Better policies, better instruments

CITEAIR II project leads information-based campaign to reduce urban air pollution

By Andrej Klemenc

The elimination of many of the largest and most conspicuous air polluters in EU member states in recent decades has given rise to popular optimism that clear blue skies and clean air will be characteristics of a common European future. However, much of the apparently clear air in Europe's urban agglomerations are thick with superfine toxic particles, making the air sometimes even more hazardous to breathe than the air in many large cities in the global South whose populations still rely on smoky ovens and grills for cooking. The fact that a great deal of Europe's invisible pollution is the result of automobile traffic, we should be careful not to fall into the trap of believing that the world's most 'developed' countries are safe from the predations of air pollution and other environmental ills.

 

Repeated failures to reach a comprehensive international response to anthropogenic global warming and climate change-most recently at COP-17 in Durban, South Africa-underlines the urgent importance of seeking local solutions, at least for locally and regionally generated problems. Of course, it's even better if local communities are able to bond with others in a comprehensive and integrated way to seek common solutions. One such approach to this end is to communicate air quality-related issues over as broad an area as possible, and to educate as many people as possible about how to prevent and avoid exposure to high levels of urban air pollution.

The tasks of a recently concluded project-CITEAIR II: Common Information to European Air-were to provide information to the public on measures for improving air quality, to promote sustainable transport, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CITEAIR II established an enhanced user community to assess the relevance of good practices identified within the project, and ensured their applicability elsewhere in Europe. These good practices helped with the preparation of guidebooks on integrated emission inventories, air quality forecasting, and the development of a sustainable mobility indicator for cities. CITEAIR II also validated solutions that are now ready to be implemented in your city.

CITEAIR II was co-funded under the European Commission INTERREG IVC programme and ran from 2008 till the end of 2011. The project was built on a previous CITEAIR project (2004-2007, INTERREG IIIC), which, among other things, developed and implemented air quality indices at the European level and laid the foundations for a supporting website: www.airqualitynow.eu. The use of this first interactive European platform for reporting and publishing information on air quality from European cities based on a common air quality index (CAQI) increased significantly during CITEAIR II. Today nearly 100 European cities use this platform to deliver online information about air quality in real time, benchmark air quality performance, and raise awareness about air pollution and its hazards.

With financing from the European Union's Regional Development fund, CITEAIR II  has contributed significantly to the INTERREG IVC programme's overall objective, which is  to improve the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments. The essence of this and other Interreg projects is to allow participants to work with existing databases and avoid having to develop everything from scratch.

Last but not least, the REC has played an important role through its Slovenian office in Ljubljana. Assisted by REC Headquarters and colleagues in other local offices, colleagues from REC Slovenia disseminated project-related information, results and activities in the CEE Region. In 2010 they also organised a successful workshop and thematic networking meeting.

The REC's Green Horizon Online magazine is the selected platform for sharing several detailed insights into the CITEAIR project in particular, and air quality in European cities in general.