Press Release
GENEVA, 12 February (UN Information Service) -- Sulphur dioxide emissions had been considerably reduced due to several measures taken in Europe, particularly on the basis of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution prepared under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Executive Secretary Yves Berthelot said today. However, the situation concerning other pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds and persistent organic pollutants "is not so good", he said, adding that the problem had grown with the emergence of numerous new States in the region; transboundary air pollution now has to be fought by more actors.
Air pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds and persistent organic pollutants (POP) not only cause human diseases like pulmonary diseases, cancers and genetic degenerations, but have also often irreversible effects on flora and fauna, rivers and lakes.
The development of air pollution in the region of the ECE (Europe, including the Commonwealth of Independent States and North America) varies considerably. On average, sulphur dioxide emissions decreased from 82 million tons in 1980 to 61 million tons in 1993. This is a considerable progress, but achievements are quite uneven. Some countries such as Austria, Finland or Norway decreased their SO2 emissions by nearly 80 per cent, but during the same period others saw their pollution remaining unchanged or even increasing. This is the case in Portugal and Greece: Portugal's SO2 emissions increased from 266,000 tons annually to 300,000, and Greece's from 400,000 to nearly 550,000. France, where air pollution quite recently became a matter of high political interest, shows a comparatively good performance. Its sulphur dioxide emissions decreased by nearly two thirds within a period of 15 years.
Large sulphur dioxide polluters in the ECE region are the United States (about 20 million tons), Germany (3.7 million tons), Canada (3 million tons), the western part of Russia (3.8 million tons), Poland (2,7 million tons) and Ukraine (2.1 million tons). Prospects are rather encouraging. The European Union, for example, announces a total decrease of nearly two thirds of SO2 pollution between 1980 and 2000. In 2010, sulphur dioxide pollution in the United States will still be the highest in the ECE region with about 14 million tons.
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Developments are much less promising with regard to nitrogen oxides (NOx). In the region as a whole, NOx emissions did not vary much between 1980 (40 million tons) and 1993 (38 million tons/year). During the last 15 years most of the industrialized countries did not change the level of NOx emissions. Some countries such as the United Kingdom even increased NOx pollution from 2.3 million tons in 1980 to 2.7 in 1993. Figures are even more alarming with respect to the western regions of the Russian Federation, where they increased from 1.7 million to 2.3 million tons or by 35 per cent. Developments are not more encouraging in the west: Canada and the United States foresee an increase of NOx pollution between now and 2010.
The difference between both developments depend on the proportion of emission sources. While transport accounts for a rather small percentage (14.7 per cent in France) of sulphur dioxide emissions, where most of the pollution stems from heating and industry, it is the main source of nitrogen oxides (73.7 per cent in France).
The ECE has been addressing air pollution problems since 1979, when the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution was prepared under its auspices. Since then, five Protocols under the Convention were signed. They concern the reduction of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds emissions and the establishment of a region-wide monitoring system. This system, known as EMEP, comprises more than 100 stations all over Europe which monitor not only emissions of pollutants but also their transports and depositions. Highly developed system models trace the movements of pollutants and "forecast" pollution developments.
Those achievements regarding sulphur dioxide emissions are, in the first place, due to one of the Protocols, which called for a reduction of at least 30 per cent of transboundary fluxes of SO2 between 1985 and 1993. The 21 parties to the Protocol, taken together, surpassed this target considerably by decreasing their emissions by 48 per cent within 10 years. In comparison, the target of the 1988 Protocol on nitrogen oxide emissions appears less ambitious since it called for mere stabilization of emission at the level of 1987. Eighteen of the 25 parties reached this target. The main reasons for this success are the replacement of certain fuels, the desulphurization of some fuels and progress in technology. The economic recession also played a role in the decrease of air pollution.
On 19 February, the Executive Body of the Convention will start negotiations on one of the most urgent pollution problems: persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, aldrine, PCBs and dioxine. These pollutants have a detrimental effect on human health. Persistent organic pollutants can generate cancer and may damage the human reproduction system. They negatively affect the physical development, endocrine glands and immunity systems. A recent study by the United States Academy of Sciences shows that the pollutants are responsible for more than 20,000 cancers in the United States alone. Also the effects of those pollutants on male sexuality
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are increasingly proven. They may well account for the decrease of the sperm count by 42 per cent during the last 50 years. In particularly exposed communities, boys have been born without or with atrophic sexual organs and limited reproductive capacities.
The Executive Body, composed of experts from ECE member countries, will also prepare the second step to the nitrous oxide Protocol and a new protocol on heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, or mercury . "We certainly made some progress in combating air pollution", Mr. Berthelot emphasizes, "but we are still far from winning the war against this plague of our modern society. We cannot win without common effort, as pollution does not respect any border. It is a matter of all countries, East and West".
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