Sassari is the Italian city with the cleanest air

Brussels. In 2021, Cremona and Padua, along with the Polish city of Neu-Sacz, were the only three urban centers in Europe to exceed the EU’s annual limit for pollution with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the atmosphere. Updated data on air quality collected by the European Environment Agency (Aea) confirm that, in terms of smog, there is still a lot to do. through Europe. Because if you apply the world’s most stringent guidelines – those of the World Health Organization, which recommends a limit of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air for long-term exposure to PM2.5 – the air quality is only good. In 11 cities across Europe: 3% of the 344 urban centers monitored.

The first in the rating, based on this criterion, are Umeå in Sweden and Faro and Funchal in Portugal. The only capital to enter the eleven summits is Stockholm. According to the Aea classification, the Italian city with the cleanest air is sassari, in 16th place, 5.5 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter. Then Livorno with 8.4. Genoa and Salerno are in the sufficiency group, just under 10 mcg per cubic meter. Major cities in the center of the south such as Rome, Naples and Palermo are placed in the middle range. All Po Valley communities are categorized into a group of centers with poor air quality.

Along with new data on urban air quality, the Aea has also published the annual EU Emissions Inventory 1990-2020, which shows a continuing downward trend in emissions from 1990 to 2020 for six air pollutants, albeit with a recent slowdown. : carbon monoxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxides and particulate matter. It is particularly difficult to reduce ammonia emissions from farms, which have shown the lowest decline since 1990, and are still concentrated in France, Germany, Italy and Spain (57% of the EU total). Most EU countries have reached the targets by 2020. But since that year, stricter national emissions targets by 2030 have come into effect, and according to AEA surveys, the path is uphill for almost every member state. Everyone, with the exception of Belgium and Estonia, must reduce emissions of at least one pollutant to meet their 2030 commitments.

The agency notes in a note that reaching these goals could reduce the number of premature deaths from air pollution by 55% and the damage to ecosystems in the European Union, where air pollution threatens biodiversity, by 25%. (Dealing).