UK air pollution demands taken to Supreme Court

UK air pollution demands are set to be taken to the Supreme Court after lawyers acting on behalf of ClientEarth made a legal challenge to the UK government to cut levels of lethal nitrogen dioxide (NO2) to within European Commission limits.

Environmental charity ClientEarth has called for the UK government to slash air pollution by 2015, taking Supreme Court action to highlight the gravity of their requests. Poor air quality has become a growing concern in the UK, and many experts believe the government is not living up to their promises and are not acting within the law set out by the European Union.

Air pollution has been found to be the cause of 30,000 premature deaths each year in Britain alone, which is more than deaths caused by alcohol abuse, obesity or car crashes. London is at the centre of these problems, and has the worst air pollution of any European capital, with NO2 levels often double the European limit.

There are 28 zones in Britain which are set to exceed EU limits for 'major air pollutants' such as NO2 levels by 2015. Instead of trying to bring emissions within the limits, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is hoping to negotiate a later deadline. This has been considered illegal by the environmental charity ClientEarth, which is why it will press for legal action from the Supreme Court.

Alan Andrews, a lawyer at ClientEarth, told the Independent: "The government's plan is, in reality, a plan to do absolutely nothing. It is trying to kick this into the long grass,... while lobbying in Europe to weaken the legal standards. But the commission has quite rightly laid this at the doors of the UK courts. National courts have a responsibility to enforce national laws, even when they come from Brussels."

Posted by Claire Manning