Enrico PisoniScientific/Technical Project Officer

&Elisabetta Vignati

Head of Unit

Air and Climate UnitInstitute for Environment and Sustainability

Joint Research Centre, European Commission

22-23 October 2013, BeijingASEM seminar on capacity building on air pollution prevention and control

Capacity building by the European Commission to support air quality

policies implementation in the European Union

•JRC is the European Commission’s in-house science service. It provides the science for policy decisions, with a view to ensuring that the EU achieves its Europe 2020 goals for a productive economy as well as a safe, secure and sustainable future.

•The JRC plays a key role in the European Research Area and reinforces its multi-disciplinarity by networking extensively with leading scientific organizations in the Member States, Associated Countries and worldwide.

What is the Joint Research Centre (JRC)

•Established 1957

•7 institutes in 5 countries: Italy, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain

•2,845 permanent and temporary staff in 2010

•1,398 scientific publications in 2010

•125 instances of support to the EU policy-maker annually

•Budget: €356 million annually, plus €62 million earned income

•Where you can find us

•Corporate Services – Brussels

•IRMM – Geel, Belgium

•Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements

•ITU – Karlsruhe, Germany and Ispra, Italy

•Institute for Transuranium Elements

•IE – Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy

•Institute for Energy and Transport

•IPSC – Ispra, Italy

•Institute for the Protection and Security

of the Citizen

•IES – Ispra, Italy

•Institute for Environment and Sustainability

•IHCP – Ispra, Italy

•Institute for Health and Consumer Protection

•IPTS – Seville, Spain

•Institute for Prospective Technological Studies

What is the Joint Research Centre (JRC)

The Air Quality situation improves…

Percentage of the EU urban population exposed to air pollution exceeding EU air quality standards (trend: 2002-2011)

Source: EEA Air Quality report 2013

…but challenges remain.

Source: EEA Air Quality report 2013

Percentage of the EU urban population exposed to air pollution exceeding EU and WHO reference levels (2009-2011)

Particulate matter (PM10) concentration In red: above EU limit values

Source: EEA Air Quality report 2012/2013

The particulate matter situation

EU air quality standards

WHO air quality guidelines

Percentage of the EU’s urban population exposed to exceeding PM10 limits

81 %

21 %

Policies currently in place• The International Air Quality Policy Framework

• The United Nation Economic Commission for Europe, Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and its Protocols

• The knowledge base (with the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme – EMEP, etc… )

• …

• The EU Air Quality Policy Framework. • Limits/targets for concentrations of air pollutants (Air Quality

Directive) Air Quality Management Plans• Limits on total pollutant emissions (National Emission Ceiling

Directive…)• Regulation of emissions from specific sources or sectors

(Industrial Emission Directive, Euro standard Directives, …)• …

Review of the EU Air Quality Policy

EU long-term objective: • “to achieve levels of air quality that do not have significant

negative impacts on human health and environment”

What has been done:• Extensive evaluation of current policy and detailed

examination of future emission projections and their impact on health and environment, up to 2030

How it has been done:• Scientific developments have been incorporated, public

consultation has been performed, impact assessment has been implemented

Source: IIASA, 2013

The projection for the future

Particulate Matter compliance issue (still exceedances of threshold) at 2010 and 2025.

The compliance issue

European Environmental AgencyAir Pilot Implementation project

• Almost three quarters of Europeans live in cities• There are still 'gaps' in implementation of air quality policy • Study on 12 European cities…but general conclusions

Some of the lessons learnt:• Difficulties in estimating effect and cost/benefit of measures• Challenges in implementation:

- Governance issue, how competences are split between different levels (state/region/municipality).

- Lack of management and assessment capacity - Air quality ranking in political agenda.- Public acceptance

Source: EEA Air Implementation Pilot report, 2013

Capacity building for compliance (1/3)Joint Research Centre role:

• providing knowledge/tools for air quality compliance, as modeling tools, indicators, approaches, to support the Air Quality Management plans preparation

• sharing these knowledge/tools with Decision Makers, networking, facilitating the exchange of best practices

Member States/Regional authorities role: • Implementing “on the ground”

•  

Capacity building for compliance (2/3)We are finalizing tools for answering questions such as:

• Which is the maximum effect on air quality at regional/urban scale, given a defined area on which to apply policies?

• What is the optimal spatial scale on which local/regional decisions should be taken, to lead significant impacts?

• Which is the optimal set of abatement measures to be applied at regional/local scale, given a budget?

• Which is the trade-off among costs and air quality improvement?

• Is it useful to use non-technical measures (low emission zones, promotion of cycling, etc…)

•  

CLE: Current Legislation

leg

isla

tion

Air Quality

Cost

rein

forc

em

en

t

Capacity building for compliance (3/3)

Role of JRC

reg

ion

al/

local ap

pro

ach

Conclusions

• A lot has been done, but still challenges to be tackled• Exceedances of ozone, particulate matter …• Compliance problem

• Role of Joint Research Centre and capacity building• Provide tools to support decision making at regional scale• Networking/harmonization activities

•  

More Information• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/review_air_policy.htm

• enrico.pisoni@jrc.ec.europa.eu• elisabetta.vignati@jrc.ec.europa.eu (Head of Unit)

Thank you