Air Quality in EEA and EECCA in 4 th Europe’s Environment assessment report, 2007

1. Air Quality in EEA and EECCA in 4thEurope’s Environment assessment report, 2007 (‘the Belgrade report’) Jaroslav Fiala European Environment Agency, Hans Eerens ETC/ACC

2. Objectives of the Belgrade report • Kiev Ministerial declaration calls on EEA to prepare the fourth assessment report for the Environment for Europe ministerial conference in Belgrade in 2007. • A request is to produce a short, policy oriented, indicator based report responding to the Belgrade agenda - assessing progress on EECCA strategy and based on recent information. • Progress and benchmarking • Basis for action • Awareness raising

4. Air Quality in EEA and EECCApart of the Environment and Healthchapter DPSIR casual chain applied throughout the chapter Progress in air quality protection policy (D) • CLRTAP • EU air quality policy • EECCA Environmental strategy Atmospheric Emissions (P) • Emission trends • Emission by topic and sector • Emission per capita in European and EECCA countries Outdoor air quality (S) • Trends of health related air pollution • Particulate matter and toxic pollutants • Air pollution in EECCA region Impact of air pollution (I) • Health impact • Acidification and eutrophication • Impact of ground level ozone on vegetation Prospects (R) • Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution – revision of NECD • Challenges for the Convention Document open for consultation (until 3 December 2006) : http://belgrade-consultation.ewindows.eu.org/reports/rep285401

5. CLRTAP All EU and EFTA countries parties to CLRTAP Almost all have signed protocols under the Convention 9 EECCA – (AR, AZ, BE, GE, KA, KY, MO, RF, UR) parties to the Convention BE, RF and UR accepted the first 3 protocols In 2002 MO ratified protocols on HM and POPs EU policy on air quality Over the period 1999–2004 four DD of FWD(LV/TV for SO2, NO2, PM10, Pb, NOx; CO, C6H6; O3 and Cd, As, Ni and BaP (PAHs) NECD, LPC, directives controlling emissions from vehicles EECCA Environmental strategy Improvement of the environmental legislation Pollution Prevention and Control(~EU IPPC, permits) Progress in air pollution control policy

6. Atmospheric emissions - trends Trend emissions Europe by sub-region, 1990-2003: official country reports to UN/ECE-EMEP, 2005-2030 projection (CAFE baseline current legislation with climate policies) IIASA/RAINS Emission trends • The emissions of all pollutants have decreased since 1990 for NWE and EECCA, but not in SEE. (Discontinuity between 2004 (reported) and 2005 (projected) due to different sources of data) • The same trend has occurred for acidifying and eutrophying substances, with reductions of 47% and 30% since 1990

7. Atmospheric emissions - per capita source: official country reports to UN/ECE-EMEP

8. Outdoor air quality –Particulate matter in EEA and EECCA region Air pollution is among the most serious environmental problems faced by cities in the EECCA region as well. Lack of monitoring data of sufficient quality precludes in-depth assessment of the state of air quality in this region though air quality has been monitored in all the countries for many years Lack of funds has inhibited any major progress. Obsolete measuring methods are therefore still widely in use (UNECE, 2006). Annual PM10 urban concentrations, calculated by GMAPS and monitored PM10 concentrations in EEA countries, averaged through urban background stations, and TSP concentrations monitored in EECCA TSP concentrations in EECCA countries are quite high comparing with the modelled data. Generally applied sampling procedure - 20 minutes three or four times a day - seem to lead to rather unreliable, and to some extent systematically overestimated observations. Nevertheless, modelled as well as observed PM data indicate that the pollution levels in the cities of most of the EECCA countries are high heaving corresponding health effects on the population in these cities.

9. Air pollution in EECCA region Time evolution of air quality index API in largest cities of the Russian Federation Increase of API is caused mainly by increase of air pollution by benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) in monitored cities of RF • The number of cities with concentrations of BaP over MAC has increased in the last five years (to 47% in 2004). • This increase in BaP concentration is assumed to be caused by forest fires, by an increase of industrial production without implementation of respective abetment measures, by an increase of usage of diesel cars and by waste incineration. • High concentrations of BaP are observed in winter months which indicates increased consumption of solid fuels for domestic heating

10. Impact of air pollution and Responses (Prospects) Summary of the CAFE analysis and the TS on Air Pollution Emissions reduction (Baseline and TS scenario for 2002) • Specific air quality policies of the CAFE Strategy will significantly improve air quality and reduce the impacts both on human health and ecosystems. • Projected effects are the largest for the air pollution problem which may be considered as the most crucial one: loss of life expectancy because of PM exposure. • They are smaller, but still very significant for three other impact indicators: damages due to exceedance of critical loads for acidification, damages due to excess nitrogen deposition, and health and the environment damages due to ozone exposure.

11. attributed to anthropogenic contributions to PM2.5 (months) Loss in statistical life expectancy

12. Eutrophication Percentage of total ecosystems receiving nitrogen deposition above the critical loads for eutrophication

13. Prospects in UNECE region • Future progress in air quality protection in EECCA and UNECE region in general could be connected with envisaged challenges for the Convention. • These are predominately focussed to particulate matter pollution, and air pollution and climate change issues and linkages. • To include particulate matter in any future air pollution strategies of the Convention requires to set not only an emission ceiling for anthropogenic emissions of PM10 and/or PM2.5 but also to further lower the existing emissions ceilings for their precursors.

14. Conclusions – key messages • In NWE, air pollution, mainly by fine particles and ground level ozone, continues to pose a significant threat to human health: it shortens average life expectancy by almost one year. • In EECCA, the poor quality of the data precludes in-depth assessment of the state of air quality and its consequences.The limited data available indicate that the main health threats from air pollution are also from small particles and their toxic constituents. • Air pollution also still poses a serious threat to the environment and agricultural production in many parts of Europe through the acidification and eutrophication of lakes, rivers, forests and other ecosystems, and damage to forests, crops and vegetation by ground-level ozone. • The main contributor to air pollution in cities is the continuing growth in road transport. Emissions from industry, power production and households also contribute substantially in urban areas in many parts of EECCA, central and eastern Europe and in the Balkan countries. • Emissions and exposures to the public and ecosystems in NWE are projected to fall significantly by 2020 as a result of the continuing systematic and concerted efforts being paid to air pollution problems. • Emissions in EECCA are expected to rise, with consequent worsening in air quality. Stronger efforts will be needed to achievelevels of air quality that do not pose significant threats to human health and the environment.

15. Thank you for your attention !