European Ministers Weaken Ozone Initiative
By Neville Judd
BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 12, 2000 (ENS) - Environment ministers
have watered down the European Commission's measures to deal with
ozone pollution, said the region's largest coalition of pressure
groups, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), today.
The Council of Ministers from the 15 member countries of the
European Union met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss the
European Commission's proposal for a law, known as a directive,
on ozone concentrations in ambient air.
Ozone is formed by emissions of nitrogen oxide and volatile
organic compounds released through burning fuel. It damages human
health and the environment, and is directly linked to global
warming.
The ministers rejected amendments made by the European Parliament
to strengthen the Directive and watered down the Commission's
proposal, EEB spokeswoman Sarah Keay-Bright told Environment News
Service.
"It is now up to Parliament to reconfirm their first reading to
counter balance Council’s lack of ambition," said Keay-Bright.
"We would like the Commission's position to be an absolute
minimum level of ambition."
Based in Brussels, the European Environmental Bureau is made up
of 137 member organizations in 26 European countries.
The European Commission initiates policy to be decided upon by
the Council and Parliament. The Council is the European Union's
legislative body and for a wide range of issues, it exercises
that legislative power with the European Parliament.
The Council is made up of one minister from each member nation
with composition altering depending on the topic at hand. To
decide this environmentally related ozone pollution issue, the
European Union's environment ministers assembled Tuesday.
The EEB is upset that the ministers weakened 2010 interim targets
for ozone concentrations in ambient air and that they rejected
the European Parliament’s amendment for a long term target
deadline of 2020. The 2010 interim targets are target values for
the protection of human health and vegetation.
For the protection of human health, the Commission proposed an
interim target as 20 days of ozone in excess of 120µg/m3
(averaged over eight hours) by 2010. µg/m3 means mass per unit
volume, measured in micrograms (µg), by volume of cubed meters
(m3).
The proposal added the words "as far as possible," meaning the
target would not be binding. On Parliament's first reading of the
proposal, it supported the target concentration of ozone but
removed the words "as far as possible," so making it binding.
On Tuesday, the Council of ministers also rejected "as far as
possible," but opted for a target of 25 days instead of the 20
days of high ozone concentration proposed by the Commission.
For the protection of vegetation, Council weakened the 2010
target by rejecting Parliament’s amendment to make the proposal
binding. Without the amendment, non-governmental organizations
like the EEB have no legal basis on which to take action.
The European Commission reported this week that CO2 emissions
from vehicles fell by 5.6 percent between 1995 and 1999.
The European Commission proposed no actual dates for achievement
of the long term targeted cuts in criticial ozone levels for the
protection vegetation and human health.
Parliament adopted the target date of 2020, but on Tuesday,
Council rejected the amendment specifying this date.
The Council proposed that member states need only begin
implementing action plans if an ozone alert threshold of 240µg/m3
averaged over three hours is reached.
This contrasts with the Commission’s proposed 240µg/m3 averaged
over just one hour.
"It seems ministers feel they can justify the relaxation of the
level of ambition because of the weak common position agreed for
the proposal for a Directive on National Emission Ceilings
established last June," said Keay-Bright.
That directive would set emissions ceilings for four atmospheric
pollutants - sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic
compounds and ammonia.
An EEB study called "Getting More For Less" said the European
Commission had based its National Emission Ceilings proposal and
the ozone directive proposal on an energy scenario that sees
carbon dioxide (CO2) rise eight percent over 1990 levels.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an addition to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, 39 industrialized nations
are committed to reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions
by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels in the period 2008
to 2012.
"The Commission's proposed level of ambition for National
Emission Ceilings and ozone is achievable both technically and
economically, and we say that member states could go much further
than the Commission's level of ambition," said Keay-Bright. "It's
a question of political will."
SOURCE: Environment News Service (ENS)
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