15th Concawe Symposium – Ambient air quality: Experiences, actions and future commitments at city level

After being forced to abort the 15^th Concawe Symposium at the end of the 1^st day due to a terrorist attack that took place in Brussels, the last session of this Symposium's edition, entitled « Ambient air quality: Experiences, actions, and future commitments at city level » took place last 18^th March.

Over the past decade, air quality has significantly improved in the majority of European cities as a result of more robust air quality policies across various governance levels, the introduction of targeted measures and actions, and technological improvements that have reduced emissions from various sources. Nevertheless, many cities and regions still experience exceedances of the air quality limit values while having the ambition to align further the regulated limits with the new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

In this session, city representatives shared their experiences from the implementation of mitigation measures and presented potential future actions that could be effective in further improving air quality. We had a special focus on the impact of shipping emissions to urban air quality in Europe, especially in port-cities, and on the mitigation actions which are being taken. The session hosted as well presentations that provided insights on how new legislation concerning road transport play a role in urban air quality planning towards compliance with air quality standards.

You can find below the presentations from the different speakers:

Keynote presentations

Thomas Henrichs, European Commission