Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 11 on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and SDG 3 on good health and well-being.

Among other things, SDG 11 aims to renew and plan cities and other human settlements so that they offer opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation, green public spaces and others, while improving resource use and reducing environmental impacts. SDG 3 aims to ensure health and well-being for all at all ages by improving reproductive, maternal and child health; ending the epidemics of major communicable diseases; reducing non-communicable and mental diseases. Considering the indicator, fine particulates' (PM2.5) — less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — health impacts are even more serious than PM10 because they can be drawn further into the lungs and may be more toxic.

Indicator can be considered as identical to global SDG indicator 11.6.2 "Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (e.g. PM2.5 and PM10) in cities (population weighted)".

The EU addresses the problem of air pollution through its specific air quality and industrial emissions legislation such as the Clean Air Package and the directives adopted by the Council and the European Parliament in relation to ambient air quality, as well as through co-benefits resulting from implementation of certain climate policies.  

In 2008, the Environment Council adopted Framework Directive 96/62/EC on ambient air quality assessment and management. The first Daughter Directive (1999/30/EC) relating to limit values for PM10 and other pollutants in ambient air fixed an annual limit value of 40 ug/m3, but did not fix limits for PM2.5. Annual reporting must follow Commission Decision 2004/224/EC of 20 February 2004 laying down arrangements for the submission of information under Council Directive 96/62/EC in relation to limit values for certain pollutants in ambient air.
A new air quality: Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe entered into force on 11 June 2008, including already limits for PM2.5. The Directive establishes the need to reduce pollution to levels which minimise harmful effects on human health, paying particular attention to sensitive populations, and the environment as a whole, to improve the monitoring and assessment of air quality including the deposition of pollutants and to provide information to the public. The directive places a requirement on Member States to assess and reduce population exposure to concentrations of PM2.5 by 2020. The magnitude of the required reduction depends on national average concentrations between 2009 and 2011. Where concentrations for those years were greater than 22 µg/m3, all appropriate measures should be used to reduce below 18 µg/m3 by 2020. It should be noted that the WHO guideline value is 10 µg/m3.

The indicator measures the population weighted annual mean concentration of particulate matter at urban background stations in agglomerations. Fine and coarse particulates (PM10), i.e. particulates whose diameters are less than 10 micrometers, can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and exacerbate the condition of people suffering heart and lung diseases.

Fine particulates (PM2.5) are those whose diameters are less than 2.5 micrometers. They are therefore a subset of the PM10 particles. Their deleterious health impacts are more serious than PM10 as they can be drawn further into the lungs and may be more toxic.

µg/m3
i. particulates <2.5µm
ii. particulates <10µm

Calendar year.

The data is measured and collected under the Air Quality Framework Directive. The directive determines rules for the measurements and ensures accuracy of the data. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

EEA (AirBase)

Data source: AirBase - The European air quality database

Data provider: European Environment Agency (EEA) assisted by the Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation (ETC/ACM), based on the annual submissions of Member States measured concentrations.

Every year

The indicator is updated annually.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within three years after the reference year.

> 75% EU MS and EU aggregate

Data are presented for all EU Member States except Malta; plus the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland

< 75% EU MS

Data comparability between EU Member States respectively other presented countries is limited due to Europe-wide differences regarding locations as well as classification of background stations and measuring methods. This has implications in terms of quality in the national monitoring station network. Therefore comparisons across countries are not straightforward.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table  sdg_11_50

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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