Big cities beset with gridlocked traffic, major regions producing coal, pockets of heavy industry encased by mountains -- Europe's air pollution hotspots are clearly visible from space on most sunny weekdays.

All across the continent, tens of millions of people live and work in areas where average air pollution levels are well above the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

But the density and type of pollutants can vary from town to town, and sometimes from block to block, depending on whether one is next to an expressway or inside an urban island of leafy green.

That variability makes it nearly impossible to say with accuracy which of Europe's cities have the most befouled air.

But it is possible to pick out hotspot regions, and rank urban areas by type of pollutant.

- Italy's Po Valley -

On maps prepared by the European Environment Agency (EEA), Italy's Po Valley is covered with a wide, stain-like blotch of air pollution from the Ligurian Sea in the west to the Adriatic, held in place by the towering Alps to the north.

Many cities in the valley have among Europe's highest concentrations of dangerous microscopic particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM2.5.

The WHO says these should not exceed, on average, 10 microgrammes per cubic metre of air (10 mcg/m3) per year.

European Union standards are more lenient at 25 mcg/m3, and still several countries regularly overstep this red line.

PM2.5 is a top cause of premature deaths in the EU, some 391,000 in 2016 -- 60,000 in Italy alone.

Turin and Milan, meanwhile, are also plagued by high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides, produced mainly by petrol- and diesel-burning engines.

According to the Air Quality Life Index, maintained by researchers at the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute, living in the Po Valley shaves half-a-year off one's life expectancy.

- Poland's coal country -

Another dark spot on Europe's pollution map is southern Poland, dense with coal-fired power plants and wood-burning.

For PM2.5, Krakow was the second most congested city on the continent in 2016, with an average annual concentration of 38 mcg/m3, just ahead of Katowice.

By comparison, some areas of northern India and China are plagued with concentrations three times higher.

EAA figures for 2016 also show that Krakow and Katowice exceed the recommended annual limits of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone.

Meeting WHO standards for small particle air pollution would add up to 1.5 years to people's lives in this region, the Air Quality Life Index shows.

- Big cities in general -

Virtually all major cities in Europe face seasonal pollution peaks or chronic air pollution due to non-electric road traffic.

According to Greenpeace, Sofia in Bulgaria boasted the highest levels of PM2.5 particulates in Europe in 2018, and placed 21st among all large cities in the world.

Close behind in the Greenpeace ranking -- confirmed by EAA figures for 2016 -- were Warsaw, Bucharest, Nicosia, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Paris and Vienna.

The high number of polluted cities in central Europe is directly linked to the continuing use of coal to generate electricity, experts say.

In western Europe, many cities have NO2 levels well in excess of EU-wide standards.

London tops the list, with an average annual concentration of 89 mcg/m3, followed by Paris (83), Stuttgart (82), Munich (80), Marseille (79), Lyon (71), Athens (70) and Rome (65).

- Southern Europe -

Even wind-swept southern Europe has not escaped high levels of air pollution, notably ozone, which is created by a chemical reaction -- triggered by sunlight -- between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds.

The highest levels are generally found along the Mediterranean in spring and summer, when hundreds of thousands of sun-seekers descend upon the region.

Five things the EU does for the environment
Brussels (AFP) March 31, 2019 - The European Union coordinates and directs environmental protection for its members, through the regulation of industry and the setting of green policy goals.

May's European parliamentary election will allow citizens to choose the members who wrangle with lobbyists, diplomats and Brussels technocrats to shape these key laws.

- Single-use plastic -

Having helped to drive disposable bags from supermarkets, the EU has taken on the drinking straws, earbuds and plastic cutlery cluttering the world's oceans.

Just last week MEPs in Strasbourg gave the go-ahead for bans from 2021 on a dozen forms of single-use plastic products, said to represent 70 percent of sea waste.

Member states will have to recycle up to 90 percent of plastic bottles by 2029 and the EU is strengthening the 'polluter pays' principle to support the cost of waste collection.

In July 2018, new rules came into force for recycling. By 2030, 70 percent of packaging and 60 percent of municipal waste will be recycled, with landfill limited to 10 percent.

- Cleaner air -

As a signatory to the Paris Agreement on behalf of the 28 member states, the EU has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

The effort to achieve this overall objective has been shared between members on the basis of their GDP, with each told to increase the share of renewables in its energy mix.

The EU must also reduce its energy consumption by about a third by 2030 -- compared to 1990 levels.

To achieve this, it has reformed construction laws and sought to improve the efficiency of household appliances.

The EU also sets emission standards for a number of gases, reducing for example sulphur oxide -- the cause of acid rain -- by 70 percent in under 20 years.

- Cleaner cars -

The Dieselgate scandal -- where German car giant Volkswagen admitted to fitting 11 million vehicles worldwide with a device aimed at cheating pollution tests -- showed the EU that its legislation on engine emissions, in this case nitrogen oxide from diesel engines, could be circumvented.

It has reviewed its emission measurement tests to reflect real driving conditions, not only for nitrogen oxide but also for CO2.

Europe has imposed limits on car manufacturers for new light vehicles since 2009 and new restrictions have just been decided for heavy goods vehicles.

The objective is to move away from combustion engines towards cleaner technologies, despite tough opposition from the automobile industry and members like Germany.

- Bee protection -

One of the recent major successes for green activists has been Europe's banning of three neonicotinoids in pesticides considered dangerous for bees.

In general, the EU is responsible for regulating the use of chemicals on its territory in order to protect both the environment and human health.

But the controversy around the renewal of the licence of glyphosate, a controversial but widely used herbicide, has shown the limits of the bloc's procedures.

The EU has promised to make the European Food Safety Agency more transparent and is pushing member states to do the same for their national procedures.

- Save the trees -

The European Union went to the European Court of Justice to condemn member state Poland, in April 2018, for felling trees in the ancient Bialowieza forest.

Warsaw had argued that the logging would control wood-eating insects, but the EU defines the forest as a protected site of biodiversity under its Natura 2000 programme.

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

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