MARCH 2002

AIR QUALITY


ICELAND BECOMES ENERGY LEADER
Iceland is already the world leader in the use of renewable energy but plans are afoot to make Iceland the world's first hydrogen-based society. The government have approved plans to end Iceland's dependency on fossil fuels, converting to fuel cell energy, where hydrogen is combined with oxygen to produce energy. The only by-product of this process is water, making it a very clean fuel.

Iceland currently uses geothermal and hydroelectric renewable sources for much of its energy. There are no fossil fuel resources in Iceland so oil is presently imported for cars, buses and fishing trawlers.

Converting to hydrogen would also help Iceland reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although Iceland has only a population of 270,000, it has the world's highest greenhouse gas emissions per person.

Reykjavik is one of nine European cities which will be trialling hydrogen buses in 2003. The plan is to eventually convert all 80 buses in the capital city to run on hydrogen. There will be a hydrogen re-fuelling station built on the outskirts Reykjavik.

Iceland aims to use only clean renewable energy and to be totally independent of imported energy.

Source: www.e-volve.org.uk (25 Jan 2002)


2001 AIR QUALITY WORSENS
The air quality headline indicator for sustainable development suggests that air quality was worse in 2001 than in the previous year. Over recent years there has been a downward trend in average number of days with moderate or high air pollution. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) suggest that the increase in moderate / high pollution days in 2001 can be put down to warm, sunny summer days which led to an increase in days with high ozone pollution. Urban air pollution levels were also high around bonfire night due to still weather conditions. In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northwest England, high particle levels were also very high just before Christmas, when a smog alert was issued for northern UK. Again, cold, still weather conditions allowed vehicle emissions to build up to high levels.

However, the Government highlighted that year to year fluctuations are not as important as the long-term trend. In 1993, urban areas had on average 59 days of moderate or high air pollution; in 2001 there was an average of 21 days.

In rural area, a clear down trend is less evident. Since 1987 there have been somewhere between 21 and 50 days of moderate or high air pollution each year. In 1999, there were an average of 48 days of moderate or high air pollution and in 2001 there were 29 days. The main pollutant in rural areas is ozone; levels of ozone are strongly linked to weather conditions and pollution imported from Europe.

Sources: Air Quality Management, January 2002; DEFRA News Release, 11 January 2002.


HOUSING DEVELOPMENT REJECTED ON AIR QUALITY GROUNDS
An application to build blocks of flats near the A2 in Greenwich, has been rejected on air quality grounds. The A2 carries 60,000 vehicles a day and concentrations of NO2 and PM10 at the roadside are above air quality strategy objectives. The whole borough of Greenwich is one of many local authority areas that has been declared an air quality management area.

The inspector noted that windows could not be opened without exposure to high levels of noise and pollution.

Source: Air Quality Management, January 2001.


NO2 LEVELS CONTINUE TO FALL
The eighth annual report of the UK nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube network shows that nitrogen dioxide levels are continuing to fall. The UK annual average NO2 concentration during 2000 was 39mg/m3 at roadside locations, 27mg/m3 at intermediate locations and 22mg/m3 at urban background. The results for 2000 are the first which show average roadside concentrations of NO2 to be less than 40mg/m3 . This is the second year in which there has been no site with an annual mean of 91mg/m3 or more. This is a revised indicator for the EU Directive limit value for NO2.

Source: Air Quality Management, January 2002; www.aeat.co.uk/netcen/airqual/reports/nonauto/no2_report_2000.pdf


STUDY LINKS SMOG AND ASTHMA
A 10-year research study, being published in the British medical Lancet journal, suggests a link between high ozone levels and asthma.

The study was conducted in Southern California and compared the health of children who played outdoor sports in high and low ozone areas. Around 3,500 children aged between 9 and 16 with no history of asthma were included in the study.

The participants were questioned about the sports they played outdoors and then communities were divided into low and high pollution areas. Five years into the study, 265 children were diagnosed as having asthma. The research suggests that the sporty children were more likely to develop asthma. In areas of high ozone pollution, the risk increased with the number of sports the children played whilst in the low ozone areas, there was no increased risk amongst the sporty children.

The researchers suggest that the more active children living in high ozone areas are likely to receive higher doses of ozone due to rapid breathing, taking ozone deep into their lungs. Less active children are likely to receive less ozone into their lungs, especially if they spend more time indoors.

Source: www.planetark.org (1st February 2002).


CARDIFF TO GO AHEAD WITH ULTRA LIGHT TRANSPORT
The National Assembly Government of Wales has approved a Transport Grant bid to allow Cardiff City Council to progress with plans to build an Ultra Light Transport rail system (ULTra). Bristol University's Advanced Transport Group developed the idea of electrically powered 'space age' cabs running on tracks at ground level or on elevated tracks.

This new form of transport is quiet, pollution free and uses 75% less energy per passenger kilometre than a car and 80% less than a tram or light rail system.

The first stage of the ULTra system in Cardiff will run between Bute Street railway station and the Inner Harbour, Wales Millennium Centre, The National Assembly and the County Hall. Following this, the Bay area of the city will be linked with the city centre.

A test track of just under 1km was launched in January in Cardiff and has been visited by transport experts from around the world.

Sources: Environment Post, 23 February 2002; Advanced Transport Systems Ltd. www.atsltd.co.uk


CLIMATE CHANGE


PRESIDENT BUSH'S NEW DEAL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Last month, President Bush of the United States unveiled his alternative strategy to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. Central to Bush's strategy is a slowing of emissions growth by reducing "greenhouse gas intensity" - the ratio of emissions to economic output - by a target of 18% over 10 years.

Although Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and other environmentalists remain sceptical, according to the White House reducing greenhouse gas intensity is a better way to tackle the threat of climate change than simply imposing legally binding hard percentage reductions because it safeguards the underlying economy. The US administration maintains that the 18% decline in greenhouse gas intensity will be comparable to emissions cuts made by other industrialised nations during the same time period.

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 22nd February 2002.


ANTARCTICA COOLING, NOT WARMING
It has long been believed that Antarctica has been warming up significantly during the past 50 years, confirming model predictions of global warming that suggest accelerated temperature rises will most likely occur in the polar regions. Now new research from the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Project indicates that summertime in the Antarctic continent may have actually been getting colder since the 1960s.

Most studies of Antarctic temperature trends have introduced a bias by assuming that the huge number of weather stations on the Antarctic peninsular can account for climate averages across the whole continent. Since there has been an observed local warming in this region, the McMurdo research team believes that scientists have wrongly thought that the whole of Antarctica has been warming. By adopting a more spatial approach, the McMurdo team have shown that it has actually become colder, whilst levels of plant and animal life have fallen by as much as 10% since 1986.

For further information, visit the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research website at: http://huey.colorado.edu

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 25th January 2002.


RATE OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS SLOWING
Although the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise, new research from NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) indicates that the rate at which emissions are continuing to rise has been falling since 1980.

Taking all greenhouse gases together, the most significant cause of the slowdown in emissions rate has been the phasing out of CFCs due to the co-operative international actions of the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer.

The rate of increase of methane emissions, the second most important contributor (after carbon dioxide) to the enhanced greenhouse effect, has also slowed in the last 10 years, and NASA believes that it may be possible to halt its growth entirely.

Optimistically, NASA believes that with a concerted international effort, it may be possible to limit further global warming to only 0.5ºC by 2050, and stabilise atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases thereafter.

For further information, visit NASA's website at: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020103greenhouse.html

The full document, Trends of Measured Climate Forcing Agents is available at: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/26/14778

Source: Global Environmental Change Report, 25th January 2002


ENVISAT TO MONITOR THE STATE OF THE EARTH'S HEALTH
The latest environmental monitoring satellite was launched this month from a base in French Guyana. Designed in part by researchers at the Leicester University Space Centre, Envisat will record information on environmental changes, including global warming, ozone layer depletion, earthquakes, volcanoes and floods.

For the next five years it will send back data enabling scientists to work out whether long-term changes to the Earth's climate are already under way and also to make predictions on what will happen in the future. Its orbit has been designed such that it will pass over the same point on the Earth's surface at the same time every day, allowing the scientists to study long term changes at specific locations very accurately.

Backed by the European Space Agency and Canada, the UK has contributed £11m to the funding of one of the 10 instruments on board.

Source: Guardian Newspaper, 1st March 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/