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Resolution 2286 (2019)
Air pollution: a challenge for public health in Europe
1. Across Europe, despite improvements
over the last decade, air pollution remains the largest environmental
risk to our health, causing disease and shortening lives. The World
Health Organization (WHO) estimates that outdoor air pollution kills
4.2 million people worldwide every year. In Europe, air pollution
is responsible for at least 753 000 deaths annually. However, the
latest research evidence shows that the actual death toll is considerably
higher, and that air pollution kills more people than tobacco smoking.
According to WHO, the global economic burden from premature deaths
due to outdoor air pollution amounts to US$5.7 trillion in welfare
losses, or up to 4.4% of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
2. Air pollution also cripples health by causing disorders that
include respiratory diseases (particularly asthma), heart attacks,
strokes and lung cancer. There is also a strong link with diabetes,
obesity and dementia. At the beginning of life, air pollution leads
to lower birth weight, alterations in immunity, impaired lung capacity,
delayed neurocognitive development and reduced intelligence. Recent
studies also link air pollution to mental health disorders in childhood.
Of the numerous air pollutants, fine particulate matter, nitrogen
dioxide (NO2) and ozone are the most damaging
to human health.
3. As three in four Europeans live in cities, they are highly
exposed to toxic air due to urban traffic, energy production, industry
and residential heating systems – largely as a result of fossil
fuel combustion, notably diesel – and also from waste incineration.
In rural areas, the agricultural sector contributes significantly
to air pollution through the intensive use of phytosanitary spraying.
No one can escape air pollution, and because it crosses borders
so easily, concerted policies and action across Europe are needed.
4. The Parliamentary Assembly considers that clean air is a basic
human right: wherever we live, we need air that is breathable and
that does not shorten or impair our lives. Public authorities bear
direct responsibility for putting in place effective regulatory
policies to reduce air pollution. The Assembly notes that while
the current mandatory norms of the European Union on exposure to
air pollutants are a helpful benchmark for its member States, they
should be fully aligned with the more stringent WHO Air quality
guidelines and must be better enforced. Non-European Union countries
should follow the WHO guidelines and incorporate them into national
legislation so as to better protect public health.
5. The Assembly believes that multilateral action on cutting
outdoor air pollution would not only save lives, prevent disease
and improve public health budgets, but would also enable member
States to contribute to reaching various targets under the United
Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable
Development Goal 3 (good health and well-being for all), Goal 7
(clean energy), Target 11.6 (air quality and waste management in
cities), Target 11.2 (access to sustainable transport) and Goal
13 (climate action). Both present and future generations have the
right to enjoy a healthy living environment.
6. The Assembly welcomes and supports the WHO action plan adopted
in 2018 – the Geneva Action Agenda to Combat Air Pollution – aiming
to mobilise global, national and local players to reduce the number
of deaths from air pollution by two thirds by 2030. The Assembly
also commends WHO’s efforts to integrate new evidence on the toxicity
of air pollution through policy advice to member States, based on
its Air quality guidelines, which are currently undergoing re-evaluation,
with particular attention to fine particulate matter, ozone, NO2,
SO2, carbon monoxide and benzene, as well
as certain heavy metals.
7. The Assembly deplores the fact that the consequences of chronic
excessive exposure to air pollution are the worst for the most vulnerable
population groups (children, pregnant women, people in poor health
and certain categories of workers). It is moreover concerned that
across Europe, social inequalities – within and between countries
– tend to penalise the poorest populations in terms of disease and
mortality from air pollution. Exposure levels are highest in eastern
and south-eastern Europe, which is plagued by high poverty and unemployment
rates, and within countries in the most socially deprived urban
areas.
8. The Assembly urges member States to make action against air
pollution a political priority on the grounds of the imperative
to protect public health. It recommends that they:
8.1. enhance their co-operation with
the European Environment Agency by participating fully – either as
members or co-operating countries – in collecting data for the European
Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet), particularly
as regards real-time air pollution levels;
8.2. ensure sufficient national capacity for air quality monitoring
and inform the public about the current levels of air pollution
in comparison with WHO air quality norms;
8.3. put in place new mechanisms for measuring ultra-fine particulate
matter (less than 0.1 micron in size, or the so-called PM0.1 or
less) in the air;
8.4. ensure that national legal provisions are in place to
allow local authorities to levy green taxes and enact other relevant
measures (such as traffic restrictions, pedestrian zones, sustainable
urban planning, bans on burning biomass, air pollution alert units
with monitoring and law-enforcement capacities) aimed at improving
air quality locally;
8.5. establish clean air zones around schools and other institutions
ensuring full-time care of children, and ensure an adequate safety
perimeter around agricultural areas that make intensive use of phytosanitary
products;
8.6. consider special measures to limit the circulation of
diesel-powered vehicles and make it mandatory for their owners to
retrofit them with exhaust filters, as appropriate;
8.7. in the light of new evidence, reverse their policies favouring
or tolerating diesel which have proven to be a failure from a climate
change perspective and a disaster from a public health perspective, especially
in terms of air pollution;
8.8. set up alert mechanisms for systematically triggering
air pollution control and reduction measures at local level whenever
pollutant levels exceed the WHO’s guideline values;
8.9. where national clean air strategies promote greater use
of electric vehicles:
8.9.1. boost recourse to sustainable
and renewable energy sources for generating “clean” electricity;
8.9.2. ensure the traceability of the materials and processes
used for making batteries, so that third countries involved do not
use child labour in any part of the production chain;
8.10. enhance investment in clean technologies and fuels for
industry (in particular transport and energy sectors), agriculture
and households (notably for heating systems), and promote clean
public transport systems and cycling.
9. The Assembly specifically calls on national parliaments to
hold governments to account on domestic clean air policies, the
enforcement of existing requirements on air quality and adherence
to the relevant international legal instruments, in particular:
9.1. the Convention on Long-range
Transboundary Air Pollution of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE) and its protocols, notably the Gothenburg Protocol
(as amended in 2012);
9.2. the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which obliges
parties to eliminate dioxins;
9.3. the Minamata Convention on Mercury of the United Nations.
10. Finally, the Assembly urges the European Commission to upgrade
the European Union norms on air quality through the current review
of its air quality directives in order to align the European Union
reference limits with WHO norms as soon as WHO’s re-evaluation process
is completed. By the same token, the Assembly calls on the European
Parliament to monitor closely the review process regarding the European Union’s
air quality directives and norms. Where relevant, it also invites
the European Commission to use the pre-accession instruments to
support efforts to improve air quality in the neighbourhood countries.