Air Quality in European cities – 2021 report
Many European cities still suffer from poor air quality and exceed the EU air quality standards This is the case in particular for PM2.5 (focus of this Atlas) which is responsible for adverse health effects and premature deaths. While air pollution legislation has undoubtedly resulted in an overall improvement of the air quality over the years, there are still problems, which are increasingly localised in specific regions and cities. A key issue is thus to determine at which scale to act in order to abate these remaining air pollution problems most effectively. In this Atlas, both the spatial (e.g. urban, country) and sectoral (transport, residential, agriculture…) contributions are quantified for 150 urban areas in Europe. The following conclusions are formulated: (1) for many cities, local actions at the city scale are an effective means of improving PM2.5 air quality in that city; (2) target sectors and scales to abate air pollution are city specific; (3) for many cities, sectoral measures addressing agriculture at country - or EU - scale have a clear benefit on urban air quality and (4) because of methodological choices and assumptions, the responsibility of a city in generating its air pollution is often underestimated.
THUNIS Philippe;
PISONI Enrico;
BESSAGNET Bertrand;
WILSON Julian;
VIGNATI Elisabetta;
DE MEIJ Alexander;
MASCHERPA Alessandro;
2021-11-18
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC126221
978-92-76-41520-6 (online),
978-92-76-41917-4 (print),
1831-9424 (online),
1831-5593 (print),
EUR 30829 EN,
OP KJ-NA-30829-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-NA-30829-EN-C (print),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126221,
10.2760/356670 (online),
10.2760/07645 (print),
