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Air pollution kills over 500,000 Europeans a year: Copenhagen agency

Air pollution causes more than 500,000 premature deaths across Europe each year despite "slowly" improving air quality on the continent, the EU's environment authority said Wednesday.

Published: 12 October 2017 09:39 CEST

Air pollution kills over 500,000 Europeans a year: Copenhagen agency

Photo: Iris/Scanpix

Although data from the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EEA) reveals some encouraging signs, in large part the result of new technologies, air pollution remains the leading environmental cause of premature death in the region.

In its latest report, the EAA said 520,400 premature deaths in 41 European countries were caused by air pollutants generated by the burning of fossil fuels in 2014, compared with 550,000 in 2013.

Of these, four out of five deaths (428,000) were directly linked to fine particulate matter, which measure less than 2.5 microns and can enter a person's lungs and even the bloodstream.

Data collected at monitoring stations showed that 82 percent of the EU's urban population was exposed to these microscopic particulates, known as PM2.5, in 2015, down from 85 percent in 2013.

READ ALSO: Denmark's fireplaces pollute more than cars: report

Other sources of air pollution linked to the premature deaths include nitrogen dioxide, emitted in the air, and ground-level ozone caused by motor vehicle emissions.

Within the 28 European Union members, fine particulates were responsible for more than three out of four premature deaths (399,000 out of 487,600) in 2014.

“The European Commission is committed to tackling this and help member states make sure that the quality of their citizens' air is of the highest standard,” said Karmenu Vella, the EU commissioner for the environment, maritime affairs and fisheries.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen mayor wants to ban diesel cars from 2019

'We still have a chance': Danish minister's relief after Glasgow climate deal

Denmark's climate minister Dan Jørgensen speaks at the announcement of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in Glasgow on Tuesday. Photo: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

“For the first time ever, coal and fossil fuel subsidies have been mentioned. I’m very, very happy about that,” he told Denmark’s Politiken newspaper. “But I am also very disappointed that the stronger formulations were removed at the last minute.”

Late on Saturday, the world’s countries agreed the Glasgow Climate Pact, after negotiations dragged on while governments haggled over phasing out coal.

Denmark is one of the countries leading the phase out of fossil fuels, formally launching the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) with ten other countries and states at the Glasgow summit on Tuesday, announcing an end to oil exploration last December, and committing to phase out coal by 2030 back in 2017.

Jørgensen conceded that the deal struck on Saturday was nowhere near far-reaching enough to keep global temperature rises below 1.5C, which scientists have estimated is critical to limiting the impacts of climate change, but he said the decision to hold another summit in Egypt next year meant that this goal could still be reached.

“The big, good news is that we could have closed the door today. If we had followed the rules, we would only have had to update the climate plans in 2025, and the updates would only apply from 2030,” he said, adding that this would be too late. “Now we can fight on as early as next year. This is very rare under the auspices of the UN.”

Limiting temperature rises to 1.5C was still possible, he said.

“We have a chance. The framework is in place to make the right decisions. There was a risk that that framework would not be there.”

Jørgensen said that he had come close to tears when India launched a last-minute bid to water down the language when it came to coal, putting the entire deal at risk.

“It was all really about to fall to the ground,” he said. “The assessment was that either the Indians got that concession or there was no agreement.”

Sebastian Mernild, a climate researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, said he was disappointed by the lack of binding targets and global deadlines in the plan, but said it was nonetheless “a step in the right direction”, particularly the requirement that signatories to the Paris Agreement must tighten their 2030 emissions reduction targets by the end of 2022.

“It’s good that this thing with fossil fuels has got in,” he added. “It’s a pity that you don’t have to phase them out, but only reduce.”

He said the test of whether the Glasgow meeting is a success or failure would not come until the various aspects of the plan are approved and implemented by members states.

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