Our right to clean air: Taking stock and looking forward Dominic Phinn – Business Engagement Katie Nield - UK Clean Air Lawyer

The lifelong impacts of air pollution

Taking stock: the legal framework for action

Central government responsibilities… Directive 2008/50/EC Article 13 – sets limit values Article 23 – requires air quality plans to keep the period of exceedance “as short as possible” Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 …establish the Secretary of State as the responsible authority Pollutant Period Limit values (μg/m3) NO2 1 year 40 1 hour 200 (18x/year) PM10 24 hours 50 (35x/year) PM2.5 25

Air quality plans must… aim to achieve compliance as soon as possible; choose a route to compliance which reduces human exposure as quickly as possible; and ensure that compliance with the limit values is not just possible but likely. (per Garnham J, ClientEarth (No.2)

Cost can only be secondary to efficacy…. X “…I reject any suggestion that the state can have any regard to cost in fixing the target date for compliance or in determining the route by which the compliance can be achieved where one route produces results quicker than another. In those respects the determining consideration has to be the efficacy of the measure in question and not their cost” per Garnham J, ClientEarth (No.2)

Local Authorities play a part… Part IV, Environment Act 1995 LAs must review and assess air quality Where national standards and objectives are not met, LAs must …designate AQMAs …draw up “action plans” Pollutant Period Objective (μg/m3) NO2 1 year 40 1 hour 200 (18x/year) PM10 24 hours 50 (35x/year) PM2.5 25

Local authorities have been pushed centre stage… s85 Environment Act 1995 The SoS has the power require action from LAs “appropriate for the implementation” of the Directive Ministerial directions have been issued to 61 English LAs 2 Welsh LAs …requiring each to come up with its own proposals for local measures to reduce NO2 …but the Secretary of State remains ultimately responsible for ensuring that the air quality plans that result are up to scratch.

“the 5” “the 23” “the 33” Birmingham Leeds Southampton Derby Nottingham Basildon Borough Council Rochford District Council Bath and North East Somerset Council Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council Rushmoor Borough Council Salford City Council Bristol City Council Sheffield City Council Bury Metropolitan Borough Council Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council Coventry City Council Surrey Heath Borough Council Fareham Borough Council Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council Guildford Borough Council Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council Manchester City Council Middlesbrough Borough Council New Forest District Council Newcastle City Council North Tyneside Council Ashfield District Council Oxford City Council Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Peterborough City Council Plymouth City Council Blaby District Council Poole Borough Council Bolsover District Council Portsmouth City Council Bournemouth Borough Council Reading Borough Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council Broxbourne Borough Council Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council Burnley Borough Council Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council South Gloucestershire Council Cheltenham Borough Council South Tyneside Council Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Kirklees Council Stoke-on-Trent City Council Leicester City Council Sunderland City Council Liverpool City Council Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Walsall Council Oldham Council City of Wolverhampton Council 15 Sept 31 Dec 5 Oct

What we have seen so far Newcastle: ?Class D CAZ? Leeds: Class B CAZ Manchester: ?Class B/C CAZ? Sheffield: ?Class C CAZ? Derby: ??Traffic management?? …many yet to come Delays A bit of a mess London ULEZ Birmingham: Class D CAZ Bath: ?Class C CAZ? Southampton: !Class B CAZ!

Reasons to be cheerful? Reasons to be less than cheerful? Some CAZ commitments Delays Row-backs (Southampton and Bath) Lack of coherence Central government in- action

Is this working?

No2pe... NO2 Particulate Matter In 2010 - 40 out of 43 zones did not comply with legal limits In 2017 - 37 out of 43 reporting zones still don’t comply In 2016 - 44 UK cities exceeded the World Health Organisation guideline for PM2.5

Michael Gove SoSEFRA, 18 April 2018 What is going wrong? The LAQM in and of itself has proved ineffective Successive national air quality plans have been declared unlawful Trend of reliance on local measures/decision-making The Government "should not have been in a position where ClientEarth had to take us to court." Michael Gove SoSEFRA, 18 April 2018 Action is not coordinated. Silo-d. Planning and development control are filling the gaps [ref Shirley]

Legal limits for PM are too weak… Pollutant Period WHO guidelines (μg/m3) EU AAQ Directive limit values (μg/m3) PM10 1 year 20 40 24 hours 50 (not more than 3 x/year) 50 (not more than 35 x/year) PM2.5 10 25 25 (not more than 3 x/year) No limit value

Looking forward: new (and improved?) legislation

“The UK government will introduce new legislation outlining a strengthened, up to date legislative framework for tackling air pollution” Clean Air Strategy, Jan 2019 “We will introduce an environment Bill, and clean air will be part of that Bill” Theresa May, 18 July 2018

Working towards WHO guidelines “We will reduce PM2.5 concentrations across the UK, so that the number of people living in locations above the WHO guideline level of 10 μg/m3 is reduced by 50% by 2025. Clean Air Strategy, Jan 2019 Good to see, BUT What about the other half of the population? Policy commitments are not enough to ensure govt is accountable Stronger legally binding limits are needed to make cleaner air for all more than a “nice to have”

A more effective framework for action? “New legislation will create a stronger and more coherent framework for action to tackle air pollution” “This will include an up to date legislative framework for tackling air pollution at national and local level” Clean Air Strategy, Jan 2019 BUT, with rhetoric focusing on more local powers, do we risk running into an old acquaintance…? Mention net gain???

Filling the post-Brexit governance gap BUT this risks being more… than… “we will create a pioneering new system of green governance, establishing an Office for Environmental Protection, to ensure we succeed in leaving the environment in a better condition than we found it”

Any questions? www.clientearth.org