The control of emissions from mobile sources, improving fuel quality and promoting and integrating environmental protection requirements into the transport and energy sector are part of these aims.
The network supports the collection and organization of data and the development and dissemination of information concerning Europe's environment.
Subsequent to the Gothenburg Protocol, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was agreed upon in December 1999, which focused on reducing, by 2010, the air concentrations of four air pollutants, namely sulfur dioxide (to be reduced by 63%), nitrogen oxides (41%), volatile organic compounds (40%) and ammonia (17%), leading the EU to introduce the 2001/81/EC Directive on national emissions ceilings.
In order to do this the legislation sets out the need for member states to break their countries into zones and agglomerations (collections of people).
The Treaty of Amsterdam which came into force in 1999 set out new objectives such as environmental protection in its own right as opposed to being a subset of economic development.
The Environmental Protection Agency is the designated competent authority for the implementation of all Irish and EU ambient air quality legislation.
The EPA manages the national ambient air quality monitoring network – assisted in its role of implementing this legislation by the local authorities, many of whom carry out ambient air quality monitoring – while also measuring the levels of a number of atmospheric pollutants (see bullet points above).
As a result, air pollution from the burning of solid fuel can be of a greater concern in smaller towns in Ireland (Dublin City Council, 2009).
The Air Pollution Act (Marketing, Sale, Distribution and Burning of Specified Fuels) Regulations, 2012 enable local authorities to take enforcement action against anyone suspected of non-compliance by initiating prosecutions at District Court level.
(Limerick City Council, 2016) Penalties range from a ceiling of €1000 (marketing, selling or distributing) for on the spot fines or up to €5000 plus costs if court proceedings are instigated.
Because of the failure to meet the objectives of the World Health Organization (WHO), i.e. clean air is considered to be a basic requirement of human health and the fact that within the EU, "poor air quality is worse than for road traffic accidents, making it the number one environmental cause of premature death in the EU",[1] in December 2013, the EU announced a Clean Air Policy Package[2] (after a comprehensive review which began in 2011) to reduce the effect on human health.
This package has at its core the following: Given the fact that in Ireland, in 2012, approximately 1200 deaths were attributed to air pollution, it is still an issue that requires further measures.