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In this dashboard you can explore the spatial and sectoral contributions of emissions to the urban background level of PM2.5 in European cities, as calculated by the Joint Research Centre, and understand their contributions to health-related externalities, here premature deaths.

Figure 1. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in European cities: spatial and sector-specific contributions and cost of premature deaths

The calculations are based on the SHERPA (Screening for High Emission Reduction Potential on Air quality) tool and the CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) regional anthropogenic emission inventory from 2022. In addition, for each city, the number of premature deaths due to PM2.5 exposure is provided in terms of total years of life lost, based on the EEA’s burden of disease calculations. This is accompanied by the economic cost of these years of life lost, estimated using a value of a life-year (VOLY) of EUR 111,470 for 2021.

Material and method

The dashboard presents the sectoral and spatial contributions of emissions to the yearly average background concentrations of PM2.5 in each city. These contributions were calculated by the JRC. The JRC’s data cover European cities as defined by Eurostat Urban Audit and seven sectors defined according to the gridded nomenclature for reporting (GNFR), and consider both primary and secondary PM2.5 from ammonia, non-methane volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides precursors.  

These contributions are combined with the EEA's burden of disease calculations for core cities for the year 2022 based on average concentrations.  

The analysis makes two main assumptions:  

  • The relative contributions of spatial sources and activity sectors to PM2.5 concentrations are assumed to be the same as the relative contributions to mortality estimates (i.e. the toxicity profiles of the different sector emissions are assumed to be similar).

  • In their methodology, the JRC estimates the spatial and sectoral contributions for the point with the highest simulated PM2.5 concentration in each city. The contributions estimated by SHERPA are assumed to be representative of the entire city. 

The years of life lost within each city are converted into a cost using the VOLY for 2021. The VOLY is applied to the number of years of life lost, which takes into account the age at which people die. The number of years of life lost and associated cost thus increase as the share of younger people dying from the impacts of air quality increases. The VOLY applied of EUR 111,470 is also used in other EEA externality calculations. 

1Footnotes

1. Sectors (based on the GNFR nomenclature):

    • Agriculture: Agriculture livestock (K) and Agriculture other (L);
    • Industry: Public power (A) and Industry (B);
    • Other: Fugitives (D), Solvents (E), Aviation (H) and Waste (J);
    • Residential: Other stationary combustion (C);
    • Shipping: Shipping (G);
    • Transport: Road transportation (F) and Off Road transportation (I).

2. Both the air quality risk assessments for each city and the city air quality viewer use average concentrations of PM2.5 for the city area.