Recommendation 8

While emissions of most air pollutants have been falling in recent decades in the UK, poor air quality continues to cause damage to people’s health and the natural environment. The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants estimated that human-made air pollution in the UK has an effect equivalent to between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths each year. There are two types of air quality target in the UK—national emissions ceilings, which are breached if too much of one pollutant is emitted across the UK within a year, and local concentration limits, which are breached if the average level of a pollutant in a specific area is too high. Current targets cover pollution from ammonia, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, sulphur dioxide, and more.2