Air quality has improved in five years in ten European cities that have participated since 2013 in a pilot project to tackle the scourge of air pollution through better implementation of EU legislation, but difficult challenges remain, particularly in terms of governance, according to a report published by the European Environment Agency on Monday 18 March.
This report draws lessons from the project carried out in cooperation with 10 cities (Antwerp, Berlin, Dublin, Madrid, Malmö, Milan, Paris, Plovdiv, Prague and Vienna) out of the 12 involved in this project with the European Commission.
The improvements recorded concern the use of tools and methods to quantify the effects of proposed and implemented improvement measures as well as a better understanding of local air pollution sources.
Among the challenges to overcome: communicating information to citizens, engaging citizens and taking new actions - highlighting secondary health benefits, noise reduction, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The report also shows that increasing coherence at administrative and different levels of governance is difficult, just as it is difficult to generate political and public support for improving air quality beyond the minimum standards of EU legislation. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)