption, and are also key drivers of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. Europe has now a unique opportunity to set an ambitious agenda that tackles the systemic causes of environmental pressures and air pollution.
