Brussels, 16/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Environmental NGOs are deeply concerned by the lack of commitment demonstrated by environment ministers in their first political debate on the clean air package at the Environment Council on 12 June.
The proposal for a new directive to reduce pollution from medium-sized combustion plants certainly received broad support but several delegations requested greater flexibility to take into account their specific difficulties and said that the value limits proposed were too ambitious. With regard to the revised draft directive on national emission ceilings, many delegations supported the two-stage approach (2025 and 2030) covering all economic sectors but concerns were also expressed about goals that were considered too high. Several delegations called for a more thorough going impact analysis of the proposal, particularly for the agricultural sector. This is despite the fact that air pollution causes 400,000 premature deaths a year and that the costs of air pollution has been estimated at between €330 billion and €940 billion for 2010 alone. Louise Duprez, Senior Air Quality Policy Officer at the EEB, commented: “Air pollution today in Europe comes at an unacceptable cost to human health and the environment”. She also asked: “How much larger do these figures have to get before ministers start taking them seriously?” (AN)