Geneva, 20 October 1999

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW WORKS

AIR POLLUTION REVIEW PROVES IT

The air that we breathe is definitely cleaner now than a decade or two ago. In Europe, sulphur emissions have halved since 1980, nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) are down 16% on their 1990 levels, emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are 20% lower than in 1990, and ammonia emissions have dropped 18% since 1990.

These impressive achievements are detailed in the 160-page Major Review of Strategies and Policies for Air Pollution Abatement (Sales No. E.99.II.E.14), which the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) has just published. They are largely the result of the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, which was drawn up under the auspices of UN/ECE. This framework Convention and its seven Protocols have forced the countries that have signed up to them to make sweeping cuts in air pollution and also put political pressure on non-parties to keep their emissions down.

As well as assessing progress, the four-yearly Major Review -- to which the Parties themselves contribute -- describes the measures they have introduced to comply with the Convention and curb air pollution: e.g. legislation, economic instruments, technical requirements. The Major Review also includes tables with the emission levels of those air pollutants that are covered by the Protocols and maps of the most vulnerable ecosystems. For instance, it shows that Austria’s, Finland’s and Sweden’s emissions of sulphur are less than a fifth of their 1980 level, Canada’s are 45% lower and Bulgaria’s are 30% down. The biggest single source of sulphur emissions is public power generation. Ireland, France, the United States, Italy and Spain, which are all Parties to the NOx Protocol, have not cut their emissions of nitrogen oxides. The United States still emits 21.2 million tons of NOx a year, the European part of the Russian Federation 2.5 million tons. The main culprit of NOx emissions is road transport. Many Parties to the VOC Protocol have already met their VOC reduction targets or are likely to do so by the end of this year. However, Italy, Spain and Norway have not managed to curb their VOC emissions at all.

Despite the generally excellent results that they have achieved over the past two decades, the Parties are not resting on their laurels. In November they will adopt a new Protocol to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution at a meeting in Gothenburg (Sweden). This new Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone will set more ambitious targets for reducing transboundary air pollution.

For further information, please contact:

Lars NORDBERG, Deputy Director
UN/ECE Environment and Human Settlements Division
Palais des Nations, office 346
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Phone: (+41 22) 917 23 54
Fax: (+41 22) 907 01 07
E-mail: lars.nordberg@unece.org
Web site: http://www.unece.org/env/lrtap/