An important although little publicized debate is now going through Brussels: the tightening of the air quality directives so that the community regulations come closer to the limits of exposure to the main pollutants that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends as safe. The body, after reviewing the scientific literature generated in the last 15 years, decided in September 2021 to tighten these thresholds for suspended particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM₂.₅), particles of less than 10 microns (PM₁₀), ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO). And, after this positioning, last year, the European institutions started the process to update the directives to try to get closer to the WHO recommendations.
But the increase in ambition to fight against air pollution, a serious health problem, will come when many cities and provinces already have serious problems complying with the current limits and have even been condemned and fined for it by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In this context, eight European regions belonging to four EU States have established a common position that seeks to reduce the hardening proposal that the European Commission has put on the table. Specifically, according to the document that EL PAÍS has accessed, they propose that the new legislation contemplate exceptions to its compliance “for specific regions”. These eight regions advocate “the development of ambitious but realistic limits” and have come together in the Air Quality Initiative of the Regions (AIR, for its acronym in English), which is spearheaded by three regions of northern Italy, but of which the Community of Madrid and Catalonia are also part, united in this case in response to the Commission’s proposal.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition has considered that it is an “indecent” proposal that “puts people’s lives at risk.” “The health of citizens is at stake,” added the department headed by the third vice president of the Government, Teresa Ribera. “Measures aimed at reducing pollution cannot be relaxed.”
“AIR was founded in 2011 and represents eight regions from four Member States of the European Union. These are: Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Dutch provinces, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Styria and Veneto”, points out the letter in which this group of regions sets out its position on the revision of the air quality directive in course. “All the regions are densely populated and industrialized, and belong to the most economically competitive regions of the European Union. All AIR regions have a challenge regarding air quality due to the large number of inhabitants, high economic activity and traffic. They then acknowledge that “the concentrations in all” these areas “are well above the latest WHO recommendations” and request these exceptions to compliance with the new limits.
That writing is dated October 18, 2022 and is titled Air Quality Initiative of the Regions (AIR) Position Paper on the Air Quality Policy Review 2022 of the European Commission. And it was the one that was distributed on Wednesday at the presentation of this initiative in the European Parliament, in which three Italian regions belonging to AIR and some members of the European Parliament participated, according to Francesco Forastiere, a renowned Italian epidemiologist who is very concerned. with this position and who attended that event in Brussels.
A good number of specialists, also in Spain, are on alert for this attempt to lower the new European directive. In Italy, the position of these regions of the Po Valley has already set off alarm bells and fifty scientists specialized in air quality and its implications for health have prepared an open letter in which they warn of the consequences of not fighting the pollution and calling for “an end to this opposition to the Commission’s proposal”. “Any additional flexibility and derogation in the application of measures, even radical, if necessary, to reduce polluting emissions, only exacerbates the damage to the health of citizens, intensifies the environmental crisis and unsustainably increases the costs of care medical (including pandemics) and damage caused by extreme events such as floods, droughts and landslides”, warns that open letter that they have sent to various Italian institutions. “The problem of air pollution in the Po Valley has a clear diagnosis, the consequences and costs of inaction are well known, and solutions have been identified. It is simply a matter of not wasting any more time”, he adds.
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One of the Italian politicians who have been most combative against the European Commission’s proposal is the president of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, of the Northern League. This week, in a statement collected by the Italian news agency Ansa, he charged against the “absolutely irrational” measures against pollution. Fontana is a member of the far-right Northern League party, but among the Italian regions grouped in AIR there are also center-right and center-left presidents.
At the presentation of the document yesterday in Brussels, only three Italian regions and some MEPs participated. But Forastiere details that the speakers made it clear that they were speaking on behalf of more regions, including the Community of Madrid and Catalonia. EL PAÍS has tried to obtain the opinion of the office of the Community of Madrid in Brussels and the Generalitat, which have not yet responded to the questions from this newspaper. It so happens that in both autonomous communities —one governed by the PP and the other by ERC— there are the most conflictive urban agglomerations from the point of view of pollution in Spain.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition also recalled this Thursday that “climate change has been warning us that there is neither time nor excuses”, in reference to this proposal. “The ministry is fighting in Brussels so that the air quality regulations are much more demanding,” added this department.
condemns
In fact, Spain was condemned in December of last year by the Court of Justice of the European Union for systematic non-compliance with the community air quality standard in Madrid and the Barcelona metropolitan area. In these agglomerations —with around 7.5 million inhabitants, more than 15% of the country’s inhabitants— the annual safety limits set by the EU for exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) have been repeatedly exceeded since 2010, a harmful substance linked mainly to combustion vehicles.
Traffic is one of the main causes of air pollution in cities. However, AIR’s position paper repeatedly points elsewhere and asks the Commission to focus its actions on issues such as “biomass”, “transboundary pollution”, “weather conditions”, ” ammonia emissions from agricultural processes…”.
“It is of the utmost importance to give local and regional authorities sufficient time to implement additional measures,” AIR asks the Commission. “Adverse geographical and meteorological conditions must also be taken into account. Therefore, we recommend that the derogation option for specific regions be part of the revision of the current directives on ambient air quality”, the document concludes. In the open letter of the Italian scientists, they charge against the position of these regions: “They request less strict limit values for pollutants than those proposed by the European Commission, a temporary exception and a distribution of responsibilities that they do not want to assume. Indeed, the governors believe that the health protection measures could constitute a threat to the economy and the industry.
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