The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Adina-Ioana VĂLEAN (EPP, RO) on the draft Council decision on the acceptance on behalf of the European Union of an Amendment to the 1999 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone.
The committee recommended that Parliament give its consent to the acceptance of an amendment of the protocol.
In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the report, it is recalled that the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, which entered into force in 1983, was the first legally binding international instrument created to control and reduce damage to human health and the environment caused by transboundary air pollution.
The Eighth Protocol to the Convention, the 1999 Protocol on the reduction of acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone (or the Gothenburg Protocol), sets emission ceilings for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia.
On 4 May 2012, the parties to the Gothenburg Protocol adopted a wide range of revisions, including more stringent emission reduction commitments for 2020.
The revised Protocol is also the first binding agreement to include emission reduction commitments for fine particulate matter. It now includes measures addressing short-lived climate pollutant black carbon (or soot). Reducing particulate matter is considered to be a major step in reducing air pollution.
The ratification of the amendments will be an important step towards a higher level of protection of human health and the environment from transboundary air pollution.