April 05, 2005

See you in court!

As government regulation on air pollution standards develops, affected citizens begin to find their way to courts, at which they file complaints as soon as actual pollutant concentrations exceed existing limits.

Currently, the EU sets limits on certain pollutant concentrations, and, more specifically, on the number of days per year that these limits may be exceeded. These rules are used by residents of polluted areas to take their local authorities to court. In this way, they are trying to force the introduction of measures such as partial or comprehensive traffic prohibition in those areas (see also the contribution "surging media attention: Vicenza").

In Germany, some are already successful, as you can read here.

In the Netherlands, residents of what they call "the dirtiest street of the country" are filing a test case suit against the municipality of The Hague (helped by milieudefensie, Friends of the Earth Netherlands), unless it takes effective action immediately. This they said today. Information about this case (in Dutch) can be read here.

All in all, it seems air pollution is moving up the agenda of both citizens and politicians, both locally and at a European level. In that sense, politically, this issue is quite unique.

That should help the cause of those advocating traffic emission reduction strategies, including PAYD.

Christof

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