As a country, we could face fines of up to £300m a year and embarrassing court appearances due to poor environmental wellness. The European commission has launched legal proceedings against the UK as we have failed to reduce “excessive” levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution from traffic, in spite of 15 years of warnings and several extensions and postponements granted to the government. Yet while other European countries have also failed to meet the air quality directive since 2008, Britain has been singled out for our “persistent” breaches of the air quality directive by the EU environment commissioner, Janez Potočnik.
Britain has now been given two months to respond to a letter of formal notice of the intention to take us to court. In a statement, the commission said, ‘Nitrogen dioxide is the main precursor for ground-level ozone causing major respiratory problems and leading to premature death. City-dwellers are particularly exposed, as most nitrogen dioxide originates in traffic fumes … air pollution limits are regularly exceeded in 16 zones across the UK.’ The commission added that Britain has not presented any ‘credible and workable plan’ for meeting air quality standards by 2015.
So why are we being singled out? According to Potočnik, the death toll of poor air quality outstrips even road traffic accidents, making poor air quality the number one environmental cause of premature death in the EU. Last year, Potočnik pointed out that poor air quality ‘is an invisible killer and it prevents many people from living a fully active life. It already costs Europe €330bn-€940bn (£277bn-£789bn) a year in extra health costs and prematurely killed over 100,000 people a year.’ In the UK, most of our cities do indeed plan to reduce traffic fumes to within the legal limit by 2020 – the problem is London. London has the highest levels of NO2 of any European capital city, and our capital has insisted that it could not meet its NO2 targets set in 1999 until 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, the UK has the highest proportion of zones breaching legal limits.
A Friends of the Earth spokeswoman explained, ‘This much-needed legal action will hopefully end a national scandal that causes tens of thousands of people to die prematurely each year because of poor air quality. The UK government and mayor of London must now take tough and urgent measures to protect us all – particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, who are hardest hit. If Owen Paterson wants to avoid another disaster for his department he will need an ambitious plan to protect people from deadly diesel fumes. We need a national network of low emission zones to save lives and make the UK a world leader in clean transport.’
James Thornton, director of Client Earth, a legal NGO that took the government to the supreme court last year, asserted, ‘We have the right to breathe clean air and the government has a legal duty to protect us from air pollution. The commission has singled out the UK following the supreme court’s landmark decision last year. The UK has some of the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in Europe.’ Simon Birkett, director of Clean Air in London, noted, ‘This is the EU at its best taking legal action against the UK at its worst.’ However, a spokesperson from the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commented, ‘Air quality has improved significantly in recent decades. Just like for other member states, meeting the NO2 limit values alongside busy roads has been a challenge. That is why we are investing heavily in transport measures to improve air quality around busy roads and we are working with the commission to ensure this happens as soon as possible.’
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