Air quality in Europe - 2017 report

Air quality in Europe - 2017 report

The Air quality in Europe report series from the EEA presents regular assessments of Europe's air pollutant emissions, concentrations and their associated impacts on health and the environment.

Based upon the latest official data available from countries, this updated 2017 report presents new information, including:

This report has been written by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and its European Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation (ETC/ACM).

Air pollution is a key environmental and social issue and, at the same time, it is a complex problem posing multiple challenges in terms of management and mitigation of harmful pollutants. Air pollutants are emitted from anthropogenic and natural sources; they may be either emitted directly (primary pollutants) or formed in the atmosphere (as secondary pollutants).

They have a number of impacts on health, ecosystems, the built environment and the climate; they may be transported or formed over long distances; and they may affect large areas. Effective action to reduce the impacts of air pollution requires a good understanding of its causes, how pollutants are transported and transformed in the atmosphere, and how they affect humans, ecosystems, the climate, and subsequently society and the economy.

Table ES.1 Percentage of the urban population in the EU-28 exposed to air pollutant concentrations above certain EU and WHO reference concentrations (minimum and maximum observed between 2013 and 2015)

PM₁₀ concentrations continued to be above the EU limit value in large parts of Europe in 2015. Map 4.1 shows concentrations of PM₁₀ in relation to the daily limit value. There were 19 % of stations with concentrations above this daily limit value for PM₁₀ in 20 Member States (see Figure 4.1) and five other reporting countries (12). 95 % of those stations were either urban (78 %) or suburban (17 %). Some of these high daily mean PM₁₀ levels were observed during high PM10 pollution episodes in winter and autumn 2015, as explained in Box 4.1.

Map 4.1 Concentrations of PM₁₀, 2015 — daily limit value

Map 4.2 Concentrations of PM₁₀, 2015 — annual limit value

Map 4.3 Concentrations of PM_2.5, 2015

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EEA 2017

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