In 2020, 96% of the European Union’s urban population was exposed to fine particles (PM2.5) at levels above the health guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Environment Agency (EEA) warned on Friday 1 April in its latest annual air quality assessment.
This assessment presents the latest official data for 2020 and provisional data for 2021 on concentrations of the main air pollutants - particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and benzo(a)pyrene - measured at more than 4,500 monitoring stations in 37 European countries.
It shows that, despite reductions in air pollutant concentration levels due to the Covid-19 pandemic and measures taken by governments, air pollution remains a major health problem for Europeans, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe and Italy, due to the combustion of solid fuels for domestic heating in these countries and their use in industry.
Of the EU27 countries, only Estonia did not record PM2.5 concentrations above the annual WHO guideline of 5 µg/m3.
In addition, three Member States (Poland, Italy and Croatia) recorded concentrations above the EU annual limit value of 25 µg/m3.
For the year 2021, provisional data from 30 European countries indicate that all have recorded concentrations above 5 µg/m3.
As part of the ‘Zero Pollution’ action plan of the ‘European Green Deal’, the European Commission has set the target of reducing the number of premature deaths caused by PM2.5 by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.
See the EEA report: https://aeur.eu/f/12x (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)