UK government 'making a mockery' of efforts to reduce air pollution

A legal battle has ensued over EU rules that have allowed Britain to delay meeting air pollution targets until as late as 2025, despite a growing health crisis.

The UK government has been accused by campaigners of making a 'mockery' of efforts to reduce air pollution in London and other cities. Despite EU rules stating that countries can only apply for extensions on reducing pollutants until 2015, the UK has put forward plans to delay meeting the reduction targets until 2020 in 17 regions and cities in the UK and 2025 in London.

The loophole, which allow the EU to avoid asking for a time extension and instead submit plans which will meet the pollution targets in the 'shortest possible time', make time frames ambiguous and not strict enough to tackle current health problems that are escalating in cities.

The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) estimated that 29,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2008 were attributable to air pollution, as well as making a smaller contribution to more than 200,000 early deaths.

ClientEarth lawyer Alan Andrews said they would be asking the court to declare the plans 'unlawful' and order the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to come up with a plan to reduce CO2 levels by 2015.

Posted by Claire Manning