Soni Satti
The UK has been found guilty by the European Court of Justice of “systematically and persistently” breaching air pollution limits.
The EU court ruled that the UK had failed to tackle the problem of toxic NO2 gas emissions in the shortest possible time.
NO2, which is emitted by gas heating boilers and cars, exceeded the legal annual average limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air in 33 out of 43 air quality assessment zones.
The UK has been ordered to pay costs to the European Commission; the amount could run to millions of pounds.
The government believes the judgement is unfair and further blamed the emissions test scandal, in which car makers cheated measurements of NO2 produced by their vehicles.
The court news came soon after it was confirmed that the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution contributed to the death of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah in south London.
Client Earth spokeswoman Katie Nield said: “The government has said that Brexit is an opportunity to take back control and to develop ‘the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on Earth’.
“There is now a clear opportunity to not only establish stronger laws protecting people’s health and the environment.”
The group wants the UK to adopt World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines, which are stronger than EU rules.
A government spokesperson said: “We are considering this judgment from the European Court of Justice. We continue to work at pace to deliver our ambitious NO2 Plan and our 2019 Clean Air Strategy, which was praised by the WHO as ‘an example for the rest of the world to follow’.
He added,
“Air pollution at a national level has reduced significantly since 2010, and now we are out of the EU, we are continuing to deliver our £3.8bn air quality plan to tackle nitrogen dioxide exceedances in the shortest possible time.”