EU must rule on UK air quality breaches

A campaign to have the government’s plans for combating nitrous dioxide pollution ruled illegal in the UK has failed, despite Defra admitting that its strategy does breach EU legislation

The group launched a legal challenge against environment secretary Caroline Spelman last year, after Defra published plans to cut nitrous dioxide (NO₂) levels that would see the UK breach the air quality Directive for at least five years.The Court of Appeal has ruled that it is the European Commission’s responsibility to take action against the UK for breaching the EU Directive on air quality (2008/50/EC), and not the UK courts, rejecting the case brought by environmental activist group ClientEarth.

The Directive, which, from 1 January 2010, set limits on the level of NO₂ allowed in the air, allows member states to apply for an extension giving them until 2015 to lower pollution levels. However, Defra’s plans to cut NO₂ state that pollution levels are unlikely to be cut in line with the Directive before 2020 in 17 of the 43 cities and regions affected.

In a High Court hearing last December, lawyers acting for Defra acknowledged that the UK was unable to meet the requirements of the Directive for NO₂. However, despite concluding that the UK was clearly in breach of its legal obligations Justice Mitting ruled that it was a case for the European courts.

Reacting to the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold Justice Mitting’s ruling James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO, spoke of his disappointment.

“We had hoped this could have been dealt with domestically,” he said. “The government should not be allowed to avoid their responsibilities and should instead begin working to help those communities worst affected. Their own estimates show that the UK won’t meet legal air quality standards until 2025, but while 29,000 people die prematurely every year this simply isn’t good enough.”

“The UK now only has two months before the Olympics, and potentially faces the European Commission acting within that timeframe. It could be severely embarrassing for the ‘greenest government ever’.”

In February, Defra responsed to an environmental audit committee's report on air quality arguing that the costs of meeting the EU NO₂ targets may outweigh the potential benefits.

“There was never an intention for any of the [EU] deadlines to force measures that would impose disproportionate costs on society. Deadlines for attainment of limit values must reflect both the availability of measures and the affordability of implementation relative to the benefits,” stated Defra.