25 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT
Only 10% of the sulphur pollution that ends up in Switzerland
is Swiss-made. Italy, the largest single contributor to Swiss sulphur pollution,
is to blame for more than twice that figure, and even France and Germany each
generate some 15% of the sulphur pollution that lands in Switzerland. Norway,
too, is a big importer of sulphur pollution: almost half its sulphur pollution
originates in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Russian Federation or Poland.
Most of the UK-generated sulphur emissions end up in the North Sea or the
Atlantic.
How do we know?
For 25 years, the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of
the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP) has gathered
data on air pollution. EMEP was initiated in 1977 as a special programme under
the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It has operated
under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution since the Convention
entered into force in 1983. Its mandate is to provide sound scientific support
for the Convention, in particular in the areas of:
- Atmospheric monitoring and modelling,
- Emission inventories and emission projections, and
- Integrated assessment modelling.
More than 100 monitoring stations around Europe report data to EMEP. Monitoring
and emission data are used in complex computer models, together with information
about weather patterns, to calculate how pollution travels across the continent.
The Convention's protocols aim to reverse freshwater and soil acidification,
forest dieback, eutrophication, exposure to excess ozone, the degradation
of cultural monuments and historic buildings, and the accumulation of heavy
metals and persistent organic pollutants in the soil, water, vegetation and
other living organisms.
EMEP's monitoring network, its quality control system, its emission data
and modelling work have demonstrated the transboundary nature of air pollution
problems and made it possible to quantify air pollution imports and exports,
and convincingly communicate the results to policy makers and to the public.
Integrated assessment modelling has made it possible to calculate the most
cost-effective ways to cut emissions across Europe and has been used as the
basis for air pollution policies.
The air that we breathe today is cleaner than 25 years ago, but there are
still several air pollution problems affecting our health and causing ecosystem
damage for which both national and transboundary emissions are responsible.
Effective implementation of the protocols requires a dedicated system for
measuring success. EMEP's tools are being further developed and applied to
assess and verify that commitments to reduce air pollution are fulfilled and
that further measures will be cost-effective. At the same time exploratory
work continues on new substances that may be harmful to health and ecosystems.
The tasks of EMEP focus on five subjects:
- Acid deposition/eutrophication;
- Photochemical oxidants;
- Heavy metals;
- Persistent organic pollutants;
- Fine particulate matter.
Scientific support in these five areas requires the systematic collection,
analysis and reporting of information from monitoring networks, from emission
inventories, from modelling studies, and various abatement measures, as well
as the integrated assessment of this information. In order to find new options
for reducing emissions cost-effectively, structural measures in energy, transport
and agriculture are being more closely examined and incorporated into the
assessment.
Where does EMEP go from here?
Environmental policy development in the European Union (EU), including its
proposed enlargement, is also an important driving force for scientific work
within EMEP. The EU has a legislative system of its own, but both the EU itself
and all its member countries are Parties to the Convention. This opens possibilities
for cooperation in order to maximize the benefits, and minimize the costs,
of monitoring and research. The technical activities on air quality coordinated
by the European Commission and those of the Convention are, therefore, being
integrated as far as possible.
It is also becoming increasingly clear that some environmental problems in
Europe need to be considered on a hemispheric or global scale. The work of
EMEP embraces developments in North America and elsewhere, especially Asia.
As global emissions increase, transport between the continents is raising
European levels of the pollutants controlled by the protocols to the Convention.
EMEP has started to address these issues and interacts with the appropriate
international research programmes.
The climate-change policies driven by the Kyoto Protocol process aimed at
reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and international agreements to reduce
emissions from, for example, international shipping and aviation, constitute
a further impetus that will receive increased attention from EMEP. As it becomes
clear that regional air pollutants are also responsible for climate change,
EMEP will address these issues.
For more information, please contact:
Henning WUESTER
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements Division
Palais des Nations, Office 323
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: + 41 (0)22 917 23 63
Fax: + 41 (0)22 907 01 07 or 917 96 21
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.emep.int/
Ref: ECE/ENV/02/07