2023-09-12 05:58:00
“It’s not just an environmental challenge, it’s a matter of life and death. » Ahead of a debate on the revision of the directives on ambient air quality in the European Parliament, Tuesday September 12 in Strasbourg (followed by a vote on Wednesday), the rapporteur of the file, the Spanish socialist Javi Lopez, did not chew not his words. For this Catalan, this election constitutes “a pivotal moment for public health and the environment”.
And for good reason, while according to figures from the European Environment Agency, air pollution prematurely kills 300,000 people per year in the European Union (EU), the European Commission has put on the table 2022 a proposal aimed at combating air pollution – considered responsible for a number of diseases ranging from asthma to lung cancer.
Alignment with WHO objectives
The Commission’s plan to ensure that air quality in the EU is not harmful to health, ecosystems and biodiversity is carried out in two stages: a first in 2030, with an air “purer” than currently thanks to a closer (but not total…) alignment of the EU’s objectives with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO); then a second meeting in 2050 with an ambition, by then, to “zero air pollution”.
Fine particles (PM2.5) are in particular in the viewfinder: they are considered to be the main atmospheric pollutant. For them, the annual limit value should be reduced by more than half in 2030, from 25 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) to 10 µg/m3. The WHO recommends going down to 5 µg/m3.
Whether for fine particles or other pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, generated in engines (especially diesel engines), the Environment Committee (Envi) pleaded, last June, for alignment “complete and permanent” on the WHO guidelines from 2035. In other words, the Parliament is more ambitious than the Commission. It also opens the way to a right to compensation, throughout Europe, in the event of illness linked to exposure to air pollution.
The opposition from the right
Parliament will have a negotiating position on this text when Javi Lopez’s report is voted on in plenary on Wednesday. But in the Envi committee, the text narrowly passed: 46 votes for, 41 votes against and one abstention. In the hemicycle, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, the liberals of Renew Europe (RE), the Greens (ALE) and the Left are in favor of this reform, but the conservative group (PPE) and the extreme groups right (ID) and nationalist (CRE) are against this alignment with WHO standards.
In July, there is a vote on the “restoration of nature”a text promoting biodiversity on the Old Continent, which had disrupted this alliance deemed “climate skeptic” by Manon Aubry, from the La Gauche group. She also fears seeing, with this vote on air quality, “a similar drama arises” to that of the beginning of summer. Pascal Canfin, president of the Envi commission, does not expect “not a psychodrama”. He regrets that a subject like air quality is not more unifying, “which should bring us all together because we breathe the same air”.
The concern of health defense associations
According to the European Commission, the reform of the rules governing air quality should result “by annual gross profits estimated between 42 and 121 billion euros in 2030, for an annual cost of less than 6 billion euros”. But the legislative process is far from coming to an end: the States, within the Council of the EU, have not yet clarified their position. When they have done so, they will then have to come to an agreement with the MEPs.
For now, associations defending human health, such as Health and Environment Alliance (Heal), have sent a letter to them, urging them to vote in favor of the reform. They don’t mince their words either. They are convinced: “Less than a year before the next European elections, your efforts to put citizens’ health at the forefront of EU policy are crucial. »
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