24 Amendments of Catherine GRISET related to 2020/2091(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)
Citation 17 a (new)
- having regard to the communication from the German Federal Environment Agency of 10.2.2020 on the development of air quality in Germany from 1995 to 2019: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/ luft/daten-karten/entwicklung-der- luftqualitaet#entwicklung-der- luftqualitat-in-Deutschland,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 b (new)
Citation 17 b (new)
- having regard to the Commission press release of 23.11.2020 entitled 'Marked improvement in Europe's air quality over past decade, fewer deaths linked to pollution', https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscor ner/detail/en/ip_20_2168,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 c (new)
Citation 17 c (new)
- having regard to the study entitled 'Abrupt but smaller than expected changes in surface air quality attributable to COVID-19 lockdowns', published on 13.01.2021 in Science Advances, Vol. 7, No 3, eabd6696, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd6696, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7 /3/eabd6696,
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 d (new)
Citation 17 d (new)
- having regard to Eurostat's statistics on life expectancy in the Member States, published annually since 1992: https://bit.ly/3pV2iRY,
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas clean air is essential toimportant for human health and the environment, and has been identified as a global health priority in the SDGs;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk iants have an essentially negative impact on Eourope2, affecting all regions, socioeconomic and age gr health, and it is irresponsible and frivoloups unevenly, causing nearlyof the European Environment Agency (EEA) to talk about 400 000 premature deaths pereach year,3 and is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, strokes and cancer3; _________________ 2‘Ambient Air Pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease’, World Health Organization, 2016. 3‘Air quality in Europe - 2020’, Report No. 09/20, European Environment Agency, 2020s there are not 400 000 death certificates a year noting 'death caused by air pollution' and no figures or verifiable statistics to back this up; such statements are based on estimates or indirect calculations, so that it would be expedient to rely on evidence-based facts; _________________ 3 ‘Air quality in Europe - 2020’, Report No 09/20, European Environment Agency, 2020. This is analogous to the conclusions of the World Health Organization - the methodology of which is also open to question - which assumes a figure of 3 million premature deaths worldwide as a result of poor air quality in 2012: Cf. 'Ambient Air Pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease (Air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease'), World Health Organization, 2016, pp 11, 15, 40, 46 and 49.
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas happily, life expectancy has risen everywhere in the EU in recent decades3a; _________________ 3aCf. Eurostat statistics on life expectancy in the Member States: https://bit.ly/3pV2iRY
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas air is a mixtures of gases in the earth's atmosphere, with dry air comprising chiefly nitrogen (around 78.08% vol) and oxygen (around 20.95% vol), together with argon (0.93% vol), carbon dioxide (0.04% vol) and traces of other gases; whereas solid and liquid particles known as aerosols are also components of air; whereas water and water vapour comprise 0.4% vol of the whole of the earth's atmosphere; whereas air also contains dust and biological particles (e.g. pollen, fungal and fern spores, bacteria and viruses); whereas all the above makes it difficult to define the precise composition of 'clean' air;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recognises that while the EU Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) Directives have been effective in setting common EU air quality standards and facilitating the exchange of information on air quality, they have failed to effectively reduce air pollution and to curb its adverse effects; draws attention to the fact that a high number of Member States do not comply with current air quality standards and have not taken enough action to improve air quality and keep exceedances to a minimum;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that AAQ Directives are based on air quality standards that are now 15 to 20 years old, and that some of them are much weaker than current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and the levels suggested byeconomically and environmentally effective; stresses in this context that, according to Germany's Federal Environment Agency (UBA), the latest scientific evidence on human health impacts; welcomes the commitment made in the European Green Deal to revise air quality standards and align them more closely with WHO standards;mog alert in West Germany was issued in 1987 and in the federal states in the East in 19933b; _________________ 3bCf. https://www.proplanta.de/ratgeber/natur- umwelt/gibt-es-smog-alarm-in- deutschland_tipps1395150989.html
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recommends that revised air quality standards should also cover other non-regulated pollutants with relevant health impacts in the EU; highlights the EU’s ambition to lead the transition to a healthy planet, and recalls that in order to become a global leader it should lead by example by adopting, inter alia, ambitious quality standards for all air pollutants;
Amendment 90 #
4. Stresses the need to guarantee that air quality is being measured by the Member States in appropriate locations and at emissions sources, in order to avoid underestimation of air pollution; calls on the Member States to improve their monitoring networks, and on the Commission to enforce the obligations of the Directive in this regard, including by providing support to Member States in setting up monitoring stations, the training and hiring of experts, and ensuring greater accuracy in inspection, control and monitoringin a standardised way by the Member States so as to ensure a comparable information base;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Acknowledges the fact that Member States have established an air quality monitoring network based on common criteria defined by the AAQ Directives, with more than 4 000 monitoring stations and 16 000 sampling points; points out that site location provisions involve multiple criteria and offer a degree of flexibility which can make verification more difficult, and which often generate data that does not provide information on where the highest concentrations of air pollutants occur; urges the Commission to review and establish new mandatorythe rules for locating monitoring stations and sampling points so that comparable readings can be generated;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Points out that the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of the inextricable links between human health and ecosystem health; emphasises the need to include the lessons learntviruses are so small that it is impossible to filter them from the air by any conventional technical means and that they can emerge independently onf air pollution from the COVID-19 pandemic when designing new polici, as happened, for example, with pandemics in pre-industrial times;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that confinement measures to control the spread of pandemicCOVID-19 led to a drasticless pronounced decrease in emissions and air pollution, thus clearly showas set out ing the impact of human activities on the environment; notes with regret that costudy in 'Science Advances' of 13 January 20213c; maintainuous exposure to air pollutios that in many worsen the impact of respiratory viruses such as COVID-19; underlines that fighting air pollution must bcases, for example involving fine particulate mat thter, little core of the EU recovery plan, and tha no decrease was discernible; _________________ 3cScience Advances, 13 Jan 2021, Abrupt but smandatory ller thand effxpectively enfored changes in surfaced air quality requirements are key to guaranteeing citizeattributable to COVID- 19 lockdowns’, health and improving their resilttps://advances.science magainst future health threats; .org/content/7 /3/eabd6696.
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the announcement of the Commission’s Zero Pollution Action Plan; emphasises that air pollution is a burden that requires a holistic approach; alerts that any new measures will be worthless if air quality is not properly prioritised and mainstreamed Rejects the Zero Pollution Action Plan announced by the Commission, since completely eliminating all EU policies, including EU emission source legislation, such as on climate, energy, transport, industry, agriculture and waste, while ensuring better synergies between all policy areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States to cooperate more closely in all areas and at all levels in order to help local authorities achieve cleaner airpollutants is virtually impossible without bringing life in all its aspects to a halt;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Urges the Commission and the Member States to strengthen all emissions legislation; underlines that reducing emissions at source is the only effective way to guarantee clean air; alerts that most Member States will not comply with their 2020 and 2030 emissions reduction commitments established under the NEC directive; stresses the need for stringent measures to reduce transport emissions, particularly road and maritime transport, aviation, industrial installations, agriculture and energy productionupport studies on the impact of weather conditions on the development of air pollution and adapt the emissions legislation to new scientific findings;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that Air Quality Plans (AQPs), a key requirement of the AAQ Directives in cases when Member States do not comply with air quality standards, are often ineffective in terms of delivering their expected results; calls on the Commission to establish a set of msupport the Member States in imum requirements and share best practices for bplementing the AQPs and to promothe the drafting and implementation of AQPsharing of best practices;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. AlertsPoints out that, as of October 2019, 32 infringement procedures against 20 Member States remained pending; considers that persistent exceedances of air quality standards by Member States indicate their lack of commitment to adopting more effective measures, and the ineffectiveness of the current enforcement procedure; urges the Commission to review the current enforcement procedure for the AAQ Dmight indicate failure to implement the directives;
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that public information and awareness have a critical role in addressing air pollution; draws attention to the fact that Member States, regions and cities define air quality indices differently, and urges the Commission and Member States to establish a standardised air quality classification system applicable across the EUthat air pollution data are therefore not comparable among the Member States;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Stresses that information on the possible health effects of air pollution provided by Member States is scarce, unclear and not easily accessible for the public; calls on the Commission and Member States to launch public information campaigns on topics such as different types of air pollutants and their impact on human health or current local levelthe Member States are responsible for making available information on the possible health effects of air pollution, and to publish rankings of the best and least progress made by air quality zonesmaking air quality data publicly accessible;
Amendment 227 #
16. Urges the Commission continuously to update the AAQ Directives to include explicit provisions that guarantee the right of citizens to justice in line with the Aarhus Conventionin accordance with the latest scientific findings;