Campaign for Clean Air in London :: Campaign for Clean Air in London urges the European Commission to launch legal action against the UK now for breaching EU air quality limit values for particulate matter (PM10)

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Campaign for Clean Air in London urges the European Commission to launch legal action against the UK now for breaching EU air quality limit values for particulate matter (PM10)

by simonbirkett_administration on Sun 02 Nov 2008 19:28 GMT | Permanent Link

CAMPAIGN LETTER: 1 November 2008

Commissioner Dimas
Commissioner for Environment
Environment Directorate-General
European Commission
B-1049 Brussels

By registered post and email: stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu

1 November 2008

Dear Commissioner Dimas

Did the UK meet the European Commission’s deadline of 31 October to notify a request for a time extension to comply with European Union air quality laws for particulate matter (PM10)?

Baroness Gardner will ask this question in the House of Lords on Tuesday 4 November 2008

The Campaign for Clean Air in London urges the European Commission to launch legal action against the UK now on PM10 pollution and in early 2009 on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution

‘The London Matrix’: Air quality or climate change, it’s about air emission reduction deadlines

Summary

I am writing to you on behalf of the Campaign for Clean Air in London (CCAL) on two matters.

First, please will you confirm whether the United Kingdom (UK) notified fully the European Commission (Commission) by its deadline of 31 October 2008 of a request for a time extension to comply with European Union (EU) air quality laws for particulate matter (PM10) in the manner requested by the Commission in its press release dated 8 July 2008. CCAL understands that the UK government intended to miss that deadline. A link to the Commission’s announcement is shown below:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1112&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

To underline the significance of this deadline, Baroness Gardner of Parkes has lodged a Topical Question to be answered in the House of Lords shortly after 2.45 pm on Tuesday 4 November. It reads:

Baroness Gardner of Parkes to ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they requested by 31 October a derogation from the European air quality directive for particulate matter in order to avoid legal action for potential breach of the limits in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Baroness Gardner highlighted the importance of meeting air quality deadlines also in the House of Lords on 9 October 2007. You can see the full text of that debate via the link below:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2007-10-09a.117.0&s=speaker%3A13304#g117.3

CCAL has today submitted a Freedom of Information Request/Environmental Information Request to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) asking it to provide similar information.

Second, if the UK failed to comply fully with the Commission’s request for information by the above deadline, as CCAL suspects, CCAL urges the Commission to launch by 30 November 2008 robust legal action against the UK for breaching EU air quality limit values (Limit Values) for PM10 in 2005, 2006 and/or 2007 as it has been entitled to do for some time.

In CCAL’s carefully considered view, Europe is today at a crossroads in terms of its ability (or failure) to tackle air pollution. This is because:

• the Limit Values for PM10 have been due, since 1999 legislation, to be complied with by January 2005;

• the new EU directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (the new AQ Directive) entered into force on 11 June 2008 with specific provisions to tackle this problem;

• the Limit Values for PM10 (and NO2) are the bare minimum needed to protect human health and the environment. Particulate matter air pollution alone causes some 350,000 deaths per annum now across Europe;

• the Commission set a reasonable deadline for notifying requests for time extensions for PM10;

• Europe’s credibility at reducing air pollution emissions is at stake now;

• the UK government is ‘playing games’ with the Commission;

• leading UK NGOs have called for the government to comply fully with air quality laws; and

• last but not least, the Commission said on 8 July 2008 that legal action would follow if any Member State did not submit a notification for a time extension by the deadline and so it must.

Please therefore enforce air quality laws now and send a message to those attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan from 1 to 12 December that Europe is serious about complying with the environmental obligations that it sets. Lack of action before then would lead to suspicions that no enforcement action on air pollution is likely ever in Europe. If air pollution laws are not going to be complied with and/or enforced, it is better not to have them in the first place. This is a very serious message for those going to Poznan.

1 November 2008 will be remembered as the time when Europe showed it had the political will to tackle its toughest air pollution problems or failed to do so.