European Commission

L I F E I I I

The air we breathe

LIFE and the European Union clean air policy

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Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004

ISBN 92-894-7899-3ISSN 1725-5619

© European Communities, 2004Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

European Commission

LIFE FOCUS / The air we breathe: LIFE and the European Union clean air policy

Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities

2004 — 32 p. — 21 x 28 cm

ISBN 92-894-7899-3

European CommissionEnvironment Directorate-General

LIFE Focus is the six-monthly journal of the LIFE III programme (2000-2004).

LIFE (“The Financial Instrument for the Environment”) is a programme that was launched by the European Commissionand is coordinated by the Environment Directorate-General (LIFE Unit - BU-9 02/1).

The content of LIFE FOCUS does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the institutions of the European Union.

Editorial Department: SOGES/AEIDL a/s Jean-Pierre Vercruysse - Managing Editor: Bruno Julien, European Commission,Environment DG, LIFE Unit - BU-9 02/1, 200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels - Journalism: Sophia Desillas - The followingpeople worked on this issue: Jean-Pierre Vercruysse, Michel Houssiau - Photos: LIFE projects, Philippe Meersseman/IEB -Production coordinator: Christine Charlier - Graphic design: Kaligram, Anita Cortés - This issue of LIFE FOCUS ispublished in English with a print-run of 3000 copies and is available online.

Europe Direct is a service to help you find answersto your questions about the European UnionNew freephone number: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11

Key policy and legislation on airquality in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . p.2

Responding to the challenge: Policy and legislation . . . . . . . . . . . p.3

LIFE-Environment’s contribution to air quality management and pollution prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . p.7

LIFE in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.9

Twelve examples of LIFE projects:

Blowing in the wind: Turbine blades without VOC emissions . . .p.10

A change of air: Cyclonic heatexchangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.12

High speed rotary carriers in the small plastics industry . . . . .p.13

Environmental sustainability through solvent and energy recovery technologies . . . . . . . . . .p.15

Eco-Explorer: Pollution levels on the road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.16

EuroBionet: Monitoring and assessing air quality . . . . . . . . . . .p.18

East Hungarian Biomonitoring Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.20

Monitoring atmospheric concentrations of benzene . . . . . .p.21

Immaculate perfection: Improving the urban environment . . . . . . . . .p.23

Dring-dring! The citizens of Brussels go Pro Velo . . . . . . . . .p.24

European Day “In town without my car” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.26

Putting a SMILE on Europe . . . . . .p.29

In the majority of countries in Western Europe, the last 30 years have seen a

significant improvement in air quality for a number of pollutants. Indeed,

the EC, the Members States and the local authorities together have been very

active particularly in recent years in finding and supporting ways to improve

the quality of the air we breathe. Furthermore, work in this area shows that

economic development does not necessarily have to lead to environmental

degradation.

However there is much more work to be done. The Sixth Environment Action

Programme, “Environment 2010: Our future, our choice”, includes Environ-

ment and Health as one of the four main target areas where we must

strengthen our efforts if we are to significantly reduce today’s unacceptable

levels of air pollution, which are putting our health and our environment at risk.

This is particularly the case for ozone and particulate matter, for which addi-

tional strong efforts are needed.

Moreover, strong partnerships, sharing of expertise and knowledge,

networking with technical experts and representatives of populations at

particular risk – such as children, expectant mothers and the elderly – are

critical to achieving success.

This brochure presents 12 examples of successful projects that illustrate how

the LIFE-Environment programme actively supports the targets set by the

Sixth Environment Action Programme. The articles highlighted here not only

contribute to the development of new technologies and solutions, they also

prove the value of information sharing and exchange. Finally they show that

we can all take active part in making our environment a healthier one.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 1

Peter Gammeltoft Head of Unit

European Commission,

Environment Directorate-General

Background

Since the late 1970s, the EU has beenworking to improve air quality by set-ting limit values for various pollutantsin the air, controlling emissions ofharmful substances into the atmos-phere, improving fuel quality and inte-grating environmental protectionrequirements into different sectorssuch as transport, energy or wasteincineration.

Despite these efforts, however, todaynearly 97% of European citizens livingin urban areas are exposed to air pollu-tion levels that exceed EU qualityobjectives for particulates, 44% forground-level ozone and 14% for NO21.

Road traffic is the main source ofthese and other air pollutants. Whilesubstantial progress has been madein reducing emissions from individualmotor vehicles – which has con-tributed to the decrease in urban con-centrations of particulate matter, NOxand other ozone precursors – thegrowing levels of motor traffic inurban areas are to some extent dimin-ishing this progress. The concentra-tion of particulate matter has stoppeddecreasing since 1999 and the con-centrations of ozone are now on therise. If nothing is done to reverse thetraffic growth trend, CO2 emissionsfrom transport can be expected toincrease by around 40% by 2010compared to 1990.

Yet, traffic is not the only source of airpollution in Europe. Several stationarysources contribute to the problem,including VOCs’ emissions from sev-eral industrial sectors, and emissionsfrom large and smaller combustionplants or from agriculture and othertransport modes such as ships andaircraft.

1 See CommunicationCOM(2004)60 “Towards a ThematicStrategy on the Urban Environment”

Key policy and legislation on air quality in EuropeNearly 97% of European citizens living in urban areas are exposed to pollution levels that exceed

EU limits. EC air quality policy and legislation are designed to help Member States meet the set

limits and create a safer environment for their citizens.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 3

In accordance with the obligations setout in the Aarhus Convention (1998)and the Directive on implementation ofthese obligations2, the European Com-mission has involved stakeholders inthe design of its environment legisla-tion on air pollution. Indeed, the Com-mission has a long-standing traditionof liaising with stakeholders (particu-larly industry and NGOs) when design-ing policy and legislation related to airquality.

Policy instruments:

> The Sixth Environment Action Programme, “Environment 2010:Our future, our choice”, includesEnvironment and Health as one ofthe four main target areas where arenewed effort is needed. Air pollu-tion is one of the priority issues, theobjective being “to achieve levels ofair quality that do not give rise tounacceptable impacts on, and risksto, human health and the environ-ment”. The focus in the comingyears will be to implement air qual-ity standards and coherency in allair legislation and related policy initiatives.

> The 2001 White Paper on EuropeanTransport Policy highlights thatEuropean transport policy hasreached a critical point where clean,well-functioning and less fossil-fuelbased urban transport systems areconsidered an indispensable condi-tion for achieving the Community’soverall objective of sustainablemobility in Europe. The TransportWhite Paper identifies two types ofCommunity activities in the field ofclean urban transport: supporting adiversified energy supply for trans-port and promoting good practice.

> The Commission’s Green Paper onthe security of energy supply sets anambitious target of 20% substitutionof diesel and gasoline fuels by alter-natives in the road transport sectorby the year 2020. In the follow upCommunication on alternative fuelsfor road transportation, an “opti-mistic development scenario” ispresented that builds upon threefuel types that potentially can reacha significant market share and whichalso present considerable advan-tages for the urban environment:biofuels, natural gas and hydrogen.In addition, measures have beentaken to support a broader marketintroduction of biofuels.

> The Commission supports thedevelopment of the trans-Europeantransport networks (TENS), whichhave a considerable impact on theinterfaces with urban areas. Forexample the TENS programmesupports the use of intelligent traffic management systems, thedevelopment of nodal points suchas airports and ports, most ofwhich are in or near urban areas,and the development of infrastruc-tures connecting major urban areasin Europe, in particular by rail andwaterways.

> The Thematic Strategy for theUrban Environment, which sup-ports the Sixth EnvironmentalAction Programme, focuses on fourthemes: sustainable urban man-agement, sustainable urban trans-port, sustainable construction andsustainable urban design. Thesethemes were identified in consulta-tion with the EU Expert Group onthe Urban Environment and otherstakeholders.

> The “Clean Air for Europe” (CAFE)programme, launched by the Euro-pean Commission in March 2001,provides technical analysis andpolicy development which will leadto the adoption of a thematic strat-egy on air pollution under the SixthEnvironmental Action Programmeby mid 2005. The major elements ofthe CAFE programme are outlinedin the Communication on CAFE(COM(2001)245). Its aim is todevelop long-term, strategic andintegrated policy advice to protectagainst significant negative effectsof air pollution on human health andthe environment. The integratedpolicy guidelines from the CAFEprogramme are expected to beready by the beginning of 2005. TheEuropean Commission will presentits Thematic Strategy on Air Pollu-tion during the first half year of2005, outlining the environmentalobjectives for air quality and meas-ures to be taken to achieve theseobjectives.

2 Directive 2003/35/EC of theEuropean Parliament and of theCouncil of 26 May 2003, providingfor public participation with respectto developing certain plans and programmes regarding the environ-ment, and amending CouncilDirectives 85/337/EEC and96/61/EC (OJ L 156 of 25.06.2003,p. 17) with regard to public partici-pation and access to justice. ThisDirective contains rules on publicparticipation in the preparation of anumber of environmental plans andprogrammes under Directives onwaste, air pollution and protection of waters against nitrate pollution.Member States are obliged to adopttheir laws and other provisions to comply with this Directive by 25 June 2005 at the latest.

Responding to the challenge: Policy and legislation at European level

Improving air quality in Europe requires a combination of policy measures,

legislation and partnership.

EU legislation

Another essential tool to createchange at European level is the EUlegislation on air pollution, whichcompels Member States to complywith Community efforts to improve airquality.

Directive 2001/81/EC of the EuropeanParliament and of the Council onNational Emission Ceilings for certainpollutants (NECs), the frameworkpiece of legislation in this area, setsupper limits for each Member State forthe total emissions in 2010 of the fourpollutants responsible for acidifica-tion, eutrophication and ground-levelozone pollution (SO2, NOx, VOCs andammonia).

Emission ceilings are designed tomeet interim objectives for acidifica-tion that have been agreed by Coun-cil and Parliament, and new objectivesfor ozone, in the most cost-effectiveway for the Communities as a whole.

The pollutants concerned are trans-ported in large quantities acrossnational boundaries. In general, indi-vidual Member States would not beable to meet the objectives set withintheir territory based on actions atnational level alone.

Based on the provisions of the Direc-tive, Member States are obliged toreport each year their national emis-sion inventories and projections for2010 to the European Commissionand the European EnvironmentAgency. They shall also draw upnational programmes to demonstratehow they are going to meet thenational emission ceilings by 2010.

The Directive calls for reviews in 2004and 2008.

- Air quality assessment and manage-ment

The Decision 97/101/EC "Exchange ofinformation and data on ambient airquality" aims to establish a Commu-nity-wide procedure for the exchangeof information and data on ambient airquality in the European Community. Itintroduces a reciprocal exchange ofinformation and data relating to thenetworks and stations set up in theMember States to measure air pollu-tion and the air quality measurementstaken by those stations. All data issent by the Member States to theCommission. The Commission thenmakes this information available to theMembers States and to the generalpublic through an information systemset up by the European EnvironmentAgency 3.

However, the key piece of EU legisla-tion for air quality assessment andmanagement is the Framework Direc-tive 96/62/EC. This Directive estab-lishes the basic principles of a com-mon strategy for setting limit valuesas well as for the assessment andmanagement of air quality throughoutthe EU.

In practice this Directive is imple-mented through Daughter Directives.At present there are three DaughterDirectives covering specific pollutants:sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, par-ticulates and lead (99/30/EC), carbonmonoxide and benzene (2000/69/EC)ozone (2002/3/EC). In addition, theCommission has prepared a proposalfor a fourth Directive that will cover theremaining pollutants listed in theFramework Directive i.e. arsenic, cad-mium, nickel, mercury and PAH(polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon).

- Emissions of air pollutants

Stationary sources, such as industry,combustion plants, incinerators andmobile sources, primarily road trans-port, are major emitters of air pollu-tants.

3 Council Decision 97/101/EC of 27January 1997, establishing a recip-rocal exchange of information anddata collected from networks andindividual stations measuring ambi-ent air pollution within the MemberStates (Official Journal L 296,21.11.1996).

Actions proposed for the thematicstrategy on sustainable urbantransport

Each capital city and every city andtown of over 100 000 inhabitantsshould develop, adopt, implementand update a sustainable urban trans-port plan, with short, medium andlong-term targets. All Member Stateswill be encouraged to:

• set out a clear framework policy onsustainable urban transport;

• evaluate the impacts of new urbantransport infrastructure projects onthe sustainability of the town’s trans-port system;

• closely follow the guidelines on theuse of structural funds;

• purchase cleaner and more efficientvehicles;

• support activities such as the Euro-pean car free day and mobility week.

Key pieces of legislation forstationary sources

The Directive 2001/80/EC fixes limitvalues on emissions of certain pollu-tants into the air from large combus-tion plants.

This Directive, which amends the 11-year old Directive for large com-bustion plants (Directive 88/609/EEC),proposes emission limit values forSO2 (sulphur dioxide), NOx (nitrogenoxides) and dust that are considerablystricter than those set in the previousDirective. It also encourages the com-bined generation of heat and powerand sets specific emission limit valuesfor the use of biomass as fuel. Furthermore, the scope now includesgas turbines to regulate NOx emis-sions as their use in electricity gen-eration is growing.

The Directive 2000/76/EC on wasteincineration covers the incineration ofhazardous (formerly Directive 94/67/EC) and non-hazardous (89/369/EECand 89/429/EEC waste. The newDirective will prevent or – where thisis not feasible – reduce as far as pos-sible the negative effects on the envi-ronment caused by the incinerationand co-incineration of waste. This willbe achieved by applying stringentoperational conditions and technicalrequirements and by setting up emis-sion limit values for waste incinerationand co-incineration plants within theCommunity.

Although the volume of waste inciner-ation is expected to increase acrossthe EU in the near future4, the Directivewill continue to help reduce signifi-cantly emissions of key pollutants,such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sul-phur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen chlo-ride (HCl) as well as for heavy metalsdioxins and furans.

Two other directives aim at prevent-ing or limiting emissions in the atmos-phere of volatile organic compounds(VOCs). These are Directive 94/63/EC,on the storage of petrol at terminalsand its subsequent distribution to ser-vice stations, and Directive 99/13/EC,

on the use of organic solvents in cer-tain activities and installations. Lastly,the recently approved Directive onsolvent contents of deco paints willassist in the reduction of VOC emis-sions from this product (Directive2004/42).

Directive 1999/32/EC on the reductionof sulphur content of certain liquidfuels aims to decrease the emissionsof sulphur dioxide resulting from thecombustion of certain types of liquidfuels and thereby reduce the harmfuleffects of such emissions on man andthe environment. These reductions inemissions of sulphur dioxide will beachieved by imposing limits on thesulphur content resulting from thecombustion of certain types of liquidfuels as a condition for their use withinthe territory of the Member States.

Under stationary source emissions, it is also necessary to include otherimportant sources of pollution such asdiffuse pollution from agriculture (a major emitter of methane, nitrousoxide and ammonia), and from smallercombustion sources for which addi-tional efforts will be necessary in thecoming years.

Industrial plants are covered by theIPPC Directive (96/61/EC), which pro-hibits new plants and factories to rununless they adhere to stringent pro-duction standards, thus encouragingindustry to avoid or reduce pollutingemissions as much as possible byadhering to the "Best Available Tech-niques" (BAT) as defined by each sec-tor. All industrial plants covered by thisDirective are required to obtain a per-mit to operate from the authorities inthe EU countries. These permits mustbe based on the concept of BAT.Under this umbrella, access to infor-mation is in practice carried out viaDecision 2000/479/EC, which calls fora European Pollutant Emission regis-ter for air and water from large andmedium-sized industrial facilities inEurope 5.

4 See LIFE Focus / "A cleaner,greener Europe: LIFE and theEuropean waste policy", DG Environment, EuropeanCommission 2004.

5 See "Industrial pollution, Europeansolutions: Clean technologies" , DG Environment, EuropeanCommission, 2003.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 5

Key pieces of legislation andinitiatives for mobile sources

Motor vehicle emissions are regulatedby Directive 70/220/EEC (light vehi-cles) and 88/77/EC (heavy vehicles)and amendments to these directives.A series of amendments have beenissued to tighten the limit values.Emissions per vehicle are falling con-siderably because of this, but thetransport sector remains one of themain contributors to air pollutionbecause of the constant increase oftraffic volumes. The implementation ofthe Auto-Oil Programme will result in anotable improvement of air quality inour cities. The programme focuses onthe emissions of carbon monoxide(CO), Volatile Organic Compounds(VOC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and par-ticles. It also calls for stricter limit val-ues to be set for light vehicles in 2005(Directive 98/69/EC) and for heavyduty vehicles between 2005-2008(Directive 99/96/EC).

In addition, legislation has been imple-mented on the use of on-board diag-nostic systems (OBD) which will alertvehicle owners if the emissions of thevehicle are too high and a light on theinstrument panel will indicate whenthere is a need to repair the vehicle.

For existing vehicles, there is also legislation on periodic inspectionsduring which the vehicle owner’smaintenance of the vehicle is checked(Directive 96/96/EC).

To reduce emissions during shorttrips, when the catalytic converter isless effective, and driving during win-ter, a separate requirement on "coldstart emissions" was introduced. Thispart of the legislation is of particularimportance for city driving where theaverage trip is normally very short.

By amending Directive 1999/24/EC,emission levels for motorcycles will belowered as well. The current legisla-tion will be tightened in 2004, andagain as of 2006. This Directive alsoapplies to emissions from mopeds.

Directive 98/70/EC, amended byDirective 2003/17/EC contains envi-ronmental fuel quality specificationsfor petrol and diesel fuels in the Com-munity with a primary focus on sul-phur, and for petrol on lead and aro-matics. There are three distinctspecifications. The first entered intoeffect on 1 January 2000; the secondwill enter into force on 1 January 2005(it sets limits for the sulphur content ofpetrol and diesel (50 ppm) and thearomatics content of petrol (35% byvolume)); the third (as amended byDirective 2003/17/EC), which will alsoenter into force on 1 January 2005,requires phasing in diesel and petrolwith a sulfur content of 10 ppm. Inaddition, as of 1 January 2002, allpetrol sold in the Member States isunleaded.

Transport is today fuelled to a largeextent by oil. This situation has impli-cations for energy policy, but is also ofparticular relevance from an environ-mental perspective, notably in view ofclimate change. Developments havebeen made in the domain of alterna-tive fuels in general and on biofuelsspecifically. The long-term vision ofhydrogen as an energy carrier is beingpursued following the work of a high-level group on hydrogen and fuel cells.

Additional initiatives are expected inthe coming years to reduce emissionsfrom other forms of transport, such asships and aircraft.

Road traffic is the main source of air pollution today.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 7

Following “Waste” and “Water”, “Air”has been a main topic of investment forLIFE-Environment. As Table 1 shows,interest in this theme as been on therise (by around 19%) since 1995. From1992-2003, 185 projects out of a totalof 1 298 (14%) focused on air qualityprotection.

As Table 2 illustrates, Northern countrieshave been more actively involved asproject leaders; in Austria, Germany, TheNetherlands, Romania and Slovenia,more than 20% of LIFE projects focusedon air policy. Although Slovenia’s num-ber is not representative, it is interestingto note that it has invested primarily in“air” projects, with literally 2 projects outof 3 developed on this topic.

Apart from the beneficiaries who actu-ally lead the projects, there are manypartners all over Europe that collabor-ate on the implementation of theseLIFE projects.

Budget by sector

The total budget planned for air pro-tection (some projects are ongoing) isMEUR 297, with a total EU contribu-tion of MEUR 80. Air managementremains a concern that is more fre-quently addressed by public authori-ties. One reason for this is that whileair pollution has less visual impact, itinvolves more technical issues and haslong-term impacts on health and theenvironment.

Globally, the more costly projects fallunder the themes of energy, industryand waste.

LIFE-Environment’s contribution to air quality management and pollution prevention

The LIFE programme supports the implementation of policy and legislation on air quality

by co-financing innovative projects that explore ways to facilitate their implementation and

enforcement in all countries throughout the Union.

Year Air projects Total LIFE projects Percentage

1992 2 67 3%

1993 7 99 7%

1994 22 160 14%

1995 25 134 19%

1996 16 104 15%

1997 18 116 16%

1998 21 120 18%

1999 29 158 18%

2000 15 117 13%

2002 19 114 17%

2003 11 109 10%

185 1 298 14%

Country Air projects Total LIFE projects Percentage

AT 8 36 22%

BE 8 65 12%

DE 37 144 25%

DK 7 37 19%

EE 0 6 0%

ES 13 167 8%

FI 2 43 5%

FR 13 132 10%

GR 7 87 8%

HU 1 10 10%

IR 3 33 9%

IT 23 193 12%

LU 0 5 0%

LV 0 6 0%

NL 30 102 29%

PT 5 59 8%

RO 3 12 25%

SE 4 43 9%

SK 0 1 0%

SI 2 3 67%

UK 19 114 17%

TOTAL 185 1 298 14%

Table 1. Share of LIFE-Environment projects on air quality

Table 2. Geographical breakdown: Beneficiaries and partners

Project themes

Most projects fall into to 2 main sec-tors: industry and transport; 44% ofthe projects target emissions reduc-tion, particularly in the two above sec-tors. Surprisingly, only one projectdeals with in-door air pollution.

Industry

Industrial projects are mainly techno-logical. All kind of industries areinvolved (electronics, textile and cloth-ing industry, printing industry, woodproducts…). Forty-four projects con-cern reduction or elimination of VOCs(and more specifically solvents). Four-teen deal with surface treatment prod-ucts (coating, lacquer, varnish…).

Transport

Most of these projects (20) are meth-ods oriented, focusing on transportplanning linked to urban design orland-use planning; others focus ontraffic monitoring and control. Intransport, the second highest numberof projects (12) are on awareness-rais-ing, in the form of public awarenesscampaigns to encourage people toshift from the use of private cars tocycling or public transport. Theseprojects often apply an integratedapproach to the traffic problems theyaddress.

General

Thirteen per cent of the projects focuson methods and tools for air qualitymanagement, such as pollution levelmeasurement and impact assess-ment. From 1992-2003 several moni-toring systems were developed withinLIFE-Environment.

Energy

New technologies for energy savings oralternative fuels are the main focus inthis sector. Methods include monitoringvehicles emissions and emissions trad-ing. Awareness-raising projects applymainly to the construction sector(energy saving and green building).

Waste

These projects are technological andmainly concern the treatment of incin-erator or landfill gases.

Agriculture

Few air projects relate to the agricul-ture sector. These are mainly techno-logical projects.

Land-use and planning

These projects develop methodo-logies on diverse topics driven by climate protection related issues.

Three types of projects withdifferent aims

In general, LIFE-Environment hasfunded three main types of projects:technological development, creationof methods and tools, and awareness-raising projects. These three types ofprojects are complementary and areall needed to achieve the main aim ofthe Sixth Environment Action Pro-gramme: “make the future our choice”.

1. Technological development: Theseprojects aim to reduce emissions,eliminate pollutants or improve ind-ustrial processes in terms of theirenvironmental impact; many pro-jects focus on VOCs and especiallyon solvents. They bring innovation

in specific industrial sectors and tendto be "win-win" types of projects:they reduce the impacts of a spec-ific industry on the environment,whilst increasing the competitivity ofthe enterprises undertaking them.

2. Development of methodologiesand tools: These projects are moreoriented towards decision-makers.By providing better tools for as-sessing the likely impact of a policyon the environment, they contributeto better governance. Related to airquality, they aim primarily to meas-ure and monitor air-quality/pollutionor to improve land-use planning,mainly in urban areas.

3. Awareness-raising projects: theseprojects aim to promote changes inconsumer patterns and citizens’ be-haviour, mainly in the fields of trans-port and energy. They contribute toencouraging a more responsible civicattitude.

Technologies 65 35%

Methods and tools 104 56%

Awareness-raising 17 9 %

Theme N° of Total EU Averageprojects budget* contribution* budget*

Industry 84 161 400 935,27 34 066 764,64 1 921 439,71

Transport 38 54 692 553,64 17 950 351,29 1 439 277,73

General 24 25 721 739,64 10 517 733,64 1 071 739,15

Energy 13 25 499 715,65 6 865 437,24 1 961 516,59

Waste 8 14 176 062,48 4 177 471,78 1 772 007,81

Agriculture 10 9 440 108,28 3 330 554,38 944 010,83

Land-use 8 5 990 442,77 2 725 733,38 748 805,35and planning

185 296 921 557,73 79 634 046,35 1 604 981,40

Table 3. Budget by sector *In EUR

Table 4: Break-down of air projectsaccording to type of project

One of the key roles of LIFE is to sup-port innovative initiatives that aim tofacilitate the effective implementationand enforcement of environmentallegislation in all EU countries. Thisbrochure presents a selection of 12ground-breaking projects that offereconomically viable, sustainable andtransferable solutions.

In the field of technologicaldevelopments:

> In Denmark, a world-wide companythat produces wind turbine bladesused a LIFE-Environment grant todevelop a new moulding technique,which reduces the emission ofstyrene into the atmosphere by 95%.

> Air Eco Concept, an SME in France,developed an innovative solution to reduce ambient air pollution produced by high-speed rotaryequipment, and to protect equip-ment operators from the inherentoccupational health risks.

> A German SME in the plastics ind-ustry developed a cost-effective newtechnology that reduces industrialover-spray, solvent emissions andpaint sludge.

> In Ireland, a major multinationalchemicals’ company has managedto reduce its overall impact on the en-vironment while improving its com-petitivity by reducing its productioncosts.

In the field of methodologies and tools:

> An SME in Venice brought togethera team of dedicated, eco-consciousenvironmental experts to develop anaccurate and cost-effective roamingurban pollution monitoring device.

> A university in Germany created astandardised system to monitor airpollution using bioindicator plants.This system can be tailored to thespecific conditions in all citiesthroughout the EU.

> Inspired by the former project, theEast Hungarian Biomonitoring Net-work is helping national and localgovernment decision-makers andcitizens to take active part in im-proving air quality in the region.

> In Italy, an institute for care and sci-entific research designed a systemto monitor benzene exposure levelsin the urban population. This systemwas used in six European cities.

> In Greece, the Centre for Researchand Technology/Hellenic Institute forTransport is designing and promot-ing innovative means of alternativetransport.

In the field of awareness-raising:

> In Brussels, a non-profit organisa-tion is transforming the city’s trans-portation culture into a bicycle-friendly one.

> The French Ministry of the Environ-ment and the Environment and Energy Management Agency suc-ceeded in doing what no one thoughtcould be done: they convinced thou-sands of city dwellers in Europe andbeyond to give up their cars for oneday each year.

> Following on the success of the “European Day in Town without mycar”, the French Energy Manage-ment Agency has developed an ex-haustive catalogue of mobilityrecipes for success, so that all citiesthroughout Europe can join the mo-bility movement.

To learn more about the different LIFEprojects dealing with air-relatedissues, please consult the LIFE web-site at:http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/project/index.htm

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 9

LIFE in action: How the LIFE programme supports Community clean air policy

This brochure presents a selection of 12 projects, which illustrate the exciting work being done to

reach the European Union targets for clean air.

The EuroBionet project in Germanycreated a standardised system

to monitor air pollution using bioindicator plants.

Wind power, one of the renewablesources of energy, has seen a tremen-dous growth over the last few years.Indeed, it is expected that by 2010 itwill contribute 50% to the increaseneeded to achieve the renewableenergy electricity consumption targetof on average 21% across the EU 25Member States. Notably, the Euro-pean wind industry has 90% of the world equipment market, with Denmark, Germany and Spain con-tributing 84% of the total EU15 windpower capacity.

LM Glasfiber, an international com-pany which originated in Denmark,has become the market's leadingsupplier of blades for wind turbinesand claims to be the preferred global

business partner for wind turbinemanufacturers and end-users. It hasrecently achieved a major break-through with the production of bladesthat are 61.5 meters long and weigh17.7 tonnes.

However, during LM Glasfiber's rotorblade production system, the glassfibre is laid out by hand and the poly-ester is rolled manually in the lami-nates. Due to the size of the bladesand to their odd shapes, the produc-tion is extremely difficult to automate.This means that during production,workers are exposed to styrenesteam, which is released from the lam-inate. Breathing protection devicesand a sound exhaust system aretherefore an absolute necessity.

If the process was confined to aclosed mould and was partly auto-mated so that the present manualrolling work could be eliminated, theworking environment would be signif-icantly improved and the emission ofthe organic solvent styrene into theatmosphere would be reduced to aminimum. The new technique devel-oped by the LIFE project aimed toreduce the styrene steam to about 5%of that released during the oldprocess. Full implementation of thenew technique was expected to leadto an annual reduction in styreneemissions of some 90 tonnes.

Blowing in the wind: Producing wind turbine blades withoutVOC emissions

A world-wide company that produces wind turbine blades used a LIFE-Environment grant to

develop a new moulding technique, which reduces the emission of styrene into the atmosphere

by 95%.

LIFE-Environment project in Denmark

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LM Glasfiber produces the longestwind turbine blades in the busines:61.5 meters.

The project also sought to test a newlydeveloped production method basedon a vacuum technique. This tech-nique had not previously been usedon items as large and with such com-plicated geometric shapes as windblades. The expected result was thatthe project would show that in future,wind turbine blades could be pro-duced using the vacuum technique.

This would result in a better qualityblades and lower production costs, andin turn would lead to an increase in theproduction of wind energy. The newtechnique was also expected to havepotential applications in other parts ofthe European fibreglass industry.

The principle of the new technique isthat the glass fibre is placed in themould, a plastic sheet is placed overit and then all the air is sucked out,leaving the glass fibre in a vacuum.The polyester is sucked into the glassfibre through tubes and is then hard-ened. The whole process goes on in aclosed mould without any evaporationof styrene. When the plastic sheet isremoved from the hardened polyesterthere is an insignificant evaporationfrom the hardened glass fibre.

This project showed that vacuum infu-sion technology is a step in the rightdirection when producing fibre rein-forced polyester. After three years anda lot of experience, the project came tothe conclusion that vacuum infusiontechnology is a complicated processwhich demands high accuracy, partic-ularly during the process when thefibreglass and the “sandwich” materialsare placed in the moulds. This requiresskilled workers, perfect raw materials,good design and preparation.

The implementation of the vacuuminfusion technology demands quite alarge investment in durable equipmentand its competitive advantagedepends on the geometric shape ofthe products and the demand forweight and strength, for example. Butall things considered, vacuum infusiontechnology is now a realistic option inthe choice of production methods.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 11

Reference: LIFE97 ENV/DK/000338Total eligible cost: EUR 2 035 781.34LIFE contribution: EUR 541 731.87 Beneficiary: LM Glasfiber A/S

Contact: Kurt Due RasmussenTel.: +45 7558 5122 E-mail: kdr@lm.dkWebsite: http://www.lm.dk

An innovative partially automated system reduces the release of pollutants into the air.

Lab technician tests new productionmethods.

Reaching new heights in wind turbineblade production.

LM Glasfiber's factories in Denmarkand The Netherlands are nowequipped with the technology, and itis envisaged that the technique will be transferred to other company factories.

Rotary high-speed equipment, such aslathes, milling and grinding machines,require the use of lubricants in the formof oil or emulsion. While these machinesare at work, the rotation and overheatingof the machinery disperses the lubricantsinto the air in the form of microdropletsand vapour, creating an oily mist.

This oil mist is present in the ambientair of the workshops where thesemachines are used and can be inhaled,thus posing a health risk to the machin-ery operators and other on site staff.

Oil mists also damage the environmentby causing pollution in the form ofhydrocarbons when they are emitteddirectly into the atmosphere, or duringthe washing of floors and machinesafter the dispersed oil has settled.

As part of the campaign against air pol-lution from hydrocarbons, and underthe framework of ISO 14000, the goalof this project was to develop a newprocess for the treatment of oil mistfrom industrial emissions.

The strategy of Air Eco Concept was todevelop an industrial prototype thermalcyclonic exchanger to transform the oil mist into a recyclable substance.

The prototype would be tested onselected industrial sites. The expectedresults were to achieve:

> a high performance oil mist treatmentprocess

> a reduction of waste produced in thetreatment process, by collecting themist and transforming it into an oilconcentrate that could be recycled

> a reduction in secondary impacts onthe environment, i.e. dispersing the hy-drocarbons into the air when wash-ing the floors, equipment and othersurfaces

The innovative nature of the processdeveloped by Air Eco lay in the devel-opment of a high performance treat-ment for oil mists and the reduction ofwaste to an oil concentrate. Thisprocess would not require a lot ofmaintenance. The oil concentratecould in some cases be filtered andrecycled, and in other cases be sentto waste treatment plants in a con-centrated form.

In tests, the prototypes were used totreat five similar machine tools on onetest site. Results revealed that the con-centration of oil mists in the ambient airdecreased to a value of between 0.05

and 0.09 mg/m3, which corresponds toa minimum of 10 times less than therecommended limit value of 1 mg/m3.The quantity of emulsion recovered bythe process was on average 3 l/h perexchanger, for an air flow rate of 500 m3/h. This represents around 130 m3/year of recovered cutting fluidfor all five treated machines.

The positive effects of the process inthe workspace atmosphere and nearbyenvironment were clearly visible: therewas a reduction of oily film on the worksurfaces and floor, and there was anoticeable reduction of emissions intothe atmosphere. In addition, theprocess is clean and facilitates therecovery of condensates, thus theproblem of clogged filters – which arenormally treated by incineration – wasavoided.

After one year in operation, the proto-types were opened. The inside wallsand the cooling coils were free of layers of dust and oil. This proved thatthe evacuation of condensation andcondensates had been effective.

Based on the success of these results,a commercial version of the process,called AIREC'OIL, is now available.

A change of air: Cyclonic heat exchangers for industrial oil misttreatment

Air Eco Concept, an SME in France, developed an innovative solution to reduce ambient air

pollution produced by high-speed rotary equipment, and to protect equipment operators from

the inherent occupational health risks.

LIFE-Environment project in France

Reference: LIFE98 ENV/F/000298Total eligible cost: EUR 456 049.68 LIFE contribution: EUR 128 347.36Beneficiary: Air Eco Concept (AEC)

Contact: Jean-Charles Weber Tel.: +33/3/83.46.92.64E-mail: aec.aireco@wanadoo.frWebsite: http://www.aireco.fr/Page/PagesGB/OILGB/CadreGBOIL.html

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 13

FENNEL GmbH, an international company founded in 1981, is a massproducer of injection-moulded plasticcomponents for the furniture industry.In this sector, most of the small plas-tic components produced need to bepainted. FENNEL GmbH is alsoresponsible for this last step, aptlycalled the finishing treatment, andpaints some 20 million items per year.

State of the art painting processesinvolve the use of spraying. However,in this process, a far greater quantityof paint is used than is actuallyrequired to coat the parts. This over-spray factor fluctuates between100%-150% and in some cases caneven be as high as 200%. This resultsin a waste of resources; moreover, dis-posal sites are over-burdened withunnecessary quantities of left-over

paint sludge. In applications where theuse of paints containing solvents can-not be avoided, this also results in theemission of unnecessary amounts of solvents. Indeed, as a result ofneedless over-spray, approximately 259 000 to 280 000 tonnes of solventswere emitted in Europe in 1995.

There are various approaches andprocesses currently in use, which areconsidered state-of-the-art in terms ofreducing the percentage of over-spray. However, these approachescannot be applied to small, geometri-cally complex plastic components.Funding from LIFE provided FENNELwith the means to develop a newtechnology tailored to the intricaciesof painting these small plastic com-ponents and set up a test plant tomeasure its effectiveness.

The innovative nature of the technol-ogy developed for this project lay inthe idea of not only painting the plas-tic pieces while they passed the sprayguns but to simultaneously rotatethem at high speed in such a way thatthe pieces would catch the paint par-ticles from the air.

On the basis of this idea, cylindricalcarriers were developed to which theplastic pieces were attached. Thesecarriers were then rotated inside aspray jet. The arm of the paintingrobot travelled in a vertical direction atthe same time. The piece to bepainted would rotate at high speedsthrough the paint mist. Thus, the plas-tic pieces and all the undercuts couldalso be reached and pick up a greaterquantity of the paint sprayed. Due tothe large number of parts to be

High speed rotary carriers reduce paint consumption and solvent emissions in the small plastics industry

An SME in the plastics industry developed a cost-effective new technology that reduces industrial

over-spray, solvent emissions and paint sludge.

LIFE-Environment project in Germany

painted, FENNEL developed the newtechnology so that it would run con-tinuously.

At rotation speeds of 100-200 rota-tions per minute, depending on thegeometry of the parts, it was possibleto reduce the over-spray by 55%. Following these very promising labor-atory trials, the next step was to verify the results and demonstrate the technical and economic feasibilityunder industrial manufacturing condi-tions.

As with the laboratory tests, it waspossible to save 55% of the over-spray using the new technology.Therefore, using this technology topaint 20 million individual pieces peryear with 60 000 kg of paint, it waspossible to save up to 19 800 kg ofpaint and 16 830 kg of solvents. Thisalso led to a significant reduction in the amount of paint sludge to bedisposed.

The new technology also proved cost-effective: at an average paint price ofabout EUR 16/kg, using it amountedto a savings of about EUR 315 000 peryear. The lower disposal costs of thepaint sludge also resulted in consider-able savings: considering averagedisposal costs of EUR 0.13 /kg, this

meant a further savings of EUR 1 900per year, assuming a sludge reductionof 2 970 kg.

Apart from the savings in rawmaterials and disposal costs, the newplant also achieved a higher output ofpainted components as comparedwith conventional plants.

Finally, similar problems are found inalmost all production processes in thefurniture industry, for painting lamps,decorative articles, toys and cell-phones for example. Thus there isscope to apply this method on a widerscale. A “win-win” proposition for theenvironment and manufacturers alike.

Reference: LIFE99 ENV/D/000434Total eligible cost: EUR 2 750 146.49 LIFE contribution: EUR 506 769.86Beneficiary: FENNEL GmbH

Contact: Andreas Riebe Tel.: +49(0)5734/661-1429 E-mail: ariebe@fennel.deWebsite: http://www.fennel.de

FENNEL GmbH’s new painting technology works effectively on smallcomplex components, such as cellular phones.

FENNEL's technology is now the preferred finishing method for partsmade from high-performance plastics,the fastest growing market in Europe.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 15

The multinational chemicals company,Cognis Ireland Ltd (formerly known asHenkel), has a site in Cork, Irelandwhich manufactures LIX® Reagent, aproduct used to extract copper fromcopper ore.

Cognis Ireland is known for its positiveenvironmental record. The company’senvironmental philosophy is to elimi-nate potential problems at the source,and a significant part of the efforts inresearch and development is directedtowards developing safer and cleanerprocesses. In their experience, suchinvestment in environmentally sustain-able technologies actually savesmoney in the long run, and proovesthat environmentally sound processescan also be cost-effective.

The Cognis LIX® manufacturingprocess involves the use of largequantities of toluene (16 000 tonnesper annum) as the reaction solvent.During the process, methanol andmethyl formate are generated as impu-rities, which remain in the toluene, ren-dering it unfit for reuse without pre-treatment. This pre-treatment istraditionally achieved by washing thetoluene, with water at 45-50ºC in astatic mixer to reduce the impurity lev-els to an acceptable level for recycling;the wash water is then processed inthe biological treatment plant.

As a consequence of the treatmentprocess for this stream up to 1 500tonnes of solids are sent to the landfill,and 700 tonnes of COD (Chemical Oxy-gen Demand) are generated for treat-ment in the waste treatment plant. Com-bined with the fact that the wash water(up to 17 000M3) is heated to 45-50ºC(equivalent to 386.2 x 106 kJ of energy),the treatment process generates a sig-nificant impact on the environment.

This project sought to replace the exist-ing flashed toluene wash system with asolvent purification distillation step.While solvent distillation is not in itselfunique, the use of the resulting distillateas part of fuel requirements on-site is. A skid mounted distillation plant wasrequired to strip such reaction by-prod-ucts from the toluene stream.

The system has been in full operationsince October 2001. It has delivered onall design parameters and significantreductions in COD and hydraulic loadto the waste treatment plant have beenobserved. The overall results achievedby the project in terms of reduced pol-lution were as follows:

The benefit to the environment as adirect result of this project is signifi-cant, and in many cases greater thanoriginally anticipated. The toluenerecovered can be used as an alterna-tive fuel for the energy requirement ofthe plant. The cost savings have beenestimated at EUR 613.000/an.

This is a valuable illustration of inte-grated pollution control in the chemi-cal industry and its results are beingwidely disseminated. As such it ishoped that the project will have a sig-nificant impact on policy within theindustry by encouraging other compa-nies/industries in Ireland and acrossthe EU to adopt cleaner technologiesin their manufacturing operations.

The project has also demonstrated thecost/benefit advantages of cleanertechnologies, which should demon-strate to the wider EU chemicals industry that it is possible to adopt environmental improvements whileenhancing industrial competitiveness.

The results speak for themselves: inSeptember 2003, Cognis received anational award for the Management ofWaste from the Irish Business Employ-ers Confederation (IBEC) for their workon this project. The project has sincebeen short-listed as a finalist for theEuropean Awards for the Environment2004 in the category Process Award forSustainable Development.

LIFE-Environment project in Ireland

Environmental sustainability through solvent and energy recovery technologies

In Ireland, a major multinational chemicals company has reduced its overall impact on

the environment while improving its competitivity by decreasing production costs.

Reference: LIFE99 ENV/IRL/000605Total eligible cost: EUR 1 884 084.34 LIFE contribution: EUR 468 090.34 Beneficiary: Cognis Ireland Ltd

Contact: Frank Mc DonnellTel.: +353(0)214517100E-mail: frank.mcdonnell@cognis.comWebsite: http://www.cognis.com/cognis/mining/mid/about/pdfs/wastewater.pdf

Environmental Target Resultsbenefit reduction achieved(Annual reduction)

to landfill 700 000 Kg 665 000 Kg

to effluent 350 000 Kg 605 000 Kg

in water usage 1 320 m3 16 128 m3

in energy usage 193x106 kJ 1685 x 106 kJ

in solvent 50 000 Kg 40 158 Kgemissions

European and national laws requirelocal authorities to monitor urban(atmospheric, acoustic and electro-magnetic) pollution. Fixed monitoringstations make it possible for the localauthorities to comply with the obliga-tion to monitor atmospheric emis-sions. However this system is not adequate for the surveillance of noiseor electromagnetic pollution. Further-more, fixed monitoring stations arecostly, thus few of them are in use.Moreover, they are not sufficiently dis-tributed throughout cities to be ableto provide data on the pollution distri-bution and concentration with highspatial resolution. To compensate forthe uneven information gleaned withfixed monitoring stations, nationalauthorities must carry out periodic

surveys to check more precisely thepollution situation in their cities.

Within this context, Ecotema, an SMEin Venice specialising in finding solu-tions to today’s environmental chal-lenges, developed the Eco-Explorer incollaboration with the Municipality ofVenice, the Regional Agency for Pre-vention and Protection of Environmentfor Veneto - ARPAV), the VenetianEnvironmental Multiservice Company(AMAV S.p.A, now VESTA S.p.A) as well as two private companies(ARCHIMEDES LOGICA s.r.l, UNITECs.r.l.). The goal of project was todesign an accurate tool to supportpollution survey campaigns, on both aperiodic and sustained basis.

Eco-Explorer, or Environmental ControlObservatory Exploration of PollutionLevels on the Road for Ecological RealTime Survey, sought to:

> show the existence of elevated con-centrations of pollution in urban areas which are not picked up by thecommon fixed monitoring stationsand which, consequently require di-rect dynamic monitoring;

> prove that it is possible to record dynamic measurements with newlydeveloped small-size, fast-responsesensors;

> demonstrate that it is possible to integrate the cumulative effects ofpollution and establish a global im-pact index with correlations betweenthe various measured concentrations.

To do this, the project constructed andtested a mobile station for monitoringthe level of air pollution in Venice tocollect and integrate data – simultane-ously and in real time – on atmosphericemissions, noise and electromagneticpollution and transmit these to a Control Centre.

Eco-Explorer: Environmental Control Observatory Explorationof Pollution Levels on the Road for Ecological Real Time Survey

An SME in Venice brought together a team of dedicated, eco-conscious environmental experts

to develop an accurate and cost-effective roaming urban pollution monitoring device.

LIFE-Environment project in Italy

Ecotema’s roaming pollution sensor is small and light enough to attach to bicycles and mopeds.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 17

The data collected was used to pro-duce thematic maps for atmospheric,acoustic and electromagnetic pollutioncovering the entire road urban networkand to develop an information systemabout the state of the environment.

Indeed, Eco-Explorer was successfulin measuring atmospheric, acousticand electromagnetic pollution contin-uously and in real time, over the entireroad network in the Municipality ofVenice. The system is comprised ofsmall measurement modules, one foreach environmental variable of inter-est, all integrated together, lodgedwithin a small container for easy instal-lation on any mobile station already inuse in the current public services. Fur-thermore, the mobile station can beinstalled easily on public buses, taxis,specific cars and even on bikes.

The Control Centre collated the dataand produced thematic pollutionmaps. The Centre was also responsi-ble for alerting the public authorities ina timely manner when pollution levelswere in danger of exceeding the setlimits in a given area. Finally, the sys-tem is cost-effective, as the mobilestations do not generally require anoperator.

A global impact pollution index wasdefined, however it would require sub-stantially more data in order to becompletely validated.

With the solid-state sensors originallyemployed, the comparison betweenthe innovative sensors’ performancewith the conventional fixed stationsachieved a correlation coefficientbetween 60% and 80%; this perform-ance was deemed sufficient todemonstrate the global behaviour andoperation of the system.

The project has also been furtherrefined: after the project ended, theItalian national institutions pointed outthat the system would be acceptedonly if it complied with the currentlegal standards for air quality moni-toring instruments. Therefore, the airquality sensor unit, originally devel-oped by UNITEC, needed to be com-pletely rebuilt using a set of new tech-nologies adapted to each pollutant tobe monitored.

This new design, developed entirely byARCHIMEDES LOGICA, achieved correlation coefficients above 99%and is now certified by the Italiannational authorities for use in air qual-ity monitoring networks.

This system with the new sensor tech-nology is currently running in Munici-pality of Venice; the product is easilytransferable to other urban settingsand links were set up with local author-ities in other cities in other countries,not only in Europe but also in China.

Reference: LIFE99 ENV/IT/000131Total eligible cost: EUR 1 367 784,45 LIFE contribution: EUR 394 531,75Beneficiary: ECO.TE.MA srl - Ingegneria per l'Ambiente

Contact: Tullio Ing. Cambruzzi or Luigi TomboliniTel.: +39 041 71 75 29E-mail: ltech@archimedes.itWebsite: http://www.ecoexplorer.it

The Eco-Explorer is now being testedin other European cities and China.

Air pollution is a major environmentalproblem in cities. The most importantsources of air pollution are industrialplants, power plants, domestic heat-ing and road traffic.

Road traffic emissions are increasinglyresponsible for the highest percentageof air pollution. Of the many differentkinds of pollutants released in urbanareas, the most noxious are sulphurdioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, sus-pended particulate matter, heavy met-als and organic chemicals such asbenzene or polycyclic aromatichydrocarbons. Increased concentra-tions of air pollutants endanger humanhealth, harm flora and fauna and dam-age buildings. Such negative effectsare particularly rampant in cities,where large amounts of various pollu-tants are released in a relatively limitedarea. Given the high population dens-ity in cities, this means thousands ofpeople are affected.

Significant progress has been made inthe last decades to reduce emissionsin cities throughout Europe, neverthe-less, air pollution continues to be amajor environmental problem, with dif-ferent Member States using disparatestrategies in the attempt to complywith EU emissions’ directives.

What usually happens is that air qual-ity is assessed at local, regional,national and international level basedon emission inventories, modelling andmeasurements of ambient air concen-trations taken by physical and chemi-cal methods. Measuring ambient airconcentrations makes it possible tocontrol whether the limit or indicativevalues recommended by the EuropeanCommission, are complied with.

However, the results of ambient airmeasurements do not allow for directconclusions to be drawn on impact ofthe measured concentration of pollu-tants on living organisms. The effectsdepend on many factors, such as thedose of pollutant, climate, nutrition,predisposition, age, the simultaneousimpact of other pollutants, etc. To takeeffective action to reduce emissions,it is therefore important and necessaryto provide the general public, publicauthorities and enterprises with evi-dence of the effects of pollutants onhuman beings, animals, and plants.This is where the university of Hohen-heim and bioindicator plants come in.

EuroBionet: Monitoring and assessing air quality throughout Europe

A University in Germany created a standardised system to monitor air pollution using bioindicator

plants. This system can be tailored to the specific conditions in all cities throughout the EU.

LIFE-Environment project in Germany

Plants such as tobacco and kale are used to monitor negative environmental impacts.

“Green boxes” set up in participatingcities invite citizens to learn about caring for their environment.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 19

The Institute for Landscape and PlantEcology, University of Hohenheim,Stuttgart, Germany, saw the potentialof using bioindicator plants, such astobacco, poplar, grass cultures andcurly kale, to monitor urban air pollu-tion. Bioindicators are organisms orcommunities of organisms that reactto environmental effects by changingtheir vital functions and/or their chem-ical composition, thus making it pos-sible to draw conclusions on the stateof their environment. Moreover, usingthe same bioindicator plants in differ-ent cities throughout Europe wouldlead to the development of standard-ised monitoring methods, which couldbe applied at European level.

The University enlisted 12 partnercities in 8 Member States (Klagenfurt,A; Ditzingen and Düsseldorf, DE;Copenhagen, DK; Barcelona, andValencia, ES; Lyon and Nancy, FR;Edinburgh and Sheffield, GB; Glyfada,GR; Verona, IT), and co-ordinated themonitoring system in these cities.They were also responsible for theoverall scientific, technical and admin-istrative management of the project.

The overriding goal of the project wasto use a selection of plants to illustratein concrete, visible terms the negativeeffects of pollution. If people can seewhat pollution does to a plant, thenthey are able conceive the implicationson the environment in general onhuman beings and their surroundings.It was hoped that this exercise wouldencourage people to reflect on andreconsider their own behaviour interms of how they contribute to ahealthy or unhealthy environment.

The main objectives of the projectwere to:

> establish the use of bioindicatorplants on an European level;

> provide data for measures to improveair quality;

> create a network of cities that areconcerned about their air quality be-yond the duration of the project;

> raise the awareness of the urban pop-ulation with regard to air quality.

The EuroBionet projects succeeded insetting up 100 monitoring stations inthe partner cities, and in building anetwork of cities that are concernedabout air quality and committed toraising awareness of the issues atstake by holding regular informationevents and publicity campaigns. Euro-Bionet also worked in partnership withschools to begin making an impact onchildren and students and engagethem in the process of making changefor healthier lifestyle choices.

Reference: LIFE99 ENV/D/000453Total eligible cost: EUR 2 402.678LIFE contribution: EUR 1 201.339Beneficiary: Universität Hohenheim –Institut 320, Schloss, 70593 Stuttgart,Germany

Contact: Andreas KlumppTel.: +49 711 459 3043Fax: +49 711 453 3044

E-mail: aklumpp@uni-hoheneim.deWebsite: http://www.eurobionet.com

Interactive learning inside a “Green box”

Students in participating cities set up biomonitoring labs in their schools.

In the wake of EuroBionet, the EastHungarian Biomonitoring Network ishelping national and local governmentdecision-makers and citizens to takesteps to improve the air quality in theregion. Project manager Béla Kelemantells us more.

“There’s a lot talk about air pollution, alot of talk about the need to do some-thing about it, but what does that reallymean to the average person or to thelocal government employee who hasbeen told to develop a plan to reduceair pollution in his town? How do weimprove something we can’t really seeor touch? People need to actually seea problem before they can be con-vinced to do something about it.

The LIFE EuroBionet project did veryinteresting work using bioindicator

plants to show people the impact ofair pollution in tangible terms. When itclosed, the project team released adetailed manual so that other coun-tries and regions could transfer themethods for their own use. That’s howwe created the East Hungarian Bio-monitoring Network.

Our goal is to promote a new approachto air pollution assessment in Hungary.To accomplish this, we set up a bio-monitoring network in the five biggestcities in the Hungarian eastern frontierzone based on the EuroBionet method-ology. The Environmental ProtectionInspectorate in the TranstiszanianRegion is responsible for managingthe network and for disseminatingfindings and other information to thenational authorities and local govern-ment decision-makers.

Our project literally gives a picture ofthe pollution situation in the partici-pating cities. The data gathered on thepollutants we are monitoring in the fivecities – such as sulphur dioxide,nobelium, ozone and several others –are recorded using Geographic Infor-mation Systems (GIS). Then, using theGIS tool, we produce “air qualitymaps”, which are sent to each localauthority. The objective is that thesepollution pictures help officials under-stand the problem, and give them atool to use in arguing for creatingchange in industry and in the cityinfrastructure, for example.

The maps are also posted publicly sothat each citizen can get a picture ofthe level of air quality in his or hertown. This activity is paired with infor-mation and education campaigns onhow people can help reduce the pol-lution in their town by modifying theirbehaviour (such as car-pooling towork, biking to school, etc.).

The project officially closed in Janu-ary, but we hope to see the workwe’ve done grow into lasting change”

East Hungarian Biomonitoring Network

Reality check: Putting the pollution picture on the map

LIFE-Environment project in Hungary

Reference: LIFE00 ENV/H/000936Total eligible cost: EUR 886 720.00LIFE contribution: EUR 431 610.00Beneficiary: Environmental Protection Inspectorate, Transtiszanian Region

Contact: Béla KelemenTel.: +36 52 527 600Fax: +36 52 310 428

E-mail: Tikofe@mail.datanet.huWebsite: http://tikofe.movinet.hu

Bioindicator plants measure ozone levels in a neighbourhood in eastern Hungary.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 21

Monitoring atmospheric concentrations of benzene inEuropean towns and homes

The Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, an institute for care and scientific research in Italy, designed

an innovative system to monitor benzene exposure levels in the urban population that was used

in six European cities.

LIFE-Environment project in Italy

Benzene, also known as benzol, is acolourless, sweet-smelling liquidfound in air, water and soil. One of themost prevalent sources of Benzenepollution, which can be extremelyhazardous to human health, is roadtraffic. Indeed, research shows thatbenzene from road traffic can causeleukaemia; World Health Organisationestimates reveal the level of risk forthis disease between 4.4 and 7.5cases per million among peopleexposed continuously to benzeneconcentrations of 1 µg m-3 in the air.

The MACBETH project – Monitoring ofAtmospheric Concentrations of Ben-zene in European Towns and Homes– was created to help enforce com-mon policies and laws on environ-mental protection by establishing thecorrelation between urban benzenepollution levels and human exposureand providing this information to Euro-pean legislators. The overall goal ofthe project was to protect people fromthe harmful effects of atmosphericpollution.

The environmental benzene pollutiondata commonly available are quitevariable and often contradictory, dueto striking differences between sam-pling and analysis procedures,weather conditions, the time of year atwhich data are collected and the eco-nomic development and lifestyle ofthe targeted areas. While useful forconveying a general idea of the prob-lem, such data are of little use inestablishing a relationship betweenenvironmental pollution and personalexposure.

The Macbeth project developed a newmonitoring technique, based on aninnovative sampling device, to takethe various parameters described

above into account. To begin with, sixEuropean towns and cities – Antwerp,Athens, Copenhagen, Murcia, Padovaand Rouen – were selected to hostapproximately one hundred samplingsites each. The site locations were dis-tributed over a multi-scale grid drawnover the city map. The site breakdownwas comprised as follows:

> 85% background sites

> 10% hot spots

> 5% suburban sites

On six occasions over a one-yearperiod, each site was monitored with-out interruption from Monday morningto Friday afternoon. At the same time,50 volunteers underwent both per-sonal monitoring and measurement intheir homes. The volunteers were non-smokers, divided into equal groups ofpeople exposed to traffic fumes aspart of their job and those notexposed. Personal and domestic mon-itoring was carried out using the sametechnique and over the same period asthe environmental monitoring.

The volunteers’ movements within thecity areas were recorded in individualdiaries, which made it possible to linkexposure levels with exposure loca-tions. All monitoring was carried outusing the "radiello" radial symmetrypassive sampler. The sampler, devisedby the project co-ordinator, works bythe spontaneous transfer of gaseousmolecules through a diffusive barrier. Itcomprises a microporous cylindricaldiffusive body into which an adsorb-ing cartridge is placed. Once assem-bled (the whole unit weighs about 10grams), the radiello is exposed andonly the date and time of the begin-ning and end of exposure need to beknown.

The database of findings contains 6 205 measurements, distributedequally over the six cities, comprising3 147 environmental readings, 1 559personal exposure readings and 1 499home pollution readings. The innova-tive methodological approach made itpossible to compile highly space-resolved iso-level maps of benzeneconcentrations for each city, providingthe public administration in each citywith a powerful tool for informed deci-sion-making regarding traffic and theroad network.

The benzene monitoring device is placed in selected sites around the city.

In addition, the procedure wasextremely cost-effective: the optimumsampling grid is composed of 125points per 100 km2 of territory, roughlyequivalent to a town of 300 000-400 000 inhabitants. An entire sam-pling campaign would cost about EUR 6 000, but if a city were to undergotwelve measurement campaigns in ayear, the overall cost would amount toless than EUR 72 000 – in other words,equal to the cost of purchasing andrunning just one automated continuousinstrument for one year.

The results revealed the following:

> Urban benzene pollution levels in-crease moving from northern tosouthern Europe, where the urbanventilation is slower. The data showannual average benzene concentra-tions ranging from 3.1 µg·m-3 inCopenhagen to 20.7 µg·m-3 inAthens.

> On average, European citizens areexposed to double the mean levelof urban pollution. The data point tothe following explanation for this phe-nomenon: people in urban areas tendto be on the street at the time of daywhen urban pollution is at its high-est. Daily benzene concentrationsoscillate between very low values atnight and very high values in the mid-dle of the day and in the evening.Since most people are exposedwhen the benzene concentration is1.5 - 2.5 times higher than the dailyaverage, actual outdoor exposuremay be estimated to be about twicethat calculated on the basis of thedaily average urban concentrationand the time spent outdoors.

> Pollution is considerably worse inhomes than outdoors. The averagepollution level in the home turned outto be 1.51 times the outdoor level.This finding is surprising since it wasreasonable to suppose that homepollution came from outdoor pollu-tion, and should not therefore haveexceeded it. The fact that indoor pol-lution is generally higher than out-door pollution might be attributed toan imbalance between the inflow ofpollutants from outside and their re-moval from inside. In other words,the home itself might act as a fly-wheel created by the adsorbent sur-faces of walls, floors, furniture andfurnishings. The hypothesis is inter-esting, since it was demonstratedthat the domestic-to-urban pollutionratio rises from southern to northernEurope, and this difference could re-sult from the different indoor cover-ings used in the north and the south.

The monitoring technique imple-mented in the MACBETH projectdemonstrated that the protection ofpublic health, which is the aim of Euro-pean air quality legislation, requiresthe parallel measurement of bothambient air and personal exposurelevels.

The diffusive sampling technique cantherefore effectively supplement theinformation provided by the air qual-ity monitoring networks based oncontinuous analysers, giving directinformation on public exposure topollutants. It also adds the value ofhigh-resolution distribution mappingto time-resolved measurements pro-vided by monitoring stations. The dif-fusive sampling technique can thenhelp in the optimisation of fixed mon-itoring networks by choosing the bestrepresentative sites, as demonstratedby RESOLUTION project (LIFE 99ENV/IT/081).

Reference: LIFE96 ENV/IT/000070Total eligible cost: EUR 1 998 215 43LIFE contribution: EUR 783 734 56Beneficiary: Fondazione SalvatoreMaugeri - IRCCS

Contact: Paolo SaccoTel.: +39 049 806 45 11Fax: +39 049 806 45 55

E-mail: vcocheo@fsm.itWebsite: http://www.pc4.fsm.it:81/padova/homepage.html

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 23

Immaculate perfection: Improving the urban environment usingan integrated approach

Thessaloniki, a thriving, national and international economic urban centre and Greece’s second

largest city, has an alarmingly high rate of air pollution. The Centre for Research and Technology

Hellas/Hellenic Institute of Transport decided it was time to take action and created a plan to

reduce air and noise pollution from road transport by designing and promoting the use of innova-

tive means of alternative transport. Testimony from Evangelos Bekiaris, project manager.

LIFE-Environment project in Greece

“Today, 28% of the CO2 emitted in theEU is due to transport, with 84% of itcoming from road transport. Emis-sions of other harmful gases have alsoincreased by 18% over the period1990 to 1998. Aside from the harmfulemissions, transport is also responsi-ble for high noise levels in cities, lev-els that are expected to increase by24% by 2010.

Greece is in fact the fourth most pol-luted country in the EU in terms of CO2,and Thessaloniki, in the north, is a verygood example of the kinds of problemsthat result from excess pollution.

Thessaloniki has approximately onemillion inhabitants and is a thrivingnational and international economicand transport centre. The city is sur-rounded by mountains and the sea,which leads to heavily populated andcongested west-east corridors.

From 1990 to 2001 the number ofvehicles increased by 76% and thereis a daily shortage of about 6 000-7 000 parking spaces in the city cen-tre. Consequently, air pollution in thecity, especially in the city centre, isvery high. To deal with this problem,one of the three major policies that thecity council has adopted is to promotethe use of clean vehicles for bothbuses and private users.

We developed the “IMMACULATE”project to improve the quality of air and reduce the noise levels in Thessaloniki. To do this, we combinedclean vehicle technologies – such aselectric power-assisted bicycles, elec-tric scooters, hybrid passenger carsand natural gas mini-buses – withother innovations in urban transporta-tion schemes, including transportinformation, management and telem-atic systems, smart cards’ technology,and mobility management schemes.We have also defined the technicalfeatures of the vehicles that will beused and the requirements to be met.

We also envisage developing a train-ing programme for drivers and design-ing and implementing pilot studiesthroughout the city.

Finally, “IMMACULATE” includes anassessment and risk analysis of theproposed plans, a cost-benefit andcost-efficiency analysis, and dissemi-nation activities to share the results ofour work with other European cities. In this way, we hope to foster the creation of an “eco-consciousness” among citizens in urban settings.

Of course, we are now only halfwaythrough the project, but our expecta-tions are high – and we mean to liveup to them!”

Reference: LIFE02 ENV/GR/000359Total eligible cost: EUR 1 272 992,22LIFE contribution: EUR 570 000,00 Beneficiary: Centre for Research andTechnology Hellas/Hellenic Institute ofTransport

Contact: Evangelos BekiarisTel.: +30 (2310) 498265

E-mail: abek@certh.grWebsite: http://immaculate.ece.ntua.gr

Thessaloniki’s citizens are taking to new means of transport: electricbicycles, electric scooters and naturalgas mini-buses.

Hybrid passenger cars reduceair pollution.

Brussels, the heart of Europe, com-prises nearly one million inhabitants.A bustling international metropolisteaming with cars, trams and buses,the city suffers from intense trafficcongestion, noise pollution and emis-sions, which are both harmful to thepopulation and to the quality of the airand life in the city.

In the past, the transport culture of thecity did not favour cycling as a way toget around town. Indeed, in 1997, lessthan 1% of the city’s inhabitants usedbicycles as a means of transport. Partof the problem was that the infra-structure of Brussels was not adaptedto facilitate this method of transport.In fact, only the very brave or carefree

would venture onto the streets bybike.

In 1992, a group of dedicated cyclistsdecided to create Pro Velo, a non-profit organisation, to inspire and pro-mote a change in the mindset of thecity’s inhabitants. The mission of thefoundation was to “promote mobilitythat respects human beings and theirenvironment, particularly through theuse of the bicycle”.

The philosophy behind the Brussels-based foundation is to awaken citydwellers to the pleasures of seeingand interacting with their environmentin a new way. The freedom of cyclingallows one to discover or re-discover

new or previously “hidden” spots, getinto shape and contribute to reducingnoxious emissions into the air.

Of course, a sound philosophy andenthusiasm alone are not enough.Setting up the necessary infrastruc-ture and support from regional andlocal authorities are essential for cre-ating and sustaining change. Theapproach of the Pro Velo team was tobuild a solid partnership with theRegional Authorities. Together, theyproduced the Brussels RegionalAction Plan, which involved mappingout an ambitious network of cyclingroutes covering over 250 kilometres.The goal was to get 10% of the pop-ulation travelling by bike.

Dring-dring! The citizens of Brussels go Pro Velo

How a non-profit organisation in Brussels set out to transform the culture of the city from no

bikes to pro bikes.

LIFE-Environment project in Belgium

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 25

Pro Velo today

Twelve years later, Pro Velo hasbecome a city institution. Slowly butsurely, the level of cycling activity hasincreased and the positive image ofcycling as a means of transport hastaken hold.

The growing popularity of the Pro Velomovement has led to numerousannual successful cycling events,such as “Dring Dring” (launched in1993), which encourages thousandsof the city’s inhabitants to cyclearound town, which is made traffic-free for the occasion. Dring Dring’sslogan is “cycling equals good health”(le vélo c’est la santé). The event islaunched in May each year on a Sun-day, and is followed by communityevents throughout the week, such as“let’s cycle to school” and “let’s cycleto work”. The healthy side of bike rid-ing is reinforced by the participation ofhealth organisations and associationssuch as the Foundation for HeartSurgery.

In addition, Pro Velo holds regularcampaigns and events throughout theyear to promote bicycles in our day-to-day lives. Activities include:

> education sessions for children andparents on safe cycling practices

> daily “Simply Brussels” guided bi-cycle tours to encourage Brussels’residents and visitors to discoverBrussels in a different way (also avail-able in Charleroi, Liege, Mons andNamur)

> “weekend art nouveau” tours inviteparticipants on a two-day discoveryof Brussels’ architectural heritage,by bus, bicycle and on foot

> special bicycle festivals and paradessuch as the royal “Véloparade” heldon 20 July 2003 to commemoratethe 10 year reign of Albert II, or anocturnal bike ride to celebrate theautumn

> strong support for European Mobili-ty Week and similar initiatives

The enthusiasm of the Pro Velofounders and the commitment of thegovernment to building the necessarycycle infrastructure has indeedchanged the transport culture of Brus-sels. The Pro Velo LIFE project endedin 2001, but Pro Velo and a growingnumber of enthusiastic city-dwellersare confidently cycling to work andschool every day.

Reference: LIFE98 ENV/B/000269Total eligible cost: EUR 589 250.77LIFE contribution: EUR 237 104.64Beneficiary: Pro Velo asbl, rue de Londres 15, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

Contact: Jean-Luc de WildeTel.: +32 2 502 73 55Fax: +32 2 502 86 41

Website: http://www.provelo.be

Pro Velo includes a strong road-safetycomponent for children and adults.

European Day “In town without my car”

How did ADEME, France, get over 400 cities in all 15 Member States and candidate countries to

support the first car-free day in Europe when so many said it couldn’t be done? A lot of effort,

perseverance, and networking, networking, networking.

LIFE-Environment project in France

The context

Almost 40% of the transport sector'sCO2 emissions in the atmospheretoday are produced through the use ofprivate cars in cities. Although Euro-pean citizens express a growing con-cern over air and noise pollution andtraffic jams, the use of private cars asthe main means of transport continuesto rise.

Urban planners and environmentalistswho witness this trend know that thebest way to reduce these emissions isto favour “cleaner” forms of transport,such as car-pooling, cycling and pub-lic transportation. Used on a largescale, these alternative forms of travelcan contribute significantly to a reduc-tion in emissions, traffic congestion,air and noise pollution and traffic-related diseases.

But how can hundreds of thousandsof people who have been used to theluxury of driving to work in their owncars, be persuaded to give up thecomfort and freedom of their privateuniverses in exchange for car-poolingand mass transport?

With cleaner transport as the answerto the numerous problems caused bythe increasing transportation in privatecars, in the 1990s, some countries(Iceland, Switzerland and Germany)organised car-free days in their citycentres. However, these remainedlocal and sporadic events, one-offdeals rather than sustained activities.

A car-free day in France

In 1997, the French Ministry of theEnvironment, decided to organise astructured country-wide car-free day.The Ministry contacted the FrenchEnvironment and Energy ManagementAgency (ADEME). Together, theymobilised 35 cities in France to holdthe event “In town, without my car!”.

The event was originally conceived asa communications project to raiseawareness among the city and com-muter populations to think differentlyabout their transport choices. Thiswas followed by evaluation and fol-low-up activities, and mobilisation ofthe participating communities andlocal authorities. Despite some appre-hension on the part of shop owners

and restaurants, the event was aresounding success. The followingyear, Italy joined France’s initiative with95 participating cities.

The Ministry of the Environment col-laborated with ADEME to develop andpropose the LIFE project, EuropeanDay “In town, without my car!”. Theproject, deemed highly innovative,was granted funding. The project alsohad the backing of political willmobilised by European Commissionerfor the Environment, Margot Wallström.The political support was crucial inmotivating other Member States tojoin. Commissioner Wallström’s sup-port was pivotal in getting the momen-tum going and in getting this to growfrom a great idea to a concrete, for-malised, regular event.

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 27

In addition, the participation of “soonto be” Member States helped a greatdeal by providing an opportunity forthese countries to take part in an EUlevel project. The momentum createdby first the Member States who signedon for the car-free day on 22 Septem-ber, plus the candidate countries join-ing the initiative tipped the nay-sayersto say yes, and jump on the band-wagon.

Another strong factor in getting theproject off the ground was the beautyof the model: different levels of par-ticipation were organised to take placeat different moments, creating a layer-ing effect, which became an exampleof good practice. Finally, the partner-ship element was very important incementing the initiative.

The model was simple yet highlyeffective:

> The project launched a call for citiesthroughout Europe to support the“In town without my car” day at EUlevel.

> The strategy to get countries to com-mit to the event involved the drawingup of a European Charter: the Mem-ber States were asked to sign theCharter, thereby stating officially andpublicly their commitment to, andcompliance with, the general out-line and guidelines of the initiatives. A Call to sign the Charter was sentto the Ministry of the Environmentin the Member States, to be signedby the local authorities. The Charterwas sent to the Member States eachyear to reinforce the initiative andagain, cement their commitment.Each year, the Charter became morestringent, adding additional com-ponents, such as recycling, wastemanagement, etc.

> NGOs found this initiative provideda platform to get their messageacross – better quality of life, clean-er air, improved access for the dis-abled – across to local authorities.

> The initiative also targeted citizenswho are not really aware of envi-ronmental issues, but who are nev-ertheless touched by the mobilitysituation, such as the handicapped,

the elderly, children. This day alsocame to encompass not just urbanmobility, but also waste, recycling,the future of the planet, specialgroups (the elderly, children, ex-pectant mothers), so that all citizenscould take ownership and feel drawnto participate and contribute to thecause.

To ensure that the initiative provided a“win-win” situation for all – includingshops and restaurants – retailers andrestaurateurs were encouraged toparticipate in the activities and createa street fair ambiance, with goods dis-played outside the shops and restau-rants, and tables with food and drinkson the sidewalk. The project alsodeveloped a good practices’ guide forshop owners, which was made avail-able on the project website.

European Mobility Week 2002

The success of the EU Day “In town,without my car!” led to the launch ofthe European Mobility Week, with thesupport of the European Commis-sion's DG Environment on 19 April2002 in Brussels (during Green Week)by European Commissioner Wall-ström and other stakeholders. Theevent was also supported by largecompanies such as the EU railroadcompanies, EU associations for thehandicapped, for road safety, just toname a few.

The European co-ordination of Euro-pean Mobility Week provided the par-ticipants with a Vademacum to helpthem in the practical organisation ofthe week.

A wide range of initiatives tackling dif-ferent aspects of urban mobility werecarried out on each day of the week inpartnership with local organisationsand associations. NGOs and busi-nesses had the opportunity to involvetheir local branches in joint projectswith local authorities so that progresswas made towards more sustainablemobility on a permanent basis.

EU mobility week 2003

In 2002, European Mobility Week suc-ceeded in establishing itself as a trulyEuropean initiative with 320 cities from21 countries participating. Followingthis success, a second edition wasorganised in September 2003.

This second edition of the EuropeanMobility Week, organised from 16-22September 2003, consisted of anentire week of awareness-raisingevents focusing on various aspects ofsustainable mobility.

“Accesibility” was the central focus for2003. The aim was to create a pleas-ant city, which provides sustainablemobility for all people, meeting thespecific needs of different groups inour society. With this main theme,European Mobility Week 2003 wantedto contribute to the European Year ofPersons with Disabilities.

In relation to this main theme, eventswere organised on:

> public transport (accessibility of ve-hicles and stops for wheelchairs,prams, trolleys, elderly people, etc.);

> cycling (dedicated infrastructures forsafer cycling, presentation of spe-cial bicycle models, etc.);

> living Streets/Greenways (surveys/workshops on how to improvestreets to make them accessible andenjoyable for all, greenways for com-fortable and relaxing walks, etc.);

> Responsible Car Use (assessmentand advice for adaptations to carcontrols, parking, clean vehicles, en-ergy efficient driver training, etc.);

> mobility management (mobility man-agement plans, staff involvement,car-sharing, flexible working, tele-working, etc.);

> leisure and shopping (informa-tion/maps on access to shops,restaurants and leisure facilities, pro-motion of nearby leisure facilities,"discover your city" guided tours,delivery services, etc.);

> mobility and health (effects of airquality and noise on human health,benefits of walking and cycling,health checks, etc.);

> intermodality (increasing accessibil-ity through measures that facilitatethe combination of different modesof transport, etc.).

From 16-22 September European citi-zens had the opportunity to enjoy a fullweek of events dedicated to sustain-able mobility. A wide range of initiativestackling different aspects of urbanmobility was carried out by localauthorities on each day of the weekand in partnership with local organisa-tions and associations. NGOs andbusinesses were able to involve their

local branches in joint projects withlocal authorities, so that progress wasmade towards more sustainable mobil-ity on a permanent basis. The Car FreeDay on Monday 22 of September wasthe highlight of the week, with the chal-lenge of organising "In town without mycar!" on a working day.

European Mobility Week2004: 16-22 September

The LIFE project is over, but themomentum continues not only inEurope; the rest of the world is catch-ing up. The United Nations is now par-ticipating and the initiative is spread-ing world-wide, with Colombia andArgentina taking the lead…

The theme for European MobilityWeek 2004 was “Safe streets for Children”. The event presented a plat-form for local authorities as well asorganisations and associations fromall over Europe to:

> promote their existing policies, ini-tiatives and best practices on sus-tainable urban mobility;

> launch new policies and initiatives;

> contribute to raise citizens' aware-ness of the damages that current urban mobility trends generate on theenvironment and the quality of life;

> establish partnerships with localstakeholders;

> be part of a European wide cam-paign sharing a common goal and acommon identity with other townsand cities in Europe;

> emphasise local commitment towards sustainable urban transportpolicies.

European Mobility Week is based ona partnership between the core con-sortium (ACCESS, Energie-Cités,Klima-Bündnis, ADEME), representa-tives from national ministries andagencies, European and InternationalAssociations and Organisations, andthe European Commission.

1997

22 September – “En ville, sans mavoiture!” France: 35 cities participate.

1999

Signing of European Charter by Mem-ber States

22 September – “European Day, Intown, without my car!”: 66 cities inFrance, 92 cities in Italy and Genevaparticipate.

2001

22 September – “International car-freeday”: 33 countries, 1 005 local author-ities and over 100 million citizens par-ticipate.

2002

22 September – “European Day, Intown, without my car!”: 1 448 partici-pating and 322 supporting cities in the15 Member States, 13 candidatecountries and 12 other countries;

16-22 September – European Mobil-ity Week - included 320 participatingcities and 111 supporting cities.

2003

22 September – “European Day, Intown, without my car!”:1 035 participating cities and 453 sup-porting cities.

September – European Mobility Week:295 cities and 428 supporting citiesthroughout the EU, candidate andother countries.

2004

The success of the previous car-feedays and Mobility Week meant thatthis year the third edition of the eventswas held from 16-22 September.

This year’s theme is “Safe streets forchildren”.

To find out how your city can partici-pate next year, visit: www.22september.org or www.mobilityweek-europe.org/info/info.html

Reference: LIFE99 ENV/F/000459Total eligible cost: EUR 2 045 846,00LIFE contribution: EUR 1 022 923,00Beneficiary: Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maitrise de l'Energie (ADEME)

Contact: Jean-Louis PlazyTel.: +33 4 93 95 79 72Fax: +33 4 93 65 31 96

E-mail: jean-louis.plazy@ademe.frWebsite: http://www.22september.org or http://www.mobilityweek-europe.org/info/info.html

LIFE Focus I The air we breathe I p. 29

Putting a SMILE on Europe

The resounding success of the European Day “In town without my car” and Mobility Week

inspired ADEME, the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, to launch

Sustainable Mobility Initiatives for Local Environment, aka SMILE.

Reference: LIFE00 ENV/F/000640Total eligible cost: EUR 1 318 011,00LIFE contribution: EUR 658 349,00 Beneficiary: French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME)

Contact: Laurent LanquarTel.: +33 4 93 95 79 65Fax: +33 4 93 65 31 96

E-mail: laurent.lanquar@ademe.frWebsite: http://www.smile-europe.org

The 2 LIFE projects, European Day “In town without my car” and Euro-pean Mobility Week, were highly suc-cessful communications, campaignsthat sensitised the public to the grow-ing negative impacts of private cars onair quality, on the health and well-being of the city’s inhabitants and onthe quality of life.

European Day “In town without mycar” argued that a city’s inhabitantscan make a difference and helpreduce air and noise pollution andimprove the quality of their daily livesby making different choices abouthow they travel in town.

The project enlisted the aid of localauthorities, shop-keepers, schoolsand other organisations to supportone car-free day in participating citiesthroughout Europe. The success ofthis initiative led to the extension ofthe EU-wide car-free day, to a Euro-pean car-free week (Mobility Week).

ADEME, the beneficiary of the former2 projects, thought that the next stepto extend and further develop thegood work and practices begun withthe 2 projects was to evaluate the ini-tiatives put in place in the differentparticipating cities, and create a com-pendium of best practices and modelcities.

The objective was to gather, compileand evaluate all the initiatives, to learnnot only which were successful, butalso which ones were ongoing, andwhich ones could be transferred toother cities in Europe.

The SMILE team sent an exhaustivequestionnaire to the 700 cities thatparticipate in European Day in townwithout my car and Mobility Week.Once these were completed the goalwas to:

> analyse the responses

> identify the best practices and workwith experts in the relevant field tofurther improve best practices anddevelop guidelines (on noise abate-ment and accessibility, for example)

> produce a selection of guidelines onbest practices that different citiescan use according to their particu-lar context (i.e. size, infrastructure,etc.)

> develop recommendations based onthe needs of specific target groupssuch as children, the elderly and thedisabled

> identify 10 “model cities”

> organise visits from local authoritiesthroughout Europe to the 10 modelcities to provide concrete, tangibleexamples of best practices

Out of the 700 evaluations sent,SMILE received 170 responses. Theproject has completed the analysesand best practices; the guidelines arein production and will be ready for dis-semination by the close of the projectin June 2004. Finally, 12 model citieswere identified and the city-to-city visits are successfully generatingexchange, dialogue and sharing ofexperiences.

ADEME held a closing ceremony in LaRochelle (FR) in May 2004, where theyofficially presented the project, theresults and guidelines to a wide audi-ence of stakeholders.

SMILE provides guidance to other cities throughout Europe to implementenvironmentally-friendly transport policy.

LIFE-Environment project in France

Name LIFE (“L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement” / The financial instrument for the environment)

Type of intervention co-financing of actions in favour of the environment in the twenty-five Member States of the European Union, in the candidate countries who are associated to LIFE and in certain third countries bordering the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea.

LIFE is made up of three thematic components: “LIFE-Nature”, “LIFE-Environment” and “LIFE – Third countries”.

Objectives> with a view to sustainable development in the European Union, contribute to the drawing up, implementation and

updating of Community policy and legislation in the area of the environment;> explore new solutions to environmental problems on a Community scale.

Beneficiaries any natural or legal person, provided that the projects financed meet the following general criteria:> they are of Community interest and make a significant contribution to the general objectives; > they are carried out by technically and financially sound participants;> they are feasible in terms of technical proposals, timetable, budget and value for money.

Types of project> Eligible for LIFE-Environment are innovative pilot and demonstration projects which bring environment-related

and sustainable development considerations together in land management, which promote sustainable water andwaste management or which minimise the environmental impact of economic activities, products and services. LIFE-Environment also finances preparatory projects aiming at the development or updating of Communityenvironmental actions, instruments, legislation or policies.

> Eligible for LIFE-Nature are nature conservation projects which contribute to maintaining or restoring natural habitatsand/or populations of species in a favourable state of conservation within the meaning of the “Birds” (79/409/EEC) and “Habitats” (92/43/EEC) Community Directives and which contribute to the establishment of the European networkof protected areas – NATURA 2000. LIFE-Nature also finances “co-op” projects aiming to develop the exchange ofexperiences between projects.

> Eligible for LIFE-Third countries are projects which contribute to the establishment of capacities and administrativestructures needed in the environmental sector and in the development of environmental policy and action programmesin some countries bordering the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea.

Implementation National authorities in the Member States or third countries send the Commission the proposals ofprojects to be co-financed (for LIFE-Environment preparatory projects, the applicants send their proposals directly tothe Commission). The Commission sets the date for sending the proposals annually. It monitors the projects financedand supports the dissemination of their results. Accompanying measures enable the projects to be monitored on the ground.

Period covered (LIFE III) 2000-2006.

Funds from the Community approximately EUR 638 million for 2000-2004 and EUR 317 million for 2005-2006.

ContactEuropean Commission – Environment Directorate-GeneralLIFE Unit – BU-9 02/1 – 200 rue de la Loi – B-1049 Brussels – Fax: +32 2 296 95 56 Internet: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/home.htmE-mail: life-environment@cec.eu.int

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