On the occasion of the International of Clean Air for Blue Skies on 7 September, EFA joined forces with its partners within the EU Healthy Air Coalition (EUHAC) publishing a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
The letter highlights that air pollution remains the top environmental risk to health in Europe, linked annually with hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and diseases, such as allergy, asthma, COPD, and lung cancer. In addition, air pollution is a driving factor of significant economic costs for people affected and the healthcare systems. This huge burden directly impacts EFA communities and is largely preventable.
Therefore, ensuring that the fight against air pollution becomes a high priority is a key imperative for the incoming Commission. Taking note of the priorities outlined in Ms von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines, among others a commitment to step up preventative health, the EUHAC partners call for scaling up action on air pollution in two key ways:
- Swift implementation and enforcement of the revised EU Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD), as well as strengthened efforts to tackle air pollution at the source; and
- Properly addressing the slow pace and narrow scope of mandatory decrease of pollutant emissions at national level, both in the framework of the evaluation of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (NECD) and through the revision of the Gothenburg Protocol on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
EFA is looking forward to working with its partners and the EC to ensure a high priority for clean air action in the mandate that just kicked-off.
You can access the letter here.