New policy package to clean up Europe's air

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik has just announced a new package of policies to address air pollution in Europe. Watch the press conference on EbS here and read the full press release here.

Jo presents MOT presentation at CTS Winter Conference

Jo gave a very well-received presentation on 'Variations in car type, size, usage and emissions across Great Britain' at the Centre for Transport Studies' Winter Conference at UWE this afternoon, on behalf of Dr Tim Chatterton. As well as academics from a number of institutions, the conference was also attended by local policy-makers from transport and highways. The presentation set out the initial findings from our spatial and longitudinal analysis of the MOT dataset focusing on emissions and energy at a Post Code Area level. The work is being undertaken under WP2.2 of an 3-year EPSRC/RCEP-funded project, led by Prof. Jillian Anable (University of Aberdeen), with Prof. Eddie Wilson (University of Bristol and Dr Sally Cairns (Transport Research Laboratory/University College London). Further details about the research can be found on the AQMRC webpages.

Defra publish response to LAQM consultation

Defra published their response to the LAQM consultation on Friday 13th December. The consultation had provoked 232 'substantive' responses (including from 133 local authorities)and more than 18,000 petition responses. In general the report appears to reflect the sentiments and arguments of those responses. A summary of the conclusions and next steps is presented below:

Aim 1 – Local Action focused on what is necessary to support air quality improvements to benefit public health and to work towards EU air quality standards

There was sufficient support for Defra to develop more detailed proposals for consolidating the Air Quality (England) Regulations 2000 and the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010. This would need to take account of:

1. The extent to which local authorities should be expected to meet or work towards EU air quality standards
2. The need to have clarity as to the role and relationship between Defra’s national assessment of compliance with EU limit and target values, and locally derived air quality assessments.

As part of this,

Defra will review the range of air quality objectives that apply to local authorities, taking into account the relevance of these objectives for health protection, and the levels assessed in recent years.

Aim 2 – Local government and other stakeholders are clear on their roles and responsibilities and work together to improve air quality

There were clear concerns that currently different tiers of authorities and even to some extent different departments within authorities do not work effectively for the benefit of local air quality. Whilst most respondents supported the current arrangements for district and unitary authorities to have responsibility for assessment of local air quality many also recognised the key role that transport and planning authorities had in influencing air quality and in delivering improvements.

The Environment Act 1995 states that first tier authorities must cooperate with district tier authorities on the identification of measures to improve air quality and must be consulted upon plans. There is also clearly much in the way of good practice available to demonstrate what can be achieve by successful cooperation.

Defra will review the need for additional guidance on these duties as part of its review of guidance to local authorities in fulfilling their duties under the Act.

Aim 3 – Local authorities have simple reporting requirements with less bureaucracy and more time to concentrate on actions to improve air quality and public health

There was clearly support for a review of the reporting required in Local Air Quality Management. In particular there was support for removing the need for a three year updating and screening assessment of local air quality. There was also strong support for an annual report of local air quality which is public facing. This report should provide an overview of air quality across a local authority and a report of progress with actions to improve air quality.

There was some support for providing flexibility in reporting for local authorities that had no significant local air quality hotspots.

Defra will make proposals to introduce regular annual reporting on air quality for local authorities, taking into account comments made and following further discussions with stakeholders on the content of such reports.

 

There was support for clarity on the purpose of local and national air quality assessment, and for local actions to be valued and represented both within and without nationally identified exceedance areas.

There was overwhelming support for retaining AQMAs as a frame for defining the extent of a locally designated exceedance and where actions to improve air quality should be focused. However, there was also support for having some flexibility in applying these, especially for areas where exceedances or exposure was relatively low.

Defra will take account of the support for retaining AQMAs and will also review guidance on declaration/revocation procedures in order to reduce administrative burdens, taking into account matters of health impacts through exposure to air pollution and scope for measures.

  

Aim 4 – Local authorities have access to information about evidence based measures to improve air quality, including on transport and communications

There was clear support for producing and increasing access to information on evidence-based measures, including on transport and communications. A number of examples were cited, especially on communication schemes.

Defra will continue to explore (with delivery partners and stakeholders) way of improving and disseminating evidence-based measures, including supporting innovative schemes. We will revise official guidance to coincide with the implementation of changes to the LAQM system, likely in mid-late 2015.

Fracking and the Environment

Enda presented at a recent Fracking event (11^th December) sponsored by RGS and CIWEM. The event covered the implications of fracking on the environment.  AQMRC’s, newest PhD, Jenna Brown presented on the background and regulatory side of fracking, UWE’s Chad Staddon addressed the water angle while Enda looked at the implications for air quality and GHG.  The event was very well attended with >70 people from various background including consultants, Environment Agency, politicians and concerned members of the public.  The UWE team are planning on turning the lectures into  ‘working papers’ to disseminate our thoughts and evidence to the wider public…………..more to follow.

Tim quoted in new report on 'Climate Silence'

The Climate Outreach and Information Network has just published a new report on “Climate Silence and How to Break It” .

 

This report describes the blanket of silence that has descended on the issue of climate change in the UK in the past five years. The report argues the debate urgently needs new narratives that make the link between the climate challenge and ordinary people’s lives.

 

Tim was interviewed by Dr Adam Corner of Cardiff University who wrote the report and it  contains a quote from Tim comparing problems following the Climate Change Act 2008 to those that have beset the air quality  community since the Environment Act 1995.

 

The report is available here: http://www.climateoutreach.org.uk/portfolio-item/climate-silence-and-how-to-break-it/

Expert workshop on Smart Meters

On Monday 9th December, Tim has been invited by DECC to participate in an Expert Workshop on Smart Meters at the Department or Business Innovation and Skills in London.

Jo in the 'Hot Air' headlines

A quote from the ‘Hot Air’ section at the back of the excellent Air Quality Bulletin.

 

‘There’s a new troublemaker on the block – and not quite who you’d expect. At a recent meeting in London there was energetic backtracking on consultation plans to dismantle LAQM. But there were no plans to dismantle LAQM it seems!! We were assured that is was never the case that the consultation had proposed to remove statutory duties from local authorities.  Whereas most were left scratching their heads questioning their memory and deciding that age was not on their side, up jumped the usually serene Jo Barnes of UWE waving an original copy of Government plans which appeared to differ somewhat from the re-imagined plans being presented. Perhaps we should set her upon the Highways Agency to challenge them on the facile answers to air quality questions?’

 

 

Tim to give lecture at Transport Operations Research Group (TORG), Newcastle University

On Wednesday  11th December 2013, Tim will be giving a presentation in Newcastle on "Working at the Interface of Air Quality, Climate Change, Public Health and Energy – Issues and Opportunities"

 

At the present time the future of air quality policy is looking increasingly uncertain.  For much of the last decade and a half the UK government had convinced itself that the problem would be resolved by now through technological measures.  However, following widespread exceedences of the EU limit values for NO₂ and PM10 the government seems more interested in weakening the European legislation, or pulling out of the EU altogether, than in making the changes that would be necessary to tackle our air pollution problems.  It is clear that the single issue approach to air pollution taken to date has led to a primary focus on tightening  vehicle emission standards, and that this has failed.  To develop a new approach to addressing air pollution will require dealing with our transport system – the main source of our existing air pollution problems.  Fortunately, air quality is not the only problem associated with transport, but to develop and implement the radical solutions necessary to deal with the various problems will require significant collaboration over policy and scientific boundaries in respect of air pollution, climate change, public health and energy.  This presentation will cover work from Tim’s current EPSRC/Energy Programme funded projects Disruption (www.disruptionproject.net) and MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) as well as wider work on co-management of air quality and other issues undertaken by AQMRC@UWE.

 

 

Tim and Jo produce MOT paper for UTSG conference

Tim, Jo and the rest of the EPSRC funded MOT project team (Prof. Jillian Anable at Aberdeen University, Prof. Eddie Wilson at Bristol University and Dr Sally Cairns at TRL/UCL)  have had a paper accepted for presentation at the Universities’ Transport Study Group conference in Newcastle on 6-8^th January 2014.  The paper presents a broad overview of the potential of the DfT/VOSA dataset to create yet another new geography of pollution – one that is based around the users of both cars and energy, rather than the point of emission.

 

Further information on the MOT project can be found here:  http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ctr/research/currentbr-research-projects/mot/

 

A copy of the conference paper is available here: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/22075/1/Chatterton%2C%20Barnes%2C%20Wilson%2C%20Anable%2C%20Cairns%20UTSG%202014-Variations%20in%20car%20type%2C%20size%2C%20usage%20and%20emissions.pdf

 

Chatterton, T., Barnes, J., Wilson, R., Anable, J. and Cairns, S.(2013) Variations in car type, size, usage and emissions across Great Britain and relationships with socio-demographic characteristics. In: Universities’ Transport Studies Group, Annual Conference January 2014, Newcastle, 6-8th January 2014

Tim invited to give lecture at Oxford Institute of Sustainable Development

Tim has been invited to give a seminar on “Re-thinking ‘household’ energy use - experiences at the frontiers of policy” at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development as part of their 2013 seminar series.

 

The lecture will reflect on Tim’s experiences on working on energy issues with various government departments over the  last 3 years, and where a 12-month Fellowship based in DECC has taken his research agenda.  In the current context of headlines about rising energy bills and “Cutting green c%#p” Tim will be reflecting on the challenges of communicating not just climate science, but social science too.

 

http://oisd.brookes.ac.uk/seminars/2013.html

 

Abstracts accepted for Air Quality 2014

AQMRC has had two abstracts accepted for the 9th International Conference on Air Quality – Science and Application in Germany in March next year. http://www.airqualityconference.org/

 

The abstracts are for:

 

A Study of Ozone Concentrations and Trends Across Europe: 1996-2010

This study reviews ozone concentrations from rural monitoring stations across Europe between 1996 and 2010 across a range of statistics with regard to the various objectives, target values and thresholds established by the 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC. The findings reveal that whilst there have been complex and varied changes in patterns of ozone concentrations during the last 15 years, there are still extensive exceedences of the various regulatory standards and that while peak concentrations may have been decreasing, background concentrations are on the rise.

 

Extended abstract available here: http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/Abstracts/Ozone_Trends_Abstract.pdf

 

A Study of Ozone Exposure Across Europe: 2004-2010

This study presents an assessment of exposure to ozone exceedences across Europe using a new methodology based around the Eurostat degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA) classification, which provides the ability to categorise exposure into ‘Urban’ (‘densely populated’), Suburban (‘intermediate density’) and Rural (‘thinly populated’) areas. The study considers exposure to a range of regulatory standards for ozone as set out in the 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC. It finds that although concentrations may be higher in rural areas, numbers of population exposed to exceedences of the standards are significantly higher in both urban and suburban areas.

 

Extended abstract available here: http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/Abstracts/Ozone_Exposure_Abstract.pdf

 

The work is co-authored with partners at The Danish Centre for Energy and Environment at Aarhus University, Roskilde, Air Quality Consultants Ltd.  and Milieu in Brussels and relates to work undertaken for DG Environment as part of support services for the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

 

Full author list:

T. Chatterton (1), E. Hayes (1), J. Barnes (1), J. Longhurst (1), D. Laxen (1) J. Irwin (1), H. Bach (2), J. Brandt (2), J.H. Christensen (2), T. Ellermann (2), C. Geels (2), O. Hertel (2), A. Massling (2), H.Ø. Nielsen (2), O.K. Nielsen (2), C. Nordstrøm (2), J.K. Nøjgaard (2), H. Skov (2), F. Pelsy(3) and T. Zamparutti (3)

(1) Air Quality Management Resource Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK; (2) DCE - Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, Aarhus University, Denmark; (3) Milieu, 15 rue Blanche, Brussels 1050, Belgium

Jo presented at IAQM meeting

Jo gave a very well-received presentation at the IAQM AGM in London yesterday, entitled "Wither LAQM?" - a pun (if one was necessary) on the status of LAQM following the recent LAQM consultation. The Chair gave a verbal overview of IAQM's concerns prior to Jo's talk, and a Defra representative presented Defra's response. The Chatham House rule prevents a more detailed disclosure of persons or events, but needless to say, the feedback from Defra on the consultation responses so far was very interesting...

Jo presenting at IAQM meeting tomorrow

Jo has been invited to speak at the IAQM AGM, entitled: 'Where now for LAQM'. The members' only meeting is being held in London tomorrow afternoon. Jo will be presenting, in addition to IAQM, in response to Defra's feedback on the LAQM Consultation. Further details about the meeting are available on the IAQM website http://iaqm.co.uk/event/iaqm-agm-where-now-for-laqm/. 

New paper for Tim

Tim has just had a new paper published setting out a lot of the work that he undertook in his ESRC funded Fellowship based in the Department of Energy and Climate Change and subsequent follow-on funding.

 

The paper, which is Open Access and written with Dr Charlie Wilson from the Tyndall Centre at UEA, describes and critiques the current tendency towards ‘universalist’ conceptions of behaviour within UK government policy, before setting out a tool aimed to help practitioners in all fields in developing a much broader understanding of the behavioural challenges that they seek to address.

 

Tim Chatterton & Charlie Wilson , Transportation Planning and Technology (2013): The ‘Four Dimensions of Behaviour’ framework: a tool for characterising behaviours to help design better interventions, Transportation Planning and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/03081060.2013.850257

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2013.850257

The paper was developed as an extension of the report that Tim wrote for DECC on ‘Thinking about Energy Behaviour: A multi-model approach’ https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48256/3887-intro-thinking-energy-behaviours.pdf

 

and his EPA commentary with Charlie on ‘Multiple models to inform climate change policy: a pragmatic response to the `beyond the ABC' debate’ http://www.envplan.com/epa/editorials/a44404.pdf

Jo presents at EPUK Autumn Conference

Environmental Protectection UK held their first national conference since its rise from the ashes, yesterday at Aston University, Birmingham. Covering the range of EPUK's core interests, the day provided an interesting and diverse series of talks on issues such as hydraulic fracturing with shale gas, noise policy and action plans, life-cycle analysis of steel production, and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Addressing the recent LAQM consultation, Jo Barnes was invited to speak on the 'Implementation of Defra's Air Quality policy'. The talk, which outlined UWE's reponse to the consutlation, was well-received and was welcomed by the chair of EPUK's Air Quality Committee, Sarah Legge, as a key issue that they had also responded to on behalf of EPUK.

New PhD student investigating unconvential gas in the UK

As part of AQMRC’s involvement in the recently launched International Water Security Network project, a new PhD student, Jenna Brown, has just started her studies. Jenna will be investigating the impact of fracking on water-energy-carbon in the UK. Enda will act as Director of Studies with further supervisory support provided by Chad Staddon (BWG) and Rose Bailey (AQMRC).

Enda attends the Umgeni Ecological Infrastructure Partnership Workshop

As part of AQMRC’s involvement in the recently launched International Water Security Network project (in which Enda and Rose have a work strand investigating the water-energy-carbon nexus), Enda visited Durban and Pietermaritzburg for stakeholder meetings and workshops.  Enda had the opportunity to meet with Durban Municipality to explore their participation as a case study, spend time with project collaborator, Duncan Hay, to learn more about current and future challenges facing the Umgeni River catchment and attend the Umgeni Ecological Infrastructure Partnership Workshop.

 

 

Enda meets with ICLEI Africa

While in South Africa attending the 16^th IUAPPA World Congress, Enda was invited to present to ICLEI Africa on previous work undertaken by AQMRC for the Dube Aerotropolis project in the vicinity of the King Shaka International Airport, Durban. The Dube project included a Framework for Sustainability, a Carbon Inventory and a Water Inventory for the development of an ‘aerotropolis’ (airport city type development). ICLEI Africa were interested to learn more about our methodological approach, results and recommendations as it impacts on one of their Urban Low Emissions Development Strategies (http://urbanleds.iclei.org/) models with KwaDukuza Municipality.

 

 

Enda attends the 16th IUAPPA World Congress

Enda attended the 16^th IUAPPA World Congress in Cape Town (30^th September - 4^th October 20130. He presented two papers which were very well received. The papers were “Integrating Carbon Management into the Local Air Quality Management Framework: an English Case Study” and “Utilising Openair to support multi-stakeholder engagement and the resolution of air quality issues”.  The Congress was very well attended and covered the theme of ‘Many Nations – One Atmosphere: Plotting the Path to Sustainability’. The 17^th IUAPPA World Congress in 2016 will be on the theme of ‘Mega-Cities Perspective: Healthier and Greener Future’ with Busan City, Korea hosting (www.iuappa2016.org).

 

 

Tim has just a new paper published in the highly esteemed journal Energy Policy.  The paper follows as a direct result of Tim's 2010 Fellowship in DECC, and was written with Patricia Allen who undertook most of the work for the project as her dissertation for the UWE MSc in Environmental Consultancy.  This paper, along with the work of Dr Rose Bailey (see http://www.futurebristol.co.uk/) demonstrate the leading role that AQMRC is taking in supporting the development of strong, credible visions for a low carbon future.

 

Carbon reduction scenarios for 2050: An explorative analysis of public preferences

Allen, P., Chatterton, T.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of public preferences for a low carbon future UK and compares them with three future scenarios proposed by the UK government based on data from 10,983 self-selected participants who engaged in the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change 'My2050' online simulation. Participants expressed a stronger preference for demand-side options than for supply-side ones. They also chose fuel switching (to electricity) and technical energy efficiency measures above more behaviour focused options. Renewable energy options (wind, solar, marine and hydro) were preferred to other low carbon supply options (nuclear power, carbon capture and storage), with offshore wind power more popular than onshore. Nuclear power was the least popular generation option. Acceptability of the government′s three proposed scenarios was tested by comparing these scenarios with the research findings. Greatest support was suggested for the two scenarios emphasising business greenness, home energy efficiency, electrification of home heating and travel behaviour. The lowest level of support was demonstrated for the scenario based on significant growth in nuclear power with minimal increases in energy efficiency. Despite issues regarding the representivity of the sampled respondents, the work demonstrates the possibility of using outputs from the tool to assess publically preferred pathways.

 

Patricia Allen, Tim Chatterton, Carbon reduction scenarios for 2050: An explorative analysis of public preferences, Energy Policy, Available online 17 September 2013, ISSN 0301-4215, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.08.079.

 

AQMRC wins Framework Agreement on EU Air Quality Policies

AQMRC (in consortium with partners Triple E Consulting, TNO, TML, DTU ME-SYS and DCE) has been awarded a major contract (4 million Euro) by the European Commission’s DG Environment. Over the next 4 years, the consortium will evaluate, implement and further develop Europe’s air quality policies.

European air pollution policy has a long history, with the most recent policy round having been launched in 2005 with the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution. The strategy’s goals of achieving “levels of air quality that do not result in unacceptable impacts on, and risks to, human health and the environment” had already been part of the Sixth Environment Action Programme and are now also embedded in the Proposal for a new EU Environment Action Programme to 2020 (7^th EAP). The main objective of this Framework Agreement is to support the European Commission’s DG Environment in the evaluation, implementation and further development of air quality policies. Specifically, the support provided within the context of this Framework Agreement is articulated to:

1. Improve air policy management - aims at developing improved strategies for the EU air quality legislation. This necessarily includes the improvement of legal provisions, monitoring, reporting, assessment and management at the different levels of governance.
2. Project air pollution and air quality - aims to update and improve the current reference projections for a number of key sectors to better understand policy impacts and to compare different strategies. This objective requires expertise and know-how on state-of-the-art models and well established methodologies. Developing reference projections for energy, transport, agriculture, sectoral policies and carrying out impact assessments of different strategies demands a high level of confidence in dealing with state-of-the-art models.
3. Assess additional EU measures - consists of assessing from a technical point of view (especially with regard to costs, benefits and feasibility) the possible measures for further air emission reduction at the EU level.
4. Assess local measures - in line with Objective 3, this objective aims at assessing from a technical point of view (especially with regard to costs, benefits and feasibility) the possible measures for air pollution reduction at a local level.
5. Support evaluation and further development of air policy - includes the assessment of current legislation with regard to the outstanding issues not covered by the previous review on air quality legislation.

Rose and Jo present ECO Stars toolkit

Dr Rose Bailey and Jo Barnes presented their work on the Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of the South Yorks ECO Stars scheme at the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, Sheffield last Wednesday.  The presentation and toolkit demonstration were very well received by an audience including the ECO Stars steering group, fleet operators, and David Pryke (DfT) and Robert Vaughan (Defra). This Q&QA work builds on one of the key recommendations from an Evaluation study that UWE undertook on the South Yorks ECO Stars scheme in 2011. For more details about the ECO Stars scheme visit their website http://www.care4air.org/archive/ecostars/index.html.

Defra Sounding Board for Guidance on Cost-Effective LAQM Measures

On Friday 13^th September, Tim was an invited participant to a workshop at Defra on the development of a guidebook for local authorities on cost-effective measures to improve public health through the reduction of air pollution.

Future Mobilities - Disruption

This week, Tim will be attending the Future Mobilities conference at Lancaster University. http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/events/mobility-futures/

 

He will be presenting a paper on “Disruption: Inevitability, Opportunity, Necessity” as part of the EPSRC/RCUK Energy Programme Disruption project www.distruptionproject.net

AQMRC is recruiting an RA/RF

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre @ UWE is now recruiting!! An exciting opportunity for a Research Fellow or Research Associate to join a busy team working on air quality, carbon management and wider environmental issues at a local, national and international level. Further details here - http://tinyurl.com/aqm-job. The closing date is 8 Sep 2013.

Local Air Quality Management consultation - UWE response

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre at the University of the West of England (herein AQMRC, UWE) has many years of experience working directly with and for local government in assisting them with their statutory Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) duties, appraising Review and Assessment reports and Further Assessments, and also in disseminating Continuing Professional Development training on LAQM to local authorities and environmental consultancies. AQMRC has been involved in the development of LAQM since its inception and has been central to the development of statutory and non-statutory guidance, both directly and through consultation responses, including for the repeal of Further Assessments. Over the last 15 years, AQMRC has undertaken extensive primary research and published widely on the LAQM process, its strengths and weaknesses. AQMRC is therefore fully versed on the role of LAQM and these opinions are based on direct experience and on those experiences recounted by local authorities with whom we have worked. AQMRC is also currently assisting the European Commission with the review of the Air Quality Directive and so is well-placed to recognise the importance of LAQM to national air quality policy in achieving the EU Limit Values.

Our responses to each of the consultation questions are presented below.  In outline our views are that:

·         LAQM needs to be reinvigorated and its public health protection purpose restated and prioritised.

·         The Air Quality Regulations need to be updated and aligned more explicitly with EU Limit Values.

·         The Air Quality Strategy needs to be reviewed and updated redefining the contributions of national and local actors.

·         Local Authorities need support and encouragement to implement Action Plan measures.

·         Review and Assessment, the diagnosis of air quality problems or improvements, is an essential precondition for effective and targeted action to improve air quality, and its evaluation. It must therefore be retained although the current administrative arrangements could be improved.

·         In support of public health improvements, Government (both national and local) needs to achieve greater internal coordination of departmental actions and to deploy these interventions more effectively.

·         Local authority actions can contribute to meeting EU Limit Values, but the means by which this is reported needs careful consideration.

AQMRC has published extensively on the LAQM process since 1996 and some of our relevant publications are listed at the end of this response. These chart the evolution of the process and helped identify many of the opportunities, concerns and challenges of air quality management in the UK and further afield.

 

1. What are your views on whether we should consolidate EU and National Air Quality Objectives and how this might best be achieved?

In the considered opinion of the AQMRC, consolidation of the EU limit values and the national air quality objectives may be an appropriate strategy, insofar as these then reflect the public health protection evidence. There are notable differences in the pollutants, averaging periods and timescales for achievement between the Air Quality England Regulations and the Air Quality Standards Regulations that would need to be considered, e.g. the 15-minute objective for SO₂ is not reflected in the transposition of the EU limit values, but has significant health implications and as a result has been the subject of seven AQMA declarations in England.

There are also discrepancies between the applicability of the EU limit values and national air quality objectives in terms of relevant public exposure. Clarification would be required for local authorities on how to determine relevant exposure, given that the EU Air Quality Directive is less prescriptive than LAQM guidance on how exposure is related to the different averaging periods of objectives/limit values, assuming this is not changed in the Air Quality Directive review.

To ensure a coordinated approach across the UK it is essential that this process of consolidation should be undertaken in the context of a revised national air quality strategy.

2. What are your views on the range of objectives local authorities should work towards and whether or not these should be reduced?

The range of pollutants that local authorities are required to work towards, as currently prescribed in the national air quality objectives, are based on the risk of public health effects. For many local authorities, most of these pollutants and objectives have effectively been ‘screened out’ in previous rounds of Review and Assessment, however given that the role of local authorities is to ensure concentrations of pollutants remain below the objectives, it is essential that a mechanism is retained to ensure local assessment of potential new sources and concentrations of all pollutants remain below health-based thresholds. This currently represents a minimal burden on local authorities through existing Review and Assessment reporting and there is therefore no gain to be made in reducing this aspect.

As described in the response to Q1 above, there are pollutants that are included in the air quality objectives but that are not represented in the EU limit values. It is clear that where there are local exceedences, or near exceedences of these objectives, these pollutants should be retained.

There are also pollutants reflected in the limit values that are not currently included in the air quality objectives for which local authorities should give consideration, e.g. PM_2.5. Particularly given potential increases in these pollutants resulting from local biomass combustion consideration should be given as to how these are passed on to LAs.

As mentioned in the response to Q1 above, any change to the air quality objectives that local authorities are required to work towards achieving should be preceded by a revised national air quality strategy for the UK which clearly sets out the national context of any required local actions.

3. What contribution can local authorities make in reducing emissions and/or concentrations from PM_2.5 pollution? Please provide examples, where appropriate.

Typically, any local authority measure that is targeting PM₁₀ or NO₂ from traffic will also be relevant to PM_2.5.  However, given the point made in Q2 above regarding potential new sources for this pollutant, it may be appropriate for local authorities to have some explicit responsibility for managing local contributions to PM_2.5, particularly given that there is no safe health threshold for fine particles.

4. Which option will best help to support Aim 1?

In the opinion of AQMRC, none of the proposed options would be recommended to support Aim 1. However, an adaptation of Option 2 would enable the consolidation of EU limit values and national air quality objectives, while still retaining the ability for local authorities to identify any local sources that may give rise to pollutants outside of this remit. As previously stated, any amendment to the Regulations would necessitate the revision of the national air quality strategy for the UK.

5. What are your views on how cooperation between different tiers of local authorities can be supported?

A statutory duty to improve air quality on all local governments, regardless of tier, is necessary particularly for those departments whose policies may influence air quality to ensure that these policies and practice do not worsen air quality where there is an exceedence, and for these departments to take responsibility for ensuring that they actively reduce pollutants to below the exceedence thresholds. These statutory duties must be clear, achievable and enforceable, and must be upheld by national departments, e.g. DfT, and not contradicted by other political imperatives. In order to ensure roles and responsibilities are explicit, a revised national air quality strategy is required.

6. Do you have evidence of where joint working has been effective and what has helped to achieve this or where it has been less effective in supporting action to improve air quality?

Extensive research undertaken by AQMRC (Olowoporoku et al., 2010; Olowoporoku et al., 2011; Olowoporoku et al., 2012) has found a large degree of disjuncture between Environmental Health and Transport departments’ attitudes to air quality management, with many Transport departments treating air quality as a tick box exercise in LTPs in practice, severely undermining the effectiveness of this approach to improving local air quality.

7. Do you think there is a need to review the allocation of responsibility for air quality between District and County authorities?

As discussed under the response to Q5 above, both County and District level authorities should have a statutory duty to improve air quality, preferably at a strategic level to ensure there is political buy-in from Members. The problem is less to do with the division of tasks between tiers, but the divisions of responsibilities between transport and environment departments (and therefore a factor that is also applicable within Unitary authorities).  All departments that implement policies that may influence air quality must be made responsible for ensuring not only that these policies do not worsen air quality or introduce new exposure to areas with exceedences, but that they actively contribute to improving air quality. As discussed in response to Q5 above, this should be ensured through the publication of a revised national air quality strategy.

8. Which option will best help to support Aim 2?

Of the proposed options, the AQMRC consider Option 2 to be preferable for supporting Aim 2.  However, it is recognised that the roles and responsibilities of national government departments regarding air quality management need to be explicit and communicated clearly to their respective departments at a local level.  This may require alignment with EU limit values, which should be achieved through the publication of a revised national air quality strategy.

9. What are your views on the current air quality reporting requirements for local authorities and how they could be simplified?

While it is recognised that there is scope for reducing the reporting burden on local authorities, it is a mistake to presume that local authorities’ Review and Assessment activities are the limiting factor in implementing local air quality Action Plans. There are many factors that undermine the effectiveness and efficiency of Action Planning and limited resources are only a small part. Other more influential factors include the lack of a statutory requirement to achieve the air quality objectives (which is not considered in this consultation document, but which undermines political will to rate air quality in relation to other political pressures e.g. economic development) and that the responsibility for LAQM is housed in Environmental Health departments rather than with those that have an ability to manage the pollution source.

It is vital to retain a statutory requirement for local reporting on air quality in order to ensure continued monitoring at a local level. Without local monitoring, there is no accurate measurement of local concentrations, and no continual trend data against which to assess the implementation of local measures to reduce pollution or to assess the public health impact. It has already been shown that the national monitoring and modelling as reported to the European Commission is unable to adequately capture the local hotspots that local authority monitoring has identified rendering local monitoring essential. Detailed and up-to-date air quality information is also the most important tool in a local authorities’ armoury when it comes to challenging new polluting developments.  Without the information provided by regular review and assessments it would be very hard to argue for appropriate mitigation measures to be incorporated in developments and air quality would be likely to worsen as a result.

It is recognised that in reducing the burden on local authorities and ensuring efficient use of limited resources, reporting could be simplified, and the proposed single annual technical progress report is recommended, supported by a short, non-technical summary aimed at the public (see response to Q10 below).

10. Do you think there is a need for a more public facing local air quality report which provides an annual review of action taken to improve air quality?

The technical report should not be ‘dumbed down’, but we recognise the importance of public engagement and local authorities should produce a separate short, non-technical public communication document that notifies members of the public (particularly vulnerable groups, and those who may be responsible for the highest emissions) about the quality of local air and the potential health impacts, linked to public health data for their local areas.

11. Do you think there is a need for a better line of sight between local reporting on air quality and what we report to the EU about local action?

Action taken at a local level should be reported to the EU, but so should locally-measured concentrations. This recommendation accords with the European Stakeholder Engagement Group recommendation to align local and national reporting, a review of which was undertaken by UWE as part of a consortium assisting the European Commission with the Air Quality Directive review. There also needs to be a clear identification of responsibilities at a national level and departmentally at a local level, which should be made explicit in a revised national air quality strategy.

12. Do you think the current arrangements for AQMAs should be retained or should they be removed and/or local authorities given more flexibility in applying them?

AQMAs must be retained as basis for development control. In many local authorities, AQMAs act as the trigger for identification of developments that may require an air quality assessment and provide some degree of protection against developments that may worsen air quality or introduce exposure at these locations. If anything, AQMAs should be more standardised rather than the ad hoc approach that currently exists whereby one authority may only include the relevant exposure (not even the area of technical exceedence in some cases), and a neighbouring authority may have declared a whole borough/district AQMA.

Additionally, the declaration of an AQMA is often major signifier of institutional recognition that an air quality problem exists.  At the point of declaration it often becomes much easier for cross-departmental communication, and appropriate allocation of resources to occur.

This may even be an opportunity to radically rethink how AQMAs are identified. Given the availability of public health data by postcode it should be possible to identify postcodes where vulnerability to poor air quality is relatively high in relation to measured/modelled concentrations of pollutants. These areas should be targeted for improvements to air quality in order to provide the greatest public health impact.

13. Which option will best help to support Aim 3?

AQMRC considers that Option 2 is the preferred proposed option to best support Aim 3. Option 3 would not be appropriate in achieving this aim as a statutory duty to maintain local reporting is essential to ensure the continuation of local monitoring in order to accurately assess concentrations of pollutants for the purposes of public health assessment and progress against measures to improve local air quality.

14. Would the availability of information on evidence based measures to improve air quality or reduce exposure help in developing local action plans?

Quantifiable evidence for implementation of measures should be shared to support local authorities producing Air Quality Action Plans. Likewise, any data/tools devised for one local authority that may be applicable in others should be made more widely available.

15. Do you have examples of good practice on the implementation of measures to improve air quality or to communicate on air quality?

The EU FP5 INTEGAIRE project, in which UWE played a major role, undertook a major EU wide review of air quality related measures.  Its reports and accompanying good practice database provide a good example of existing evidence representing good practice across Europe (including the UK). (http://euronet.uwe.ac.uk/www.integaire.org/home.html). See also:

Guide for Cities http://euronet.uwe.ac.uk/www.integaire.org/project/Guide%20for%20Cities.pdf

Database of examples: http://euronet.uwe.ac.uk/www.integaire.org/database-new/gpdb.php?m=0

General contents page: http://euronet.uwe.ac.uk/www.integaire.org/Project.html

16. Which option do you think is most likely to improve local air quality management and why? Do you have an alternative approach?

Of the four options proposed, Option 2 is considered to be most likely to improve air quality management, provided that all parties are clear on their roles and responsibilities and that there is a strong national lead not to undermine local action, i.e. by accepting increasing road transport. This can only be achieved in the context of a revised national air quality strategy for England and the Devolved Administrations to completely re-evaluate and re-contextualise the balance of local and national action.

17. Are any of the options and their proposed changes to regulation, guidance and reporting likely to adversely impact on air quality, if so to what extent?

Options 3 and 4 are likely to potentially worsen local air quality impacts through their disregard of local hotspots; although there will be no local monitoring available to quantify the effect on air quality, public health may suffer. It is unlikely that Option 1 or 2 will lead to an improvement in air quality (or necessarily prevent a worsening) without significant national action and national support for local action, which should be made explicit in a revised national air quality strategy.

18. Assuming no local air quality management requirements existed as proposed in Option 4 to what extent would local incentives and pressures from public health and amenities be sufficient to support local action to improve air quality?

AQMRC, UWE are wholly against the proposed Option 4. It is entirely unlikely that local pressure would be sufficient to support local action to improve air quality. Most members of the public do not currently appreciate the extent that poor air quality is affecting their health, or the role that local authorities are taking to protect them. Given the largely invisible nature of air pollution from road traffic, even a worsening of air quality resulting from the removal of LAQM would probably not be noticed as being directly related to any worsening in health effects.

Even with a statutory duty to act in pursuit of the air quality objectives, very little is actually done at a local level to improve air quality. Without this statutory duty it is hard to see how public pressure could achieve any more.

 

Some of AQMRC’s LAQM Publications

Longhurst, J.W.S., Lindley, S.J., Watson, A.F.R. & Conlan, D.E. (1996) The introduction of local air quality management in the United Kingdom. A review and theoretical framework. Atmospheric Environment. 30 (23) 3975-3985.

Beattie, C. I., and J.W.S. Longhurst (2000) Joint working within local government: air quality as a case study. Local Environment. 5 (4) 401-414.

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst A. Simmons & D.M. Elsom (2000) Regulation and Practice of Local Air Quality Management in England's major urban areas. AWMA Environmental Manager. April pp49-55.

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and N.K. Woodfield (2000) Air quality management: challenges and solutions in delivering air quality action plans. Energy and the Environment 11(6) 729-747.

Ing, C., C.I. Beattie and J.W.S. Longhurst. (2001) Progress with implementing local air quality management in rural areas of England. Journal of Environmental Management.61 (2) 137-147

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and N.K. Woodfield (2001) Air quality management: evolution of policy and practice in the UK as exemplified by the experience of English local government. Atmospheric Environment. 35 (8) 1479-1490.

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and N.K. Woodfield (2001) A preliminary analysis of the linkage between air quality management and transport planning policies in a sample of English Highways Authorities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 44 (3) 391-408

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and N.K. Woodfield (2002) Air Quality Action Plans: early indicators of urban local authority practice in England. Environmental Science and Policy 5 463 - 470.

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and N.K. Woodfield (2002) A comparative analysis of the air quality management challenges and capabilities in urban and rural English local authorities. Urban Studies 39 (13) 2469-2483.

Woodfield, N.K., Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., & Laxen, D.P.H. (2002) Designating Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) in the UK: Implications for Securing UK Air Quality Objectives. Water Air and Soil Pollution. 2, 677-688

Woodfield, N.K., Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., & Laxen, D.P.H. (2003) Regional variation in the implementation of the local air quality management process within Great Britain. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 46 (1) 49-64.

Woodfield, N.K., Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., & Laxen, D.P.H. (2003) Critical evaluation of the role of scientific analysis in UK local authority AQMA decision-making: method development and preliminary results. Science of the Total Environment. 311 (1-3) 1-18

Woodfield, N.K., Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., & Laxen, D.P.H. (2003) Judging the risk of exceedance: local authority decision-making for air quality management area designation. Local Environment, 8 (4) 423 - 436.

Beattie, C. I., J.W.S. Longhurst and Elsom, D.M. (2004) Evidence of integration of air quality management in the decision making processes and procedures of English local government. Local Environment. 9 (3) 255 - 270.

Chatterton, T.J, Woodfield, N.K., Beattie, C.I. & Longhurst, J.W.S. (2004). Outcomes of the first round of local authority air quality review and assessments under the UK's air quality strategy. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 6 849 - 853

Woodfield, N.K., Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., Chatterton, T. and Laxen, D.P.H. (2006). Regional collaborative urban air quality management: Case studies across Great Britain. Environmental Modelling and Software. 595 -599

Dorfman, P., Beattie, C.I., Burnet, F., Gibbs, D. C., Longhurst, J.W. S., Weitkamp, E. & Leksmono, N.S (2006) A conceptual model of the role of complex science in local authority consultations about air quality management. Local Environment 11 (4) 399 - 419.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Beattie, C.I., Chatterton, T., Hayes, E.T., Leksmono, N.S., and Woodfield, N.K. (2006) Local air quality management as a risk management process: assessing, managing and remediating the risk of exceeding an air quality objective in Great Britain. Environment International 32(8) 934-947.

Chatterton, T.J., Longhurst, J.W.S., Leksmono, N.S., Hayes, E.T. & Symons, J.K., (2007). Ten years of Local Air Quality Management experience in the UK: An analysis of the process. Clean Air and Environmental Quality, 41(4): 26-31.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Irwin, J.G., Chatterton, T.J, Hayes, E.T. Leksmono, N.S., & Symons, J.K., (2009). The development of effects based air quality management regime. Invited contribution to 50th Anniversary Special Issue. Atmospheric Environment 43 (1) 64-78.

Dorfman, P., Gibbs, D.C., Leksmono, N.S., Longhurst, J. W. S., Weitkamp, E.L.C. (2010) Exploring the context of consultation. The case of Local Air Quality Management. Local Environment 15:1 15 - 26.

Leksmono, N.S., Dorfman, P., Burnet, F., Gibbs, D.C., Longhurst, J. W. S., Weitkamp, E. (2010) Enhancing consultation practices on Air Quality Management in local authorities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 53 (5) pp 559 - 571

Olowoporoku, A. O., Hayes, E. T., Leksmono, N. S., Longhurst, J. W. S. & Parkhurst, G. (2010) A longitudinal study of the links between Local Air Quality Management and Local Transport Planning policy processes in England. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 53 (3), 385 - 403.

Ross-Jones, M.J & Longhurst, J.W.S. (2010) Managing Air Quality at the Local level. A Case Study. The International Journal of Sustainable Development & Planning 5 (3) 223-237

Longhurst, J.W.S., Olowoporoku, A. O., Barnes, J., Chatterton, T.J., Hayes, E.T. and Irwin, J.G. Exploring issues of process efficiency and outcome effectiveness in the United Kingdom’s Local Air Quality Management Regime.(2011) The International Journal of Sustainable Development & Planning 6 (3) 286 -298

Olowoporoku, A. O., Hayes, E. T., Longhurst, J. W. S. & Parkhurst, G. ( 2011) Improving road transport-related air quality in England through joint working between Environmental Health Officers and Transport Planners. Local Environment 16 (3) 603-618

Olowoporoku, A. O., Longhurst, J. W. S., Hayes, E. T., & Parkhurst, G. ( 2012) The rhetoric and realities of integrating air quality into the local transport planning process in English local authorities Journal of Environmental Management 101 pp. 23 -32.

Everard, M., Pontin, B., Appleby, T., Staddon, C., Hayes, E.T., Barnes, J.H. & Longhurst, J.W.S. (2013, forthcoming) Air as a common good. Environmental Science & Policy DOI 10.1016/j.envsci.2012.04.008 Online November 2012.

Barnes, J., Hayes, E.T., Longhurst J.W.S., Chatterton, T.J (2013) Air quality action planning: why do barriers to remediation in local air quality management remain? Journal of Environmental Planning and Management DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2012.762573 Online 3rd April 2013 pp. 1-22. ISSN 0964-0568

 

LAQM Consultation meeting

The LAQM consultation meeting hosted by the AQMRC, UWE, Bristol, yesterday, was well-attended with a good cross-section of air quality professionals from across the country, including representatives from local authorities, consultants, university research centres in air quality management, transport and healthy cities, Defra, the Environment Agency, Sustrans, IAQM, EPUK and the Air Quality Bulletin.

The presentations that preceded the discussion are available for download on the UWE website:

·        Robert Vaughan (Defra)  Review of Local Air Quality Management http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/presentations/DefraUWELAQMreviewpresentation1Aug2013.pdf

·         Jo Barnes (AQMRC, UWE) Is Local Air Quality Management a successful strategy in achieving selected EU Limit Values?http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/presentations/JoBarnesLAQMConsultation2013.pdf

·         Duncan Laxen (Air Quality Consultants) LAQM Consultation http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/FET/Research/AQMRC/presentations/AQCpresentation.pdf

 

The four aims were discussed in detail and the impact of the four proposed options considered, focusing on Options 2 and 3.

A critique of the aims and options identified the following key points:

·         There is a need to review the 2007 Air Quality Strategy and update Air Quality Regulations to redefine the contributions of both national and local actors.

·         Public health protection should be a meta-aim of the LAQM review to reflect the importance of LAQM as a public health protection process.

·         There is a need for a cross-departmental responsibility for local authorities to improve air quality.

·         There were concerns about the consequences of implementing Option 4, being the most cost-effective option on paper.

·         There was a recognition of the opportunity for local authorities to contribute to meeting EU Limit Values, but that there are issues to resolve, e.g. relevant exposure.

·         There is a need to retain annual reporting to ensure local monitoring is maintained to inform implementation of Air Quality Action Plans.

·         There is a need to retain Air Quality Management Areas as a basis for development control.

·         There is a need to make Air Quality Action Planning robust and effective.

 

It is the opinion of the AQMRC, UWE, that an adaptation of Option 2 is preferable, whilst noting that LAQM has a role in supporting national efforts to meet EU Limit Values.

Full details about the LAQM consultation, including the consultation document and an opportunity to respond online are available on https://consult.defra.gov.uk/communications/https-consult-defra-gov-uk-laqm_review. The deadline for responses is 30^th August 2013.