Countries' perspectives on SOER 2015 - Air pollution cross-country comparison
Synthesis report
- Foreword
- Executive summary
- 1. The changing context of European environmental policy
- 2. The European environment in a wider perspective
- 3. Protecting, conserving and enhancing natural capital
- 4. Resource efficiency and the low-carbon economy
- 5. Safeguarding people from environmental risks to health
- 6. Understanding the systemic challenges facing Europe
- 7. Responding to systemic challenges: from vision to transition
- References and bibliography
- Synthesis report content index
Global megatrends
- Setting the scene
- Diverging global population trends (GMT 1)
- Towards a more urban world (GMT 2)
- Changing disease burdens and risks of pandemics (GMT 3)
- Accelerating technological change (GMT 4)
- Continued economic growth? (GMT 5)
- An increasingly multipolar world (GMT 6)
- Intensified global competition for resources (GMT 7)
- Growing pressures on ecosystems (GMT 8)
- Increasingly severe consequences of climate change (GMT 9)
- Increasing environmental pollution (GMT 10)
- Diversifying approaches to governance (GMT 11)
European briefings
- Agriculture
- Air pollution
- Biodiversity
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
- Consumption
- Energy
- Forests
- Freshwater quality
- Green economy
- Health and environment
- Hydrological systems and sustainable water management
- Industry
- Land systems
- Marine environment
- Maritime activities
- Mitigating climate change
- Natural capital and ecosystem services
- Noise
- Resource efficiency
- Soil
- The air and climate system
- Tourism
- Transport
- Urban systems
- Waste
Cross-country comparisons
- Agriculture — organic farming
- Air pollution — emissions of selected pollutants
- Biodiversity — protected areas
- Energy — energy consumption and share of renewable energy
- Freshwater quality — nutrients in rivers
- Mitigating climate change — greenhouse gas emissions
- Resource efficiency — material resource efficiency and productivity
- Transport — passenger transport demand and modal split
- Waste — municipal solid waste generation and management
Countries and regions
- Albania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Austria country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Belgium country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Bosnia and Herzegovina country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Bulgaria country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Croatia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Cyprus country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Czech Republic country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Denmark country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Estonia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Finland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- France country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Germany country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Greece country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Hungary country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Iceland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Ireland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Italy country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Kosovo* country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Latvia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Liechtenstein country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Lithuania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Luxembourg country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Malta country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Montenegro country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- The Netherlands country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Norway country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Poland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Portugal country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Romania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Serbia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Slovakia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Slovenia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Spain country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Sweden country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Switzerland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Turkey country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- United Kingdom country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Arctic region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Black Sea region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Mediterranean Sea region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
Belgium
Wallonia updated its air and climate policies through the Air-Climate-Energy Plan (PACE, 2014-2022) which will replace the Air-Climate Plan (2008-2012). The PACE project aims to improve air quality, achieve the Walloon reduction targets emissions of greenhouse gases and mitigate the impact of climate change.
Germany
Note to Table 1 regarding NOx emissions:
The 2010 emission ceiling (1051 kt for Germany) does not consider NOx emissions from agricultural sources. However, emissions data and projections reported by Germany take NOx emissions from agriculture into account (112 kt in 2011 and 107 kt in 2012). Germany exceeds the NOx ceiling by 12% in 2011 and 11% in 2012 if NOx emissions are excluded from agricultural sources.
Ireland
Ireland’s air quality is currently among the best in Europe but air quality remains at risk from emissions generated from driving, particularly in the larger urban areas, and from the burning of domestic solid fuel for home heating, particularly in small towns and villages not covered by smoky coal bans.
- Link to national indicator 1
- Link to national indicator 2
- Link to national indicator 3
- Other important link (e.g. national SOE website/report)
Kosovo
Air quality monitoring is a legal obligation (Law on environmental protection - Article 50, Law on air protection-Article 23, and Law on hydro-meteorological activity-Article 5). Air quality monitoring should provide data on the level of air pollution, climate change, as well as impacts on human health, materials, ecosystems and vegetation. The data collected serve to take appropriate measures, in order to reduce, minimize and eliminate the air pollution and its impacts.
The existing air quality monitoring network in Kosovo is very modest in terms of the number of monitoring stations, as well as the number of parameters measured in these monitoring stations. In this report, the existing monitoring stations in Kosovo, and parameters measured at these stations are presented. Current air monitoring network does not meet the criteria for a necessary national network, and does not give full information about the state of air quality in the entire territory of Kosovo.
Given this, a preliminary study for the extent of adequate national air quality monitoring network is needed, in order to appropriately cover the entire Kosovo territory, and to be able to more accurately assess the air quality in Kosovo. Monitoring of emissions is made by relevant economical operators, which mostly monitor certain parameters, depending on their activity. The current situation on emissions monitoring also does not meet the requirements, since no polluting operators has not yet installed the system for self-continuous monitoring of emissions.
From the data available to the KEPA, it is estimated that Kosovo air is not of the required quality, and in some localities it is contaminated by manufacturing activities (surroundings of KEC, Ferronikel, Sharrcem, traffic pollution, industrial and urban waste landfills etc.). Mostly, there is evidence for exceedance of allowed values of dust, and dust particles PM10 and PM2.5. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures as soon as possible, to apply appropriate policies and strategies, to improve air quality.
Luxembourg
High levels of NOx for both Luxembourg and Austria are the consequences of accounting methods for air emissions, namely emissions are estimated on the basis of fuel sales and not fuel uses by the residents. Luxembourg and Austria are both transit countries where fuels prices are lower than in the neighbouring countries.
In Luxembourg we usually refer to "road fuel sales to non-residents" and do not use the word "fuel tourism" because "fuel tourism" is one of the three components of the "road fuel sales to non-residents" with sales to vehicles in transit (Luxembourg is located on one of the main North-South route for both passengers and freight transport) and with sales to cross-border commuters that represent nowadays around a third of the resident population. However, Luxembourg would still not meet its target on NOx if emissions were calculated on the basis of fuel uses, but by a much lower margin: in 2012 16.6 kt with a target set at 11 kt).
Poland
Poland has met all emission limits set for 2010 by the NEC Directive. The most significant decrease of emissions has occurred for SO2. NOx emissions, however slightly decreasing in the last few years, are still quite near under the emission ceiling. Trend of NMVOC and NH3 emissions is stable with only small fluctuations following changes of activities.
The emission reduction targets determined for the year 2020, set under the 2012 revised Gothenburg protocol, are still a major challenge for Poland. Therefore certain measures to reduce emissions are being prepared to implement, e.g. extended control of quality of solid fuels, thermal renovation of buildings or decommissioning of old boilers in industry and households.
Detailed data on the structure of emissions according to sources may be found in the yearly Informative Inventory Report.
The content on this page is the sole responsibility of the EEA member and cooperating countries supported by the EEA through guidance and editing.
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Geographic coverage
SOER 2015 cross-country comparisons analyse selected environmental issues across a number of EEA countries. They are part of the EEA's report SOER 2015, addressing the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment in Europe. The EEA's task is to provide timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information on Europe's environment.
For references, see www.eea.europa.eu/soer or scan the QR code.
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