Voting on the matter new ones air quality standards were almost unanimous – only Malta abstained from voting, and the remaining 26 countries, including Poland, voted in favor. New pollution reduction targets for 2030 aim to improve the health of EU citizens. For Poland, meeting the new standards means, among other things, the need to get rid of the “smokestacks” faster.
Tightening standards are intended to reduce the huge negative impact of air pollution on our health. The European Environment Agency reported that PM2.5 suspended dust – one of the main “components” of smog – is responsible for over 250,000 premature deaths in Europe. In Poland, 40,000 people die annually from diseases caused by smog.
The Polish Smog Alert points out that the current European air quality standards were adopted twenty years ago. Since then, our understanding of how harmful this is has grown and standards should keep up.
Changes in EU regulations will not only tighten air quality standards. As reported by the European Council, EU citizens will be able to claim compensation for health damage in case of non-compliance with air quality regulations.
Air quality – what will change?
The new air quality standards by 2030 will, on the one hand, be much stricter than the current ones, but on the other – in some respects they will still not meet the current recommendations of the World Health Organization. A comparison of these three standards was prepared by the Polish Smog Alert:
The permissible level of average annual concentration of suspended dust according to the new standards will be halved (although still above the WHO recommendation). An average daily standard for smaller suspended particulate matter PM 2.5 and nitrogen dioxide is also introduced, as well as a permissible number of exceedance days. In this respect, there is still a big difference between the new standards and what the WHO recommends – in the EU, 18 days a year exceeding the norm will be allowed, and according to the World Health Organization it should be no more than 3-4 days.
First of all, “Cinderellas”
– This is good news for the inhabitants of our country – says Piotr Siergiej, spokesman for the Polish Smog Alert (PAS), about the new goals. However, he states that as one of the countries “with the most polluted air”, we will have to make “a significant effort to adapt to new regulations in the coming years.”
– In Poland, we measure PM2.5 concentration in 136 towns, but only 6 of them meet the new standards. Raising air cleanliness standards means, first of all, the need to accelerate the replacement of “smokestacks”, says Sergei.
According to PAS, this means the need to expand the Clean Air program, under which it is possible to receive co-financing for the replacement of heat sources as well as thermal modernization. Sergey emphasizes that getting rid of solid fuel boilers significantly reduces dangerous pollution:
– The good news is that in recent years in Poland the number of these old, out-of-class boilers has decreased by one million. Unfortunately, over two million such boilers still pollute the air, but we can already see the positive impact of replacing boilers in Poland. The concentrations of suspended dust PM10, PM2.5 and carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene are slowly decreasing, and winter smog is getting weaker.
Another important solution is the implementation of anti-smog resolutions. While the Clean Air program is an incentive to get rid of a polluting furnace, such a resolution may strictly prohibit heating old stove on coal or wood.
Although “smokestacks” are the most pressing problem, they are also responsible for air pollution, especially in large cities cars. For now, only one city in Poland – Warsaw – has introduced a Clean Transport Zone, with very wide relief (the standards do not apply to residents for now). More large cities must introduce such zones. At the same time, alternatives to cars are needed: better public transport and bicycle infrastructure.
Smog taken to court
– In addition to the long-awaited tightening of air quality standards, the new directive introduces, among others: two key provisions. Firstly, it grants EU residents the right to access justice in air matters, says Agnieszka Warso-Buchanan, legal advisor at the ClientEarth Lawyers for the Earth Foundation.
The Foundation indicates that for years it has been working in the cases of citizens who fought for the right to clean air in courts. According to the counselor, this is particularly important in the case of Poland, because it guarantees citizens rights that “have so far been denied to them by Polish courts.”
– Secondly, all residents of the European Union exposed to illegal levels of pollution have the right to demand appropriate compensation from the state for health damage – he explains.
The directive also introduces more advanced pollution monitoring mechanisms, increasing the number of monitoring stations in cities and harmonizing air quality indicators across the EU.
The directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Member States will have two years to implement the new rules.