The European Union intends to revise its ambient air quality directive (2008/50/EC) so they are more closely aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines published in 2020.
The revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directives will merge the Directives into one, and seek to:
- align EU air quality standards more closely with WHO recommendations
- further improve the legislative framework (e.g. in relation to penalties, and public information)
- better support local authorities in achieving cleaner air through strengthening air quality monitoring, modelling and plans.
We think this revision is overdue.
It’s a step in the right direction, but there is evidence that it still is not going far enough.
This revision will result in a decrease in mortality and an improvement in quality of life. It is good news for people and it is good news for the economy. Enforcement is crucial.
It is also time to revise the measurement station based observation network. It’s expensive and sparse. Technology has advanced to the point where dense networks of low cost sensors can be used, especially in areas of high population density. In combination with fixed measurement stations, they greatly increase the temporal and spatial resolution of monitoring.
This is critically important as local emissions can only be seen effectively with a dense network. In many cases, these local emissions are the main factor when WHO guidelines are exceeded.
Critically, local emissions are under local control. Dense networks give local communities control of their own fate and empower local decision making.