3 AMBIENT AIR QUALITY
(27030)
14335/05
COM(05) 447
+ ADD 1
| Draft Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe
Commission Staff Working Paper: Annex to the Commission Communication "Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution" and the Directive on "Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe" - Impact Assessment
|
| Legal base | Article 175EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Document originated | 21 September 2005
|
| Deposited in Parliament |
25 November 2005 |
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
|
| Basis of consideration |
EM of 8 December 2005 |
| Previous Committee Report |
None, but see footnote 10 |
| To be discussed in Council
| No date set |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information awaited
|
Background
3.1 According to the Commission, air pollution is both a local
and a trans-boundary problem, with ground level ozone and particulate
matter ("fine dust") being of most concern to health,[8]
whilst environmental damage arises from the deposition of acidifying
substances;[9] from excess
nutrient nitrogen; and from ground level ozone. It says that the
need for cleaner air has been recognised for many years, with
action having been taken at both national and Community levels,
as well as through active participation in international conventions,
and with the Community having focused (among other things) on
establishing minimum quality standards for ambient air and tackling
the problems of acid rain and ground level ozone.
3.2 However, the Commission also says that, despite
the improvements which have taken place, serious air pollution
still persists, leading the Community's Sixth Environmental Action
Programme (EAP) to call for the development of a thematic strategy
on air pollution. Having examined whether current legislation
was sufficient to achieve by 2020 a significant reduction in the
risks to human health and the environment from this source, and
concluded that significant problems will persist even with effective
implementation of current legislation, it put forward in September
2005 a Communication[10]
outlining such a strategy, establishing interim objectives and
proposing appropriate measures for achieving them.
3.3 As we noted in our Report of 16 November 2005,
this Communication highlighted both the reductions in life expectancy,
and increases in conditions such as cardiovascular disease and
asthma, which will occur if no further action is taken, and suggested
that, since there is no known safe level of exposure of humans
to certain pollutants, notably particulate matter, a policy choice
has to be made about the level of protection which can be achieved
by 2020, taking into account the benefits and costs. It therefore
outlined, in the light of a set of impact assessments in a Commission
Staff Working Paper (also attached as an Annex to this current
document), health and environmental objectives and emission reduction
targets for the main pollutants, whilst pointing out that a large
part of these reductions could be delivered by measures already
being implemented by the Member States.
3.4 The Commission added that the steps needed to
attain these strategic objectives included a simplification of
current air quality legislation, and it proposed that the Air
Quality Framework Directive[11]
should be combined with the first three "daughter" directives
adopted under it, covering respectively sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead,[12]
benzene and carbon monoxide,[13]
and ozone.[14] It also
pointed out that the air quality limit values set by these Directives
currently apply throughout the territory of the Member States,
whereas experience had shown that there were zones suffering from
exceptional problems, and it therefore proposed that Member States
should be allowed to request an extension to the deadline for
compliance in affected zones if strict criteria are met and plans
are in place to move towards compliance.
The current document
3.5 The Commission has now sought in this document
to give legislative effect to the intentions set out in its earlier
Communication. As such, the proposal would retain the air quality
obligations which Member States are currently required to meet,
though it has introduced a new provision allowing them up to a
further five years to comply, provided they can demonstrate that
the limit values in question will be achieved by the end of that
period. However, for those limit values which should already have
been met, Member States could only invoke this provision in specific
areas where the need a rises as a result of site-specific dispersion
characteristics, adverse climatic conditions, or trans-boundary
pollution.
3.6 The proposal would also introduce a number of
changes foreshadowed in the Thematic Strategy. In particular:
- Member States would be allowed
to disregard any natural contributions to pollution levels which
would otherwise be included in measurements to establish compliance
with a limit value;
- there would be a non-mandatory provision to reduce
ambient levels of the more hazardous fine particles below 2.5
µm in diameter (PM2.5) in 2020 by an average of
20% across each Member State at urban background locations (relative
to average concentrations over 2008-2010), though this provision
would be reviewed later, with the aim of introducing a mandatory
exposure reduction requirement when further monitoring information
is available;
- this step would be accompanied by a mandatory
annual average "concentration cap" of 25µg/m3
on PM2.5, to be met in 2010: since this would
apply in all locations, it has been set at a relatively high level
so as to impose a burden only in the most polluted areas; and
- new monitoring requirements for fine particles
would have to be in place by the beginning of 2008, in order to
assess the average concentration over 2008-2010 for the purposes
of compliance with the exposure reduction measures and concentration
cap.
The Government's view
3.7 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 8 December 2005,
the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Sustainable Farming
and Food) at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Lord Bach) says that the Government is preparing an initial Regulatory
Impact Assessment. In the meantime, he points out that the Commission
has considered the full financial implications of the proposal
from three perspectives —
not taking further measures to improve air quality; implementation
of the measures to which Member States are already committed (including
those in the proposed Directive which are confirmed from the current
legislation); and meeting the new objectives proposed for PM2.5.
3.8 He says that, for the existing situation, the
Commission estimates that in 2000 there were in the Community
as a whole 370,000 premature deaths attributable to air pollution
from particles and ozone (of which 41,000 were in the UK), and
that the measures already committed will cost €65 billion
(£5 billion in the UK). However, despite the improvement
in air quality which will result from the measures now in place,
the Commission estimates that there will in 2020 still be 293,000
premature deaths (29,000 in the UK), and that the dis-benefits
arising from damage to health would be between €189 and €609
billion a year (£15-43 billion in the UK). The Commission
puts the cost of delivering in due course a mandatory 20% reduction
in PM2.5 levels at about €5 billion a year across
the Community as a whole, but suggests that this would deliver
benefits of €36-119 billion. On the other hand, it says that
the proposed non-mandatory exposure limit would not give rise
to either costs (apart from increased monitoring) or benefits,
and that, since the proposed concentration cap has been set at
a level equivalent to one of the existing objectives which should
be met in 2005 for larger particles (PM10), this too
should not give rise to additional costs.
Conclusion
3.9 Although the measures now proposed in this
document were largely foreshadowed in the Thematic Strategy on
Air Pollution on which we reported in November 2005, we think
it right, bearing in mind the intrinsic importance of the subject,
to draw to the attention of the House as well these more detailed
legislative proposals on air quality. We will, however, take a
final view on them once we have received the Regulatory Impact
Assessment which the Government has said it will be providing,
and in the mean time we do not clear the document.
8 Ozone is not emitted directly, but is formed through
the reaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen
oxides (NOx) in the presence of sunlight. Particulate matter can
be emitted directly to the air (so called primary particles) or
be formed in the atmosphere as "secondary particles"
from gases such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen
oxides and ammonia (NH3). Back
9
Nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and ammonia. Back
10
(29600) 12735/05; see HC 34-x (2005-06), para 8 (16 November 2005). Back
11
Directive 1996/62/EC OJ L 296, 21.11.1996, p.55. Back
12
Directive 1999/30/EC OJ L 163, 29.6.1999, p.41. Back
13
Directive 2000/69/EC OJ L 313, 13.12.2000, p.12. Back
14
Directive 2002/3/EC OJ L 67, 9.3.2002, p.14. Back
|
