National Facilities
06
Mar
2023
ACTRIS and the RI-URBANS project have provided feedback on the proposal for reviewing the EC Air Quality Directive published on 26th October 2022.
The recommendations include seeking more synergies and interoperability between existing infrastructures, maintaining the list of non-regulated pollutants, and defining operating procedures and protocols for the new pollutants.
As part of the European Green Deal, the EU is revising the air pollution standards to align them more closely with the recommendations of the World Health Organization. In the Commission adoption, both RI-URBANS and ACTRIS have sent a document with recommendations for the proposal review of the EC Air Quality (AQ) Directive.
All feedback received will be summarised by the European Commission and presented to the European Parliament and Council with the aim of feeding into the legislative debate.
RI-URBANS and ACTRIS recognise that there is a willingness to extend the AQ directive to currently non-regulated pollutants, which may be very relevant for the future development of AQ regulations, the evaluation of the impacts of air pollution on health, the better evaluation of the effects of AQ policies, and ultimately to the well-being of European citizens. Specifically, RI-URBANS and ACTRIS value positively that:
-
UFP, PNSD, BC, OP, NH3 and PM speciation have been included, as well as the listed PAHs and an extended list of VOCs, in addition to other regulated pollutants;
-
a network of European super-sites is proposed to be created with similar objectives to the one established, with extremely good results, in the US by the US-EPA, to support environmental and scientific policy studies;
-
this is a timely proposal given the currently ongoing developments within ACTRIS and RI- URBANS to demonstrate the added value of observing the non-regulated pollutants for AQ management and the development and testing of innovative tools for AQ monitoring in relation to human health
The connection between RI-URBANS and ACTRIS dates back 2 years. In 2021, the European Commission mandated ACTRIS to further develop specific services for urban environments, as part of the EU Green Deal strategy.
The RI-URBANS project, funded by the H2020 programme (2021-2025), has a specific objective to demonstrate how ACTRIS service tools can be adapted and enhanced to better address the challenges and societal needs concerning the air quality in European cities and industrial hotspots.
Read full feedback from ACTRIS and RI-URBANS