Air Pollution: Pollution Control
(asked on 2nd February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Answer to the Question from the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion at Prime Minister's Questions on 1 February 2023, Official Report, column 338, on what evidential basis he stated that the measures the Government is putting in place to improve air quality are world leading.
Emissions of key pollutants have fallen significantly since 2010, with nitrogen dioxide down by 44%, sulphur dioxide down by 70% and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) down 18%. But there is more to do.
The UK has a proud history of global leadership on air quality, from co-founding the UNECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution in 1979, to co-chairing the new Forum for International Co-operation on Air Pollution. We have used these fora to drive reductions in global transboundary air pollution, and to share our science and policy expertise.
Domestically we are taking world-leading action on air quality, including by:
- being the first G7 country to announce it will phase out the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and that from 2035, all new cars and vans must be zero emissions at the tailpipe. The Government has already spent over £2 billion to support the transition to zero emission vehicles.
- setting an innovative population exposure reduction target under the Environment Act 2021, which will, on average, reduce people’s exposure to PM2.5 by over a third by 2040 compared to 2018, supported by an expansion of the national monitoring network to add over 100 new PM2.5 monitors across England by the end of 2027;
- speeding up the deployment of clean and renewable technologies such as solar and wind – where the UK is already a world leader in offshore generation. The transition towards these forms of energy generation will have significant air quality co-benefits.
- continuing to deliver the measures set out in our Clean Air Strategy. We have built on these measures in our recently published Environmental Improvement Plan.