Britain needs plan to tackle pollution

– Britain should introduce new, more ambitious legislation to tackle poor air quality after failing to deal with the problem, lawmakers said yesterday.

In a joint report, four parliamentary committees said air pollution was a national health emergency and the government has still not produced a plan which adequately addresses it.

Under the European Union’s Air Quality Directive, member states were supposed to comply with nitrogen dioxide emission limits in 2010 – or by 2015 if they delivered plans to deal with high levels of the gas, which is produced mainly by diesel engines.

The European Commission is reviewing whether to take legal action against nine member states, including Britain, for breaching the rules after they submitted plans to address the issue.

“The government’s latest plan does not present an effective response to the scale of the air quality catastrophe in the UK,” said Neil Parish, chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. “We are concerned that the government is treating air quality as a box-ticking exercise. Real change will require bold, meaningful action.”

Parish’s committee issued the report along with the parliamentary environmental audit, health and social care, and transport committees. –