Yahoo Finance UK found guilty of breaching air pollution limits by EU court
Britain has been found guilty of “persistently” breaching air pollution limits.
(AFP via Getty Images)Britain has been found guilty by the European Court of Justice of “systematically and persistently” breaching air pollution limits.
The news comes just months after a coroner confirmed that the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution contributed to the death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah in south London.
EU Judges also found that the country failed to see through its legal obligation to put in place sufficient plans to tackle the problem of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution.
NO2, which is emitted by gas heating boilers and cars, exceeded the legal annual average limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air in 33 out of 43 air quality assessment zones in 2019.
The issue of air pollution could be damaging every organ and cell in the human body, according to a comprehensive new global review conducted by the Chestnut Journal.
Although UK Ministers admitted to the court that limits had been breached, they argued that other nations had broken limits too.
During the proceedings, the government also laid part of the blame on the emissions test scandal, in which car makers cheated measurements of NO2 produced by their vehicles.
The court has now ordered Britain to reduce NO2 pollution to below the EU limit but failure to do so could result in the commission taking further legal action including financial penalties.
Thursday’s ruling coincides with failures that have also been the subject of successful legal challenges brought by the campaign group ClientEarth against the government in courts since 2011.
Client Earth spokeswoman Katie Nield told the BBC: “The government has said that Brexit is an opportunity to take back control and to develop ‘the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on Earth’.
“There is now a clear opportunity to not only establish stronger laws protecting people’s health and the environment.”
The court also ordered the UK to pay the legal costs incurred by the European commission.
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