ABSTRACT

Air pollution and air quality monitoring in Europe: Gaps limiting further developments

Kjetil Tørseth, NILU

Air pollution is the primary environmental cause of premature death in Europe, and the number of premature deaths in the EU is ten times higher than those caused by traffic accidents. International collaboration to reduce air pollution was established already back in the 1970, and has evolved to a mature system with several arrangements exists to abate those effects. Still, there are significant gaps in the information needs required to develop cost-effective abatement strategies. Observations play a central role, and in the combination with geophysical and economic models, provide stakeholders information about the air quality situation as well as the relative contributions to the pollution levels. This talk will present the current air quality situation in Europe, and point to some of the gaps limiting further developments.