Negotiators from the European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional political agreement on new measures to ensure air quality in the EU is not harmful to human health, natural ecosystems and biodiversity with the aim to eliminate air pollution by 2050.

The new rules set stricter 2030 limits and target values, compared to current rules, for several pollutants including particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and SO2 (sulphur dioxide).

For the two pollutants with the highest documented impact on human health, PM2.5 and NO2, the annual limit values are to be more than halved from 25 µg/m³ to 10 µg/m³ and from 40 µg/m³ to 20 µg/m³ respectively.

The Council said that there will also be more air quality sampling points in cities. The air quality standards shall be reviewed by 31st December 2030 and at least every five year thereafter and more often if clear from new scientific findings, such as revised World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines.

The Council also highlighted that it will be possible for member states to request that the 2030 deadline to attain the air quality limit values be postponed by up to ten years, if specific conditions are met, including when the necessary reductions can only be achieved by replacing a considerable part of the existing domestic heating systems causing the pollution exceedances.

Co-legislators agreed to make currently-fragmented air quality indices across the EU comparable, clear and publicly available. These indices will also provide information about symptoms associated with air pollution peaks and the associated health risks for each pollutant, including information tailored to vulnerable groups as requested by Parliament.

It was also agreed that affected citizens and environmental NGOs, should be granted access to justice to challenge the implementation of this Directive in member states, and that citizens should be entitled to compensation when their health has been damaged due to the new national rules being violated.

In addition to air quality plans, required for those EU countries exceeding limits, all member states will have to create air quality roadmaps by 31st of December 2028, that set out short-and long-term measures to comply with the new 2030 limit values as proposed by Parliament.

The deal still has to be adopted by Parliament and Council, after which the new law will be published in the EU Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later. EU countries will then have two years to apply the new rules.

Air pollution continues to be the number one environmental cause of early death in the EU, with around 300 000 premature deaths per year ( check here to see how clean the air is in European cities – There was no PM2.5 data fulfilling the requirements available for Valletta).

In October 2022, the Commission proposed a revision of the EU air quality rules with more ambitious targets for 2030 to achieve the zero pollution objective by 2050 in line with the Zero Pollution Action Plan.

Other air quality index monitoring stations in Gozo and Malta are available to view by clicking here

Photo by Gozo News/smoke pollution urban area

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