EU governments adopt tougher air pollution limits, with reservations

Environment ministers have signed off on stricter EU limits for air pollutants at an EU Council summit in Luxembourg, in a move welcomed by environmentalists and public health campaigners.

“This was a rare, once-in-a-generation opportunity for lawmakers to revise air quality standards to better protect people’s health, and we are pleased that they have seized it,” said Emma Bud, a lawyer with the environmental group ClientEarth, after the vote today.

The legal charity is supporting residents of Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland in their efforts to sue governments over a failure to comply with even the existing standards, in a bid to have the human right to breathe clean air recognized in court.

The revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive brings Europe’s air pollution limits closer, although not fully in line with, the strict thresholds recommended by the World Health Organisation for gases like oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (NOx and SOx), and harmful microscopic particulate matter (PM) generated by traffic and burning coal and wood.

ClientEarth welcomed in particular provisions that give citizens the “clear right to go to court to demand better from authorities who fail to protect them from illegal levels of air pollution” and require governments to pay compensation to people whose health has been damaged by illegal levels of dirty air.

“All eyes are now on EU countries as they start preparing for the new law to come into force,” Bud said. “We urge them to plan ahead and allocate resources effectively, so that local authorities can comply with the law on time.”

But although all EU countries bar Malta – which abstained claiming it would be impossible for it to meet the new limit on nitrogen dioxide of an annual average