{"id":3046,"date":"2025-11-28T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T17:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pmten.it\/2025\/11\/updates-and-european-directives-on-air-quality\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:58:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:58:03","slug":"updates-and-european-directives-on-air-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pmten.it\/en\/news\/updates-and-european-directives-on-air-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates and European Directives on air quality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air quality<\/a> is one of the most crucial environmental factors for human health and ecosystem balance. Emissions of air pollutants have decreased over the past two decades, resulting in improved air quality. Between 2005 and 2022, the number of deaths in the EU attributable to PM2.5 fell by 45%, bringing the European Union closer to achieving the 55% reduction target set by the Zero pollution Action Plan<\/a> for 2030. Despite this improvement, air pollution remains the leading environmental risk to health in Europe, with millions of citizens exposed to levels of PM2.5, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide above the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organization<\/a>. For this reason, the European Union has played a central role for years in defining common policies aimed at reducing emissions and protecting the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article we analyze the European regulatory framework, the most recent updates to air quality directives, and the practical implications for Member States, businesses, and citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The European regulatory framework on air quality<\/mark><\/h2><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Since the 1980s, the European Union has introduced increasingly strict policies to protect air quality.\u00a0EU directives\u00a0<\/a>set reference values for twelve major air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO, NO\u2082, O\u2083, CO, Benzo(a)pyrene, SO\u2082, Pb, As, Cd, and Ni) and establish common procedures for monitoring, assessing, and communicating air quality data to the public. The European Commission has recently revised the ambient air quality directives, strengthening existing policies and aligning\u00a0EU air quality standards<\/a>\u00a0more closely with the latest scientific evidence and\u00a0WHO guidelines<\/a>. The new\u00a0Directive EU 2024\/2881<\/a>\u00a0on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe entered into force on December 10, 2024, and represents the most up-to-date reference text, replacing the previous directives on ambient air quality (2004\/107\/CE<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02008\/50\/CE<\/a>).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The most recent updates to European directives<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The revision of the European ambient air quality directives<\/a>, started in 2022 and ended in 2024, is part of the European Green Deal <\/a>strategy and aims to achieve the \u201czero pollution by 2050\u201d goal. The directive sets limit values, target values, obligations to reduce average exposure, exposure concentration objectives, critical levels, alert thresholds, information thresholds, and long-term objectives. The main innovations introduced by Directive EU 2024\/2881<\/a> are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n