Around half of the European Union’s member states expect to surpass one, or more of the legal limits set for air pollutants in 2010, according to a report released by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The new report reveals that eleven countries within the EU expect to exceed the ceiling level for NOx emissions-some by more than 40 per cent.
The report reveals that the EU is struggling to control the levels of NOx emissions, a gas which is a key component in ground-level ozone and is blamed for a range of health problems including causing serious lung damage.
Of the four pollutants covered by the NEC Directive status which sets the legal limits, EU Member States have the greatest difficulty meeting the emission limits for nitrogen oxides. Only 16 expect to remain within their respective NOx ceilings, with much of the blame being pointed at road transport- which contributed around 40 per cent of total EU-27 NOx emissions in 2008.
Although overall emissions of NOx have decreased since 1990, the reduction has not always been as large as originally anticipated. This is partly because demand for diesel vehicles has grown, which on average produce much higher emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulphur than petrol equivalents. Vehicle emission standards too, especially those for diesel vehicles, have not always delivered the foreseen level of NOx reductions.
Several Member States, including Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, expect to exceed their respective NOx ceilings by small margins (less than 5 per cent). In contrast, France and Spain expect to exceed their ceilings by 261 kilotonnes and 236 kilotonnes respectively — equivalent to surpluses of 32 per cent and 28 per cent.
Other countries, expecting lower surpluses in absolute terms, would exceed their limits by even larger margins, notably Austria (42 per cent), Belgium (43 per cent) and Ireland (47 per cent).
