Air and noise pollution – ECA special report

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has prepared a special report – Pollution in EU Cities – on two of the most serious threats to human health, air pollution and noise pollution. The Court found that although EU regulations have been in place for many years, the actions taken by the EC and selected member states are still inadequate when it comes to protecting citizens and the environment.

Air and noise pollution – inspection results

The audit covered the EU’s policies on air and noise pollution in urban areas. The auditors looked in depth at what the EC and selected member states and individual cities are doing to prevent and reduce the occurrence of air and excessive noise pollution. The Court selected Athens in Greece, Barcelona in Spain and Krakow in Poland for the audit.

The auditors found that while air quality is improving across the EU, standards have not always been met or have only recently been met. With regard to noise pollution, it is difficult to assess the progress made. This is mainly due to gaps and delays in assessment and reporting in most member states.

The Court has identified both achievements and gaps in the implementation of EU regulations on air and noise pollution in the three cities selected for audit. Air quality is improving, but standards are not being met consistently and have only recently approached EU limit values. These, in turn, will soon become more stringent, as they will be more closely aligned with levels recommended by the World Health Organization and based on scientific evidence. This means that these cities will have to step up their efforts to meet the new EU standards in the coming years.

Air and noise pollution and their impact on human health

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes air pollution as one of the greatest environmental health risks. The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates that in 2021, 253,000 people in the EU died prematurely as a result of air pollution from particulate matter (PM 2.5), 52,000 from nitrogen dioxide (_NO2) and 22,000 from ozone (_O3). Exposure to high levels of air pollution can also have other negative health effects, such as asthma, strokes, ischemic heart disease and lung cancer.

Environmental noise refers to unwanted or harmful sounds in the open air and caused by human activities. The main source of noise pollution is road traffic. It is followed by rail and air traffic. The WHO considers environmental noise to be the second largest contributor to the burden of disease in the EU, after air pollution. Long-term exposure to environmental noise contributes to 48,000 new cases of heart disease and 12,000 premature deaths each year in Europe.

The EEA estimates that at least one-fifth of the Union’s population is exposed to harmful noise levels. Long-term exposure can cause adverse health effects such as sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, irritability, cognitive impairment and mental health problems. Noise can also have a negative impact on marine organisms such as whales, as we wrote about in a previous article: What is noise pollution and how does it affect whales?

EU regulations

The main provisions of the EU’s clean air policy are two air quality directives Directive 2004/107/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 15, 2004 on arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air, and Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 21, 2008 on air quality and cleaner air for Europe.

These documents establish legal standards to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of air pollution on human health and the environment. They also set permissible concentrations and target values for the most harmful pollutants in the air. Under the directives, member states are required to monitor air quality and develop plans to protect it if EU limit and target values are exceeded.

One of the recent laws adopted by the European Council relating to air quality is the October 14, 2024 directive, which sets updated standards for the entire EU, tightening existing guidelines. We wrote more about this in a previous article Compensation for poor air quality.

EU legislation aimed at protecting human health from the effects of environmental noise is contained in Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 25, 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. The document requires member states to develop strategic noise maps to assess the population’s exposure to it. In addition, member states are required to develop action plans to reduce noise pollution.

Corrective actions

Clean air measures can be financed from such EU sources as the Reconstruction and Resilience Facility (RRF), the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The EC has developed a method for monitoring clean air spending to estimate the amount spent on improving air quality. According to estimates, the EU has earmarked about 46.4 billion euros for the 2014-2020 period and 185.5 billion euros for the 2021-2027 programming period. However, the EC does not have analogous estimates for EU funds that contribute to noise reduction targets.