Road transport is main source of air pollutants in EU - EEA
Tue 29 July 2008
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A new European Environment Agency report shows road transport is the EU’s main source of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and non-methane volatile organic compounds, as well as the second-most important source of dust or ‘fine particulate emissions’.
“The report acknowledges that most EU-27 countries have reduced their emissions of air pollutants over the past decades,” the EEA said. “However, other studies show that pollution continues to undermine local air quality, particularly in urban areas.” Across the EU-27 the largest reduction in emissions in percentage terms has been achieved for sulphur oxides (SOx) with 2006 levels almost 70% lower than in 1990. Emissions of other key air pollutants also fell during this period, including emissions of the three air pollutants primarily responsible for the formation of harmful ground-level ozone in the atmosphere. The change of total NOx emissions between 2005 and 2006 was small, with a decrease of just 1.8%, due to reductions that occurred in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
In response to the report a spokesperson for campaign group T&E (the European Federation for Transport and Environment) told online news agency edie.net: "One of the key reasons transport is still such a major cause of air pollution in Europe is because transport users rarely have to pay for the pollution they cause. Currently Member States are forbidden from including pollution charges in road tolls."
The other main sources of air pollution were manufacturing industries and construction, the residential sector (particulate matters) and agriculture (mainly ammonia), according to the report, which compiles data submitted by the 27 EU member states between 1990 and 2006.
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