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EU to Re-Launch Air Quality Initiative with Changes |
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| BELGIUM: September 21, 2005 | ||
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BRUSSELS - The European Commission will relaunch a package of measures on Wednesday aimed at improving air quality after cutting anticipated annual costs by about 5 billion euros ($6.08 billion), according to EU officials.
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The measures, which include new proposals for legislation, are expected to cost 7.1 billion euros a year once they are fully implemented from 2020, one official said. That figure is down from previous cost estimates of 12 billion euros a year. Health benefits would be worth five or six times the costs -- as much as 45 billion euros annually -- said another official, who declined to be named ahead of the Commission's decision on the measures on Wednesday. In July, the Commission shelved the air quality plans along with six other initiatives on marine protection, waste, soil, pesticides, natural resources and urban environmental management to have a general debate on the environment. The air quality measures, which were criticised for being too costly, were then revamped to reduce the cost. An official said the changes slashed mainly environmental measures like reducing ozone pollution and kept in place the aspects that were more related to human health. The Commission says 370,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of poor air quality. The measures aim to bring that figure down to 230,000 by 2020. That represents a roughly 40 percent drop from levels in 2000. "This strategy basically tries to take all the sources that exist that compromise air quality and tries to set some limit values for 2020," one official said, adding the limits would affect sectors like transport, agriculture, and households, all of which would bear some of the related costs.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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