LIFE and air quality.
Date: 2014-10-27
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment
Subjects: EU programme, air quality, development potential, environmental monitoring, motor vehicle pollution, pollution control measures, pollution from agricultural sources

LIFE and   

Air quality

Environment

LIFE Environment

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
ENVIRONMENT DIRECTORATE-GENERAL

LIFE (“The Financial Instrument for the Environment”) is a programme launched by the European 
Commission and coordinated by the Environment Directorate-General (LIFE Units - E.3. and E.4.).

The contents of the publication “LIFE and Air quality” do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the institutions 
of the European Union.

Authors: Gabriella Camarsa (Environment expert), Justin Toland, Tim Hudson, Stephen Nottingham, Wendy 
Jones (ASTRALE GEIE-AEIDL), Michael Oliver (Independent environment expert), Aiga Kāla, Anita Rubene (SIA 
Estonian, Latvian & Lithuanian Environment), Christophe Thévignot (ASTRALE GEIE- AEIDL, Communications 
Team Coordinator). Managing Editor: Hervé Martin (European Commission, Environment DG, LIFE E.4). LIFE 
Focus series coordination: Simon Goss (LIFE Communications Coordinator), Valerie O’Brien (DG Environ-
ment  Communications  Coordinator).  Technical  assistance:  Agnese  Roccato,  Pekka  Hänninen,  Christina 
Rauls, Chiara Spotorno, (ASTRALE GEIE). The following people also worked on this issue: Wilhelmus de 
Wilt (Environment DG, Air & Industrial Emissions Unit), Paul McAleavey, (European Environment Agency - Head 
of the Air and Climate Change programme), Marià Kazmukovà (IPR Prague Institute of Planning and Devel-
opment),  François  Delcueillerie,  Izabela  Madalinska  (Environment  DG,  LIFE  Environment  Unit).  Production: 
Monique Braem (ASTRALE GEIE-AEIDL). Graphic design: Daniel Renders, Anita Cortés (ASTRALE GEIE-AEIDL). 
Photos database: Sophie  Brynart (ASTRALE GEIE-AEIDL). Acknowledgements: Thanks to all LIFE project 
beneficiaries who contributed comments, photos and other useful material for this report. Photos: Unless 
otherwise specified; photos are from the respective projects. Cover photo by Hindrik   Sijens/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyForeword

T  

he most recent Eurobarometer report* highlights the importance to citizens throughout the 

European Union of combating air pollution. The review of the EU air quality policy started in 

2011 and confirmed that air pollution remains the prime environmental cause of death in the EU 

whilst also continuing to affect ecosystems, in particular through eutrophication (excess nutrients 

causing algal blooms, fish die-off and other ecosystem damage).  The launch of the clean air policy 

package in December 2013 is the latest in a long line of policy and legislative initiatives introduced 

at European level that is designed to significantly reduce air pollution and its impacts in the EU. 

The package includes legislative proposals for tightening national emission ceilings for six key pol-

lutants (including fine particles), and a proposal for a new Directive to reduce pollution from small 

and medium-sized combustion plants. It sets out implementing measures to resolve the compliance 

problems with existing air quality standards and to clear the pathway for adjusting those towards the 

tighter levels recommended by the World Health Organisation for the period up to 2030. The package 

also sets out further capacity building measures supporting national, regional and local authorities 

in taking effective action explaining the benefits of those actions to the general public and specific 

interest groups (motorists, farmers, industry, etc.).

As this publication highlights, the LIFE programme is one of the tools through which such capac-

ity can be built. LIFE Environment co-funding has been used to support projects that have main-

streamed air quality concerns in key areas such as transport, energy and agriculture. LIFE projects 

have demonstrated cost-effective ways of reducing air pollution either as a direct aim or as an indi-

rect consequence of reducing pollution of soil and water, combating climate change and so on. The 

majority of projects have taken an integrated approach that has proven beneficial to the environment 

as a whole.

This publication also indicates areas where LIFE projects could be better aligned with air quality poli-

cy priorities to achieve a greater multiplier effect. Chapters focus on issues ranging from sustainable 

urban mobility to monitoring and modelling air pollution, building capacity, raising awareness and 

encouraging less-polluting behaviour. The thematic focus on the agricultural,  industrial and energy 

sectors is designed to have a significant impact on air quality throughout Europe. 

LIFE projects can also provide valuable information for those seeking to unlock the potential of EU 

Structural Funds to better mainstream air quality objectives in clean transport solutions, the low car-

bon economy and low-emission agriculture. In addition, the creation of ‘Integrated Projects’ under the 

new LIFE Programme (2014-2020) provides a means of jointly funding LIFE projects that implement 

environmental policy on a large territorial scale. The LIFE Environment Multiannual Work Programme 

for 2014-2017 foresees Integrated Projects as a new means of supporting the development and 

implementation of Air Quality Plans across Regions at national or transboundary level. These will 

be an important step towards delivering the objectives of the new European Clean Air Programme.   

* http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_360_en.pdf

Marianne Wenning
Director, Quality of Life, 
Water & Air
Directorate-General for  
the Environment
European Commission 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyTABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword .....................................................................................................................................1

EU continues to target improved air quality ............................................................................................................... 3
LIFE’s contribution to air quality management ......................................................................................................... 5
Struggle for clean air enters a new phase................................................................................................................... 8
Prague experience highlights importance of dialogue between cities...................................................... 11

SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT ...............................13

LIFE helps tackle sustainable  mobility challenges ............................................................................................... 13
Passengers ‘test’ prototype SLIDE IN bus ................................................................................................................. 21

MONITORING AND MODELLING ......................................................24

Breathing LIFE into the Air Quality Directive ........................................................................................................... 24
LIFE supports ATMOSYS innovation for healthier air .......................................................................................... 32

CAPACITY BUILDING ..............................................................................35

LIFE helps build the capacity to implement policy ............................................................................................... 35
OPERA tool is building capacity to reduce emissions ......................................................................................... 40

ENCOURAGING BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE .....................................43

LIFE shows soft and hard side  
of behavioural change ......................................................................................................................................................... 43

AGRICULTURE ............................................................................................48

LIFE’s potential for preventing agricultural air pollution  ................................................................................. 48
LIFE GAS-OFF: reducing ammonia emissions from dairy farms .................................................................. 57

INDUSTRY, WASTE AND ENERGY.....................................................59

Assessing LIFE’s impact on emissions from industry  ....................................................................................... 59
Making pulp without volatile organic compounds  ............................................................................................... 66

Project list ............................................................................................................................................. 69

Available LIFE Environment publications ................................................................................... 73

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyI n t r o d u c t I o n

EU continues to target 
improved air quality

New policy initiatives to build on the valuable achievements of earlier European legislation.

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The clean air policy package 
will further reduce harmful 
emissions from industry, 
traffic, energy plants and 
agriculture

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E 

urobarometer surveys have shown the impor-
tance EU citizens place on ensuring good air 
quality.  This  is  understandable  when  you  consider 
that  poor  air  quality  is  the  leading  environmental 
cause  of  premature  death  in  the  EU.  Indeed,  some 
87% of Europeans believe that respiratory diseases, 
asthma and allergies are a serious problem1, whilst 
a survey on urban mobility found that 81% of Euro-
peans believe that air pollution is a problem within 
cities2. The European Union has long recognised the 
need  to  tackle  issues  affecting  the  air  we  breathe. 
Since  the  1970s,  a  raft  of  legislation  has  been  put 
in place to assess and manage air quality, as well as 
to limit harmful emissions, improve fuel quality and 
integrate requirements for environmental protection 
into a number of sectors (see box p.4).

These  policy  tools  have  played  a  significant  role  in 
reducing  concentrations  in  ambient  air  of  harmful 
pollutants  such  as  sulphur  dioxide  (SO2  -  the  main 
cause  of  acid  rain),  particulate  matter  (PM1),  lead, 
nitrogen oxides (NOx – NO and NO2), carbon monox-
ide and benzene. However more remains to be done, 

1 http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_360_en.pdf
2  http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_406_

particularly  with  regard  to  airborne  pollutants  such 
as fine particulates and ozone, which present signifi-
cant health risks when limits are exceeded.  

Thus, in December 2013, the European Commission 
adopted a new clean air policy package designed to 
update existing legislation and further reduce harm-
ful  emissions  from  anthropogenic  sources  with  a 
view to reducing their impact on human health and 
the environment. The clean air package includes the 
following components3.
•  A Clean Air Programme for Europe, comprising both 
measures to ensure existing air quality targets are 
met  and  new  air  quality  objectives  for  2030.  The 
programme will focus in particular on improving air 
quality in cities, supporting research and innovation 
and  promoting  international  cooperation,  with  the 
aim of avoiding 58 000 premature deaths and saving  
123 000 km2 of ecosystems from nitrogen pollu-
tion  (an  area  three  times  the  size  of  the  Nether-
lands).  The  expected  direct  health  benefits  alone 
are calculated to be some €3 billion annually.  

•  A proposal for a revised NEC Directive, with stricter 
national  emission  reduction  commitments  for  the 

en.pdf

3 http:// ec.europa.eu/environment/air/clean_air_policy.htm

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
six main pollutants - SO2, NOx, non-methane volatile 
organic  compounds  (NMVOC),  ammonia  (NH3),  fine 
particulate matter (PM2.5) and methane (CH4)4; and 
•  A proposal for a new Directive to reduce pollution 
from medium-sized (1-50 MW) combustion plants.  

as four staff Working Documents (on urban logistics, 
urban access regulations, deployment of Intelligent 
Transport System solutions in urban areas, and ur-
ban road safety).

Urban mobility package

Also in December 2013, and in response to the con-
cerns  of  European  citizens  highlighted  above,  the 
European  Commission  launched  an  “urban  mobility 
package”  designed  to  tackle  air  quality  and  other 
problems  linked  to  urban  transport,  such  as  severe 
congestion, noise emissions and carbon dioxide (CO2) 
emissions. 

The package consists of a Communication, “Together 
towards  competitive  and  resource-efficient  urban 
mobility”5,  supported  by  an  annex  that  sets  out  the 
concept of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, as well 

4  The  new  Directive  ensures  that  the  NECs  set  in  Directive 
2001/81/EC for 2010 onwards for SO2, NOx, NMVOC and NH3 
shall apply until 2020 and establishes new national emission 
reduction commitments applicable from 2020 and 2030 for 
SO2, NOx, NMVOC, NH3, PM2.5 and CH4, as well as intermedi-
ate emission levels for the year 2025 applicable to the same 
pollutants.  

5  http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/doc/ump/com 

(2013)913_en.pdf

EU air policy targeted by LIFE projects

There is an extensive body of EU policy relating to air quality that has been 
targeted by LIFE projects. This includes the following:
•  Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and the 
related  Council  Decision  on  the  conclusion  of  the  Convention  on  long-
range transboundary air pollution (81/462/EEC);

•  Clean Air Policy Package (18 December 2013);
•  Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC); 
•  Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) (2010/75/EU). This brings together in 
one Directive on industrial emissions, the ‘IPPC Directive’ (2008/1/EC) and 
six other directives, including the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/
EC), the VOC Solvents Emissions Directive (1999/13/EC) and from January 
2016 the Large Combustion Plant Directive (2001/80/EC); 

•  The National Emission Ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants Direc-

tive (2001/81/EC) (currently under revision); 

•  Directive 2009/33/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 
April 2009 on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport 
vehicles;

•  Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament,  the 
Council  and  the  European  Economic  and  Social  Committee  of  28  April 
2010  -  A  European  strategy  on  clean  and  energy  efficient  vehicles 
[COM(2010)186 final]; and 

•  Directives  relating  to  the  reduction  of  VOC  emissions  from  petrol  stor-
age  and  distribution  (94/63/EC);  and  from  the  use  of  organic  solvents 
(1999/13/EC). 

4

The Urban Mobility Package aims to foster coopera-
tion,  showcase  best  practices,  provide  targeted  fi-
nancial support and focus research and innovation to 
deliver solutions for urban mobility challenges.

Targeted measures 

Transport  and  urban  mobility  is  one  of  the  key  air 
quality  themes  supported  by  EU  policy  that  is  ad-
dressed  by  this  publication.  Another  is  agriculture, 
which  is  a  major  source  of  emissions  of  ammonia. 
The clean air package also addresses the impact of 
energy production on air quality, with PM generated 
from biomass and coal combustion a priority. 

The  revision  of  the  NEC  Directive  also  strengthens 
coherence  with  the  assessment  and  management 
of  air  quality  standards  contained  in  the  Ambient 
Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) and with climate 
change mitigation, and will contribute to limiting cli-
mate change. Annex V of the revised Directive, which 
includes enhanced provisions on inventories, projec-
tions,  and  ecosystem  monitoring,  emphasises  the 
importance of modelling and monitoring the effects 
of pollutants in order to increase the effectiveness of 
implementation. 

With  regards  to  another  important  theme  –  reduc-
ing pollutant emissions at source from the industrial, 
waste and energy sectors – the key European-level 
policy tool is the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), 
the successor to the IPPC Directive. The IED aims to 
prevent or control pollution from industry through an 
integrated approach that recognises the whole envi-
ronmental performance of a plant, with permit con-
ditions, including emission limit values (ELVs), based 
on the Best Available Techniques (BATs), as defined 
in the BAT conclusions adopted by the Commission. 
In addition, the IED sets EU-wide emission limit val-
ues  for  a  number  of  activities  (large  combustion 
plants, waste incineration, activities using solvents). 

The plethora of cross-cutting initiatives linked to air 
quality  highlights  the  seriousness  with  which  poli-
cy-makers  take  this  issue.  It  also  makes  it  doubly 
important to look more closely at the role the LIFE 
programme can play in demonstrating effective and 
cost-effective ways to implement these policies and 
packages.

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyI n t r o d u c t I o n

LIFE’s contribution  
to air quality management

For  more  than  two  decades,  LIFE  Environment  has  helped  support  the  implementation  of 

air quality policy and legislation by co-financing innovative projects that explore ways to 

facilitate their enforcement throughout the EU.

A 

ir  quality  has  been  the  third  biggest  focus  of 
the LIFE programme in terms of funding (be-
hind  water  and  waste).  Since  1992,  a  total  of  2986 
projects across Europe have directly sought to improve 
air quality, with many more having an indirect impact 
on the air we breathe as a co-benefit of their core ac-
tions. Total funding for the 298 LIFE projects amounts 
to  €628  million,  of  which  the  EU  contributed  some 
€217 million. 

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Originally,  these  projects  mainly  focused  on  demon-
strating integrated and innovative approaches to ad-
dressing  air  pollution  from  industrial  activities.  With 
the  adoption  of  the  former  Air  Package  (2005)  and 
Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008),  the focus of LIFE 
projects  has  shifted  to  supporting  local  and  regional 
authorities  (LRAs)  and  dealing  with  the  issues  that 
hinder implementation. LIFE has demonstrated viable 
solutions  for  certain  industries,  agriculture  and  city 
administrations, developed modelling and monitoring 
tools  and  has  contributed  to  changing  citizens’  be-
haviour. Notwithstanding these positive results, there 
is still great scope in the new programming period to 
more closely align project aims and outputs with policy 
priorities7. 

Sustainable urban mobility

For towns and cities to keep air pollution below limit 
values  for  key  pollutants,  policy-makers  are  increas-
ingly focusing on sustainable urban mobility challeng-
es. Since 2000, some 31 LIFE projects have targeted 
transport or mobility issues (see pp. 13-20), including 
demonstrating  the  use  of  alternative-fuelled  vehi-
cles,  promoting  cycling  and  other  low-impact  means 
of transport, implementing Low Emission Zones (LEZ) 

6 Source LIFE project database 
7  See  LIFE  multiannual  work  programme  for  2014-2017  -(OJ  

L 116, 17/04/2014)

LIFE funding has helped in making urban mobility more sustainable across the EU

and greener logistics. Although valuable in their own 
right, these projects have tended to focus on single so-
lutions, rather than contributing to an integrated Sus-
tainable  Urban  Mobility  Plan  (SUMP)  that  was  linked 
with or embedded in a wider Air Quality Plan. There are 
also significant gaps in terms of coverage, with issues 
such as the provision of infrastructure for non-petrol 
or diesel vehicles, rail and shipping solutions and urban 
freight logistics being little addressed by LIFE to date. 

The  LIFE  programme  (2014-2020)  should  thus  con-
centrate more on projects that support local authori-
ties in their efforts to integrate urban and peri-urban 
mobility within a SUMP and within sustainable urban 
planning  in  general.  Other  areas  that  would  benefit 
from  additional  LIFE  support  include  demonstrations 
of  the  practicality  of  LEZ  and  road-pricing  schemes, 
development of alternative drive train technology, fa-
cilitation of cleaner driving, clean shipping and the use 
of innovative logistics platforms for last-mile delivery 
of goods. 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
There  is  scope  for  LIFE  projects  to  respond  to  the 
National  Emission  Ceilings  Directive  (NECD)’s  call  for 
Member States to monitor the impact of air pollution 
on different ecosystems. No LIFE projects to date have 
addressed  this  issue,  yet  70%  of  the  EU’s  protected 
natural  sites  within  the  Natura  2000  network  suffer 
from  eutrophication  as  a  result  of  air  pollution.  The 
Integrated  Projects  sub-programme  of  the  new  LIFE 
programme could be a means of delivering large-scale 
capacity building, including monitoring across regions 
or whole countries and contributing to National Air Pol-
lution Control Programmes.

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CLEAN AIR project measuring ultrafine particles in Prague

Monitoring and modelling

LIFE  has  helped  bridge  the  gap  between  European-
scale air quality modelling and the local scale at which 
planners  operate,  through  projects  that  respectively 
translate from emissions inventories and models com-
mon to the whole EU to models customisable by local 
and regional planning officers. LIFE has supported pro-
jects whose data collection takes the topography of a 
particular  urban  area  into  consideration,  enabling  the 
creation of emission inventories that are well targeted 
to the sources of pollution and updated as frequently 
as appropriate. The programme has also co-funded a 
whole set of projects that have mapped and modelled 
health risks linked to specific airborne pollutants. 

More recent projects have attempted to make com-
plex models more easily understandable and useful 
by city planners and the general public, including in-
corporating a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of 
different  air  quality  management  measures  to  im-
prove decision-making. The success of such models 
has been built upon good input data and more de-
tailed emission inventories, which in turn enable the 
most technically and economically effective pollution 
reduction  measures  to  be  introduced  to  help  reach 
compliance with relevant air quality legislation. 

Monitoring projects have focused not only on traffic pol-
lution,  but  also  on  other  ‘hotspots’  such  as  ports  and 
industrial sites, and have provided some insight into mi-
cro- and macro-siting of monitoring stations. They have 
also focused on the objective of getting high resolution 
and timely information to citizens and decision-makers.  

6

Capacity building

Some LIFE projects have helped to reinforce the ability 
of  local  decision-makers  to  gather,  interpret  and  act 
upon  air  quality  data  within  the  context  of  an  inte-
grated air quality plan based around the requirements 
of EU policy and legislation.  In the past, LIFE projects 
tended  to  build  this  capacity  as  an  indirect  conse-
quence of the objective of achieving compliance with 
air  pollution  thresholds.  But  in  addition  to  tools  and 
training  packages,  most  of  the  more  recent  projects 
have begun to forge links between scientific/environ-
mental agencies and consultants and local authorities. 
Such synergies increase the capacity to use monitoring 
and modelling tools and translate their results into ef-
fective measures. Future LIFE projects could build on 
these lessons and deepen such links, thereby strength-
ening  the  effectiveness  (and  cost  effectiveness)  of 
policy implementation.  

Encouraging behavioural change

Air policy objectives can also be achieved using ‘softer’ 
non-regulatory  measures  such  as  awareness-raising 
programmes  and  events  encouraging  behavioural 
change. LIFE has been particularly effective at this and 
has helped catalyse the growth of the ‘car-free days’ 
movement and establish European Mobility Week as a 
major annual event. Other projects have used technol-
ogy such as electronic roadside signs and smartphone 
apps to spread air quality alerts or provide easily un-
derstood real-time information. 

In addition to using technological advances and educa-
tional campaigns - such as ones linking greener mobil-
ity with improved health and quality of life - projects 
have  sought  to  provide  less-polluting  alternatives  to 
existing modes of transport. 

Going  forward,  the  Environmental  Governance  and 
Information  strand  of  the  new  LIFE  programme  for 

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
LIFE ENVIRONMENT    |   L I F E   A N D   A I R   q U A L I T y

2014-2020  could  be  used  more  effectively  to  raise 
awareness about air quality, to promote collective ac-
tion and to influence personal behaviour. A future task 
for the programme could be to quantify the air qual-
ity benefits of softer measures. Ideally projects would 
report both on how behaviour has changed and on the 
impact of that change on air quality. 

Agriculture

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Many  LIFE  projects  have  assessed  nitrogen  man-
agement, taking into account the full nitrogen cycle 
leading to quantifiable impacts on reducing harmful 
ammonia emissions from agriculture, sometimes as 
a direct objective, but more frequently as an indirect 
co-benefit of actions to address water or soil pollu-
tion  or  to  reduce  greenhouse  gas  (GHG)  emissions. 
However,  these  projects  have  almost  never  meas-
ured ammonia release. Tools developed by projects 
to measure GHGs could be extended to other pollut-
ants such as ammonia and PM.

LIFE  projects  have  brought  sustainable  results  as 
they  have  produced  economically-viable  solutions 
addressing  concerns  from  EU  farming  communi-
ties and by engaging actively with farmers to adopt 
farming practices that improve air quality, in particu-
lar  through  on-farm  demonstrations  in  real-world 
conditions, accompanied by education and targeted 
knowledge transfer.

LIFE’s  existing  work  in  addressing  ammonia  emis-
sions  challenges  and  its  acceptance  by  the  farm-
ing  community  could  help  Member  States  to  make 
Codes of Practice for ammonia operational by 2020 
(as required by the NECD).

Issues that LIFE has little addressed include: the pro-
duction  of  black  carbon  from  burning  agricultural 
waste;  and  delivering  low-protein  feeding  strategies 
for livestock that help reduce ammonia emissions. It 
will be important for future projects to focus their ac-
tions on farming systems with the greatest potential 
for  making  long-term  positive  improvements  to  the 
quality of Europe’s air.

Industry, waste and energy  

LIFE has helped reduce air emissions in a wide range of 
industrial  sectors  (see  pp  59-65),  with  project  actions 
often explicitly linked to targets set out in the Industrial 
Emissions Directive (IED) and its predecessor, the Inte-
grated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive. 
One of the strengths of the programme has been that it 

Application of fertilisers through precision farming reduces 
ammonia release 

has favoured projects with an integrated approach pro-
viding benefits for the environment as a whole, in line 
with the IPPC principle. 

LIFE  has  developed  and  demonstrated  clean  tech-
nologies and end-of-pipe solutions, primarily targeting 
emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds 
(NMVOCs),  but  also  nitrogen  oxides  (NOx),  sulphur 
 oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). 

By supporting the development of innovative proto-
types  that  improve  on  current  best  available  tech-
niques (BATs), LIFE has contributed to the overall aim 
of reducing the negative impact of industry on hu-
man health and the environment. 

LIFE-funded  prototypes  have  sometimes  proven  to 
be  commercially  unviable  when  scaled  up,  so  fu-
ture  projects  need  to  consider  the  economics  from 
the outset, particularly as the LIFE multiannual work 
programme  for  2014-17  recommends  that  future 
project  proposals  include  plans  for  upscaling  and 
replicating  technologies  and  solutions  to  mobilise 
their wider uptake.8

A  programme-level  gap  has  been  in  terms  of  action 
to  reduce  emissions  from  medium-sized  combustion 
plants. In the current period LIFE should promote lo-
cal and regional energy projects addressing air quality, 
targeting in particular emissions of particulate matter 
(PM) in PM “hotspot” areas with continued high use of 
coal- and biomass-fired heating installations.

In conclusion LIFE has made a meaningful contribu-
tion to the practical implementation of EU air policy. 
With  fine  tuning  and  careful  targeting  of  resources 
and priorities, the programme can continue to mul-
tiply the impact of project outcomes to improve air 
quality.

8  See  LIFE  multiannual  work  programme  for  2014-2017  -(OJ  L 

116, 17/04/2014)

7
7

 
 
LIFE ENVIRONMENT    |   L I F E   A N D   A I R   q U A L I T y

I n t r o d u c t I o n

Struggle for clean air enters  
a new phase

“Although  we  have  made  giant  steps  in  reducing  air  emissions  in  the  EU,  air  pollution  is 

still damaging our health and the environment,” warns Paul McAleavey, Head of the Air and 

Climate Change programme at the European Environment Agency (EEA).

N 

ew measures proposed in the clean air pack-
age  unveiled  in  December  2013  (see  pp. 
4-5) are essential to meet the challenge of improv-
ing air quality. Speaking on behalf of the EEA, Paul 
McAleavey says that “the package was a very impor-
tant milestone, but Member States, regional and lo-
cal authorities do not need to wait to introduce new 
emissions cuts. Action is needed at all scales now to 
address air quality attainment issues.”

Whilst there is still a need for new legislation - such 
as  the  proposal  for  a  Directive  on  medium-sized 
combustion plants - in order to achieve further re-
ductions in NOx, SO2 and PM - Mr McAleavey em-
phasises  that  the  challenge  is  also  to  ensure  the 

effective  implementation  of  existing  legislation.  
A  European  pilot  project  focusing  on  12  European 
cities was carried out by the EEA and the European 
Commission, as part of the review process leading 
up to the clean air package, to identify and address 
the reasons for the ‘gap’ in the implementation of 
air quality policy, and thereby draw lessons of wider 
relevance (see box p.10). The aim was to find effec-
tive ways of dealing with ‘problems on the ground’ 
that  hinder  implementation  of  environmental  pol-
icy.  The  main  issues  for  local  planners  that  were 
addressed were related to: setting up emission in-
ventories, use of modelling tools, criteria for siting 
of  monitoring  networks,  management  practices, 
capacity building, and awareness raising.

Paul McAleavey

Annual mean particulate matter (PM10) 2011 and number of stations*

<= 20(48)

20-40 (827)

40-50 (677)

50-75 (661)

> 75 (184)

*  based on daily averages 
with percentage of valid 
measurements >= 75%  
in μg/m3 (Eu 27) 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT    |   L I F E   A N D   A I R   q U A L I T y

Air pollutants can have a serious impact on human health. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.  

Health impacts of air pollution

Headache and anxiety (SO2)
Impacts on the central nervous 
system (PM)

Cardiovascular 
diseases 
(PM, O3, SO2)

Irritation of eyes, nose and throat
Breathing problems (O3, P  M, NO2, SO2, BaP)

Impacts on the respiratory system:
Irritation, inﬂammation and infections
Asthma and reduced lung function 
Chronic obstructive 
pulmonary disease (PM) 
Lung cancer (PM, BaP)

Impacts on liver, spleen  
and blood (NO2)

Impacts on the 
reproductive system (PM)

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Air pollutants can have a serious impact on human health. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.  

“It  was  very  interesting  and  instructive  to  see  the 
different  ways  in  which  the  cities  approached  im-
plementation and to see that they often faced com-
mon challenges,” says Mr McAleavey. For example, 
cities  had  different  experiences  when  it  came  to 
preparing emission inventories - data that are of-
ten  fed  into  local  air  quality  models.  “The  city  of 
Dublin  made  a  new  investment  in  inventory  work 
as a result of taking part in the pilot. So the cities 
clearly learned from each other. They also felt they 
needed  standard  guidance  for  setting  up  and  sit-
ing the monitoring networks and for the modelling 
tools which could inform cost-benefit analyses and 
facilitate more informed choices,” he adds.

“Overall,  what  we  found  was  that  there  was  no 
lack  of  willingness  to  implement  legislation,  but 
that  local  planners  were  having  difficulties  inter-
preting  and  then  implementing  the  requirements 
linked to legislation,” explains Mr McAleavey. “The 
pilot enabled them to exchange best practices and 
to identify solutions.” 

LIFE for air policy

The Air Implementation Pilot will continue to have 
resonance, according to Mr McAleavey. “We believe 
that  the  next  calls  of  the  LIFE  programme  could 

also  be  used  to  follow  up  on  some  of  the  issues 
that  were  highlighted  through  the  pilot.  The  pro-
gramme  can  finance  projects  in  exactly  the  the-
matic areas that were identified, but this shouldn’t 
be done in a scattered way. The focus needs to be 
on  some  of  the  priority  geographical  areas  that 
face the greatest issues in terms of air quality.” 

LIFE could help facilitate the exchange of informa-
tion  amongst  cities  so  that  they  can  continue  this 
dialogue,  learn  from  one  another  and  exchange 
best practices in a larger network of cities. “There is 
clearly a need for some sort of exchange or learn-
ing mechanism between cities,” says Mr McAleavey, 
However, he suggests that this structure should not 
be too “heavy”, but rather could draw lessons from 
the Covenant of Mayors and cities for climate adap-
tation9. “Maybe instead of just setting up another 
European  structure  for  exchange  of  best  practice 
on air quality, one could think of how to build upon 
these already existing structures,” he adds.

EU  legislation  on  air  quality  recognises  the  role 
that  the  LIFE  programme  can  play  in  developing 
and  implementing  policy  on  air  pollution  control 
in Member States. LIFE funding might not only be 

9 http://mayors-adapt.eu/

9

 
 
used  to  fund  projects  on  those  issues  that  were 
raised by the Air Implementation Pilot, but it could 
be  used  for  other  policy  priorities,  such  as  fuel 
switching. “Other projects could focus on local and 
regional  energy  projects  addressing  air  quality 
and  emission  reductions  in  atmospheric  particu-
late matter (PM) hotspots in areas with continued 
high  use  of  coal-  and  biomass-burning  heating 
installations,” he says.

Scope also exists for LIFE projects to demonstrate 
ways to reduce ammonia and PM emissions from 
agriculture; test prevention and abatement tech-
niques referred to in the Industrial Emissions Di-
rective;  and  demonstrate  innovative  approaches 
to sustainable urban planning and mobility. 

Air Implementation Pilot

The  Air  Implementation  Pilot  aimed  to  better  understand  the  challenges 
cities  faced  in  implementing  air  quality  policy,  and  also  encouraged  the 
12 participating cities to share their experiences, so they could learn from 
each other and see what has worked and not worked and the reasons why. 
The pilot also aimed to develop common proposals to help improve imple-
mentation of air policy.  The pilot focused on five ‘workstreams’, where les-
sons for implementation could most usefully be drawn. The workstreams 
were: local Emission Inventories (EI) - sets of data that show what pol-
lutants are emitted and from which sources; modelling and the use of air 
quality models; monitoring networks that take regular measurements of 
air  quality;  management  practices  and  different  administrative  meas-
ures; and, finally, public information. 

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The knowledge base

The EEA work programme for the next five years has 
recently been adopted. “Firstly, the time perspective 
of our assessment work is lengthening,” points out 
Mr McAleavey. “We are not just measuring the ef-
ficiency  of  policy  in  achieving  short-term  targets, 
but we are also trying to establish if, through these 
measures,  we  are  on  the  right  track  for  the  long-
term targets set for 2020 or even 2050.”

A  good  example  is  found  in  the  emission  tar-
gets  for  cars;  the  EEA  is  responsible  for  check-
ing  whether  manufacturers  are  in  line  with  the  
130g  CO2/km  limit  for  emissions  from  new  ve-
hicles  by  2015.  This  target  will  be  tightened  to 
95g CO2/km in 2021, but as well as measurement, 
the EEA’s role will also be to question whether “we 
are  on  track  for  where  we  need  to  be  in  achiev-
ing sustainable mobility in the longer term, even if 
manufacturers achieve these short-term targets?,” 
says Mr McAleavey. 

Secondly,  the  EEA  is  focusing  on  ‘societal  transi-
tions’ – for example, if the 2050 target of achiev-
ing air quality that is not harmful to human health 
is  going  to  be  reached,  then  there  need  to  be 
changes in the way societal systems operate, such 
as  those  for  mobility,  energy  and  food.  Societal 
transitions  will  not  be  brought  about  through  le-
gal  instruments  alone,  but  will  require  structural 
changes  as  well  as  changes  in  attitudes,  values, 
norms and behaviour. 

Another focus of the new EEA work programme is 
on policy evaluation: “Not just looking at numbers 
but  assessing  if  policy  is  delivering  what  it’s  in-
tended to deliver,” Mr McAleavey explains. 

The EEA is also eager to emphasise the importance 
of building up the knowledge base for EU environ-
ment policy, as prioritised in the 7th Environment 
Action Programme. “We see ourselves in the agen-
cy as being an organisation that contributes to the 
knowledge base and I think that LIFE can be, and 
should be, an important part of that too,” believes 
Mr  McAleavey.  For  instance,  LIFE  projects  could 
consider the societal transitions needed to achieve 
long-term policy targets when planning how to de-
liver their short-term objectives. “The EEA is inter-
ested to learn more from the LIFE programme and 
see how it can complement what we are doing, and 
to see how we can complement what LIFE is doing,” 
concludes Mr McAleavey. 

10

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
 
I n t r o d u c t I o n

Prague experience highlights 
importance of dialogue 
between cities

“Improved dialogue and a platform for exchange of knowledge between stakeholders is a 

must for air quality implementation,” believes Mária Kazmuková, Engineer with the Prague 

Institute  of  Planning  and  Development,  who  represented  the  Czech  capital  in  the  EU  Air 

Implementation Pilot. 

M 

s  Kazmuková  says  that  the  AIP  provided 
“a great opportunity to share experiences, 
to see how other cities are trying to implement air 
quality legislation and to see that all cities are facing 
more or less the same problems.”

administrations  responsible  for  air  quality  imple-
mentation,” says Ms Kazmuková. 

Speaking the same language

The pilot exercise gave participating cities the chance 
to discuss the issues in order to find solutions, share 
knowledge and interface with the scientific commu-
nity and EU policy-makers, she explains. 

She highlights the importance of building upon the 
work  of  the  AIP,  for  instance  by  means  of  a  LIFE-
funded project that would expand the pilot approach 
to  more  cities  and  set  up  a  platform  for  exchange 
of  best  practices.  “The  scientific  community  should 

Mária Kazmuková

The 12 cities that participated in the AIP

The  AIP  highlighted  the  fact  that  each  city  had  its 
own  Emissions  Inventory  (EI)  and  its  own  ways  of 
compiling the inventories. This created problems of 
comparability and “it was sometimes difficult to com-
prehend  all  sources  of  pollution,”  says  Ms  Kazmu-
ková.  Holes  in  the  data  also  affected  the  reliability 
of modelling. “If the EI is not reliable, then the model 
does not produce reliable results,” she explains. 

“It was a fruitful experience to be able to interface 
with  top  scientists  from  the  EEA  and  other  institu-
tions and to see how they try to evaluate these dis-
crepancies,”  reveals  Ms  Kazmuková.  “For  example 
with  monitoring,  there  is  a  problem  with  the  rep-
resentativeness  of  the  monitoring  stations  and  we 
requested requirements for macro and micro-siting 
of the stations.”

The pilot enabled participants to go through all the 
stages  of  air  quality  implementation  and  methodi-
cally pinpoint and discuss problem areas. “Of course 
the situation cannot change in one year but we all 
realised  that  there  is  much  need  for  a  continuous 
dialogue between the scientific community and the 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
want  a  unique  model  for  all  cities  but  we  want  a 
common understanding of the approach.”

Another  issue  that  city  or  regional  administrations 
face is how to choose between different measures, 
beyond  a  simple  selection  based  on  the  results  in 
terms of air quality. Models are “very rarely” accom-
panied  by  a  cost-benefit  analysis,”  she  notes.  “This 
makes it difficult to choose.” 

The AIP has helped Prague to take a more informed 
opinion on the models and scenarios provided by its 
external  consultants.  “We  don’t  just  receive  the  re-
sults  passively  from  the  consultants  as  we  have  a 
platform where we can compare these results,” says 
Ms Kazmuková. Thus the pilot has demonstrated the 
importance  of  creating  a  knowledge  base  and  this 
has, in turn, fed back to the scientific community. 

Ms  Kazmuková  believes  that  Prague’s  urban  plan-
ners would benefit from further training to interpret 
the  results  of  the  models  and,  with  a  cost-benefit 
analysis  (something  current  models  lack),  translate 
those  results  into  measures  that  are  good  for  citi-
zens’ health and the environment: “We would like to 
learn how to collect the right data from the emission 
sources, how the models work, what are their limita-
tions and how to interpret the results.” 

Future actions

The  cities  that  took  part  in  the  AIP  are  continuing 
to  exchange  information.  For  instance,  Prague  is 
learning about Berlin’s experience with Low Emission 
Zones (LEZ), prior to its own implementation, which is 
planned for 2015. The Czech capital is also consider-
ing  following  Vienna’s  lead  by  introducing  30  km/h 
zones. Paris’s experience with car-sharing of electric 
vehicles and Madrid’s online air pollution updates for 
citizens are other sources of inspiration for Prague. 

“We  also  want  to  give  more  information  and  raise 
awareness  on  the  health  effects  that  air  pollution 
causes,”  says  Ms  Kazmuková.  “Changing  people  is 
very  difficult,  especially  when  we  are  talking  about 
an invisible threat such as air pollution. People do not 
see how it is affecting and harming their health and 
environment.  Before  when  air  pollution  was  more 
linked to sulphur dioxide, it had a smell and people 
reacted. Now emissions are odourless and so citizens 
do  not  recognise  the  harm  [being  caused].  That  is 
why our next campaigns will focus on health issues, 
so that people realise that their children, grandpar-
ents and friends are all endangered by air pollution.”

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Electric cars running in the city of Prague

be involved in creating this knowledge base. We need 
to have a platform where similar agglomerations can 
talk about their similar problems, believes Ms Kazmu-
ková. “This would enrich us all.”

She adds that “a platform at EU level where cities, re-
gional planners and the scientific world can exchange 
information and discuss problematic areas would help 
in  our  capacity  building.  The  platform  would  provide 
us with more information, knowledge, best practices. 
It would also allow [cities] to develop a common ap-
proach  to  data  collection  for  EI,  modelling  tools  and 
monitoring stations. It will allow us to speak the same 
language and to take larger steps in implementing air 
quality legislation; to speak about the same data, as 
that hasn’t been the case until now.” 

Addressing Prague’s air quality  
problems

The pilot demonstrated that Prague had many small 
problems at every stage of the implementation pro-
cess. Some have already been solved and the others 
are  being  addressed.  Ms  Kazmuková  stresses  that 
“a clear set of standard guidelines on EI, monitoring 
and modelling would help us enormously in adopting 
correct measures in our planning documents and in 
implementing legislation. However, she adds the ca-
veat that whilst models should be similar they must 
take  into  account  an  area’s  specificity:  “We  do  not 

12

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
 
 
 
S U S T A I N A B L E  
S U S T A I N A B L E  
M O B I L I T Y   A N D 
M O B I L I T Y   A N D 
  T R A N S P O R T
  T R A N S P O R T

LIFE helps tackle sustainable 
 mobility challenges

The LIFE programme has demonstrated a range of approaches to improving air quality in 

cities. Integrating these into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans is the ultimate goal. 

E 

U legislation has helped reduce vehicle emis-
sions  of  many  air  pollutants  (e.g.  lead,  SO2). 
However, urban mobility is still heavily reliant on the 
use  of  conventionally-fuelled  private  cars.  In  many 
European  towns  and  cities  car  use  contributes  to 
chronic traffic congestion, a problem that is estimat-
ed  to  cost  €80  billion  annually10,  as  well  as  reduc-
ing  the ability of municipalities to meet concentra-
tion limits for air quality pollutants. In 2011, annual 
limit  values  for  nitrogen  dioxide  (NO2),  which  can 
cause asthma and other respiratory problems, were 
exceeded at 42% of European Environment Agency 
(EEA)  traffic  monitoring  stations  and  the  daily  limit 
value for PM10 was exceeded at 43% of sites11. 

Recent developments in EU policy are addressing the 
issue  of  urban  air  quality,  in  particular  through  the 
clean  air  policy  and  urban  mobility  packages  (see 
pp. 3-4). The former focuses on general air pollution 
reduction requirements – setting National Emission 
Ceilings for the six main pollutants and introducing 
measures to ensure that existing targets are met in 

10  Together  towards  competitive  and  resource-efficient  urban 

mobility COM(2013) 913 Final

11  A closer look at urban transport: TERM 2013: transport in-
dicators tracking progress towards environmental targets in 
Europe

the short term, as well as new air quality objectives 
for  the  period  up  to  2030.  Central  to  the  latter  is 
the  need  to  develop  sustainable  practices,  such  as 
energy-efficient and affordable public transport, us-
er-friendly cycling and walking routes, and a holistic 
approach  that  connects  local  and  regional  trans-
port  networks  and  positions  peri-urban  transport 

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

A  SUMP  defines  a  set  of  interrelated  measures  designed  to  satisfy  the 
mobility-related environmental needs of people and businesses. They are 
the result of an integrated planning approach and address all modes and 
forms of transport in cities and their surrounding area. So far, few Euro-
pean cities have implemented SUMPs and a wider understanding of their 
benefits is needed. Central to the SUMP concept is the idea of embedding 
urban mobility in a wider urban and territorial strategy. Therefore, these 
mobility  plans  should  be  developed  by  different  branches  and  levels  of 
local administrations (including - alongside transport - departments such 
as  health,  environment,  economic  development,  spatial  planning,  energy 
policy, etc) and in cooperation with authorities in neighbouring (urban and 
rural) areas.

SUMPs aim to foster balanced development and better integration of dif-
ferent urban mobility modes. As a people-centric planning concept, SUMPs 
emphasise  citizen  and  stakeholder  engagement,  as  well  as  fostering 
changes in mobility behaviour. 

13

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyCEMOBIL made electric vehicles available to organisations and the public in Klagenfurt (Austria)

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networks  within  the  context  of  overall  land  use  and 
spatial development. Similarly, it is acknowledged that 
there is a need for better integration of different urban 
mobility systems, encouraging citizen and stakeholder 
engagement, as well as changes in behaviour.  

the  development  of  advanced  pollution  monitoring 
techniques and infrastructure and use of hybrid buses 
to the development of community mobility plans and 
partnership initiatives with cities in Italy (Potenza) and 
Romania (Suceava). 

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) are identi-
fied as an important element of the new urban mo-
bility  strategy  (see  box  p.13)  and  should  be  linked 
to Air Quality Plans under Directive 2008/50/EC for 
coherence and synergy effects. 

LIFE and urban air quality

Although the project achieved notable successes, such 
as demonstrating 95% reductions in PM emissions and 
15% reductions in NOx emissions from the buses used, 
the  scale  of  the  project  implied  considerable  invest-
ments and some measures were not supported by a 
proper  cost-benefit  analysis.  Consequently  the  SUMP 
was never implemented. 

Since  1992,  the  LIFE  programme  has  co-financed 
some 80 projects covering aspects of urban mobility 
and transport-related themes12. Projects relevant to 
this  chapter  have  varied  considerably  in  scope  and 
have tended to address urban mobility measures in 
isolation, rather than integrated into a SUMP. 

Several LIFE projects - examples include KALAIR and 
OPERA  (see  pp.  40-42)  -  have  developed  tools  and 
methodologies that can help administrations improve 
their capacity to take decisions about air quality with a 
view to developing a SUMP. Improving monitoring and 
modelling processes is central to this.

The difficulty of doing the latter is shown by the ex-
ample of the UK project CATCH, which attempted to 
address all the stages of urban mobility planning, from 

12  This subject was discussed by LIFE projects during a  Plat-
form  Meeting  on  Alternative  Future  Urban  Mobility,  which 
took place in Berlin in November 2013, http://ec.europa.eu/
environment/life/news/newsarchive2014/february/index.
htm#mobility

Urban mobility measures

A closer analysis of the LIFE programme’s implemen-
tation of urban mobility measures reveals that earlier 
projects  (pre-2003)  largely  focused  on  encouraging 
the  use  of  alternative  modes  of  transport  (such  as 
cycling),  whilst  since  2003  there  has  been  a  steady 
increase in the number of projects demonstrating the 

14

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
use of electric- or other types of vehicles powered by 
alternative fuels (including renewables). 

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Amongst  the  first  wave  of  projects  from  1998-
2003,  which  focused  on  behavioural  change 
through ‘softer’ measures such as awareness-rais-
ing, three in particular stand out. European Day ‘In 
Town Without My Car!’ not only acted as a catalyst 
for  the  growth  of  car-free  days  (see  pp.  43-47), 
it  also  became  a  platform  for  cities  to  announce 
innovations  in  sustainable  mobility,  such  as  cycle 
lanes,  new  bus  routes  and  pedestrianised  zones. 
Measurements  by  participating  cities  have  shown 
the impact of such measures on reducing PM and 
NOx emissions. A second project (SMILE) compared 
the  impact  of  the  car-free  initiatives  introduced 
by  over  400  towns  and  cities  to  determine  which 
had achieved their goals, why they had been suc-
cessful, which initiatives were still active and which 
could  be  transferred  to  other  urban  areas  in  Eu-
rope. Finally, VOTE FOR BICYCLE developed new cy-
cle lanes in Oradea, Romania and staged events in 
order to encourage more people to cycle. 

Electro-mobility and hybrid vehicles

Much of LIFE’s innovation in the last decade has fo-
cused on demonstrating and promoting electro-mobil-
ity  solutions.  For  instance,  the  PARFUM  project  from 
2003  conducted  trials  of  an  electric  bus  fleet  in  the 
city of Bremen, Germany. This reduced NOx emissions 
by 223 kg and PM by 15.6 kg over the course of the 
project.  The  RAVE  project  in  Novara,  Italy  addition-
ally aimed to improve road safety. Lessons from the 
project could feed into the Commission’s planned dis-
semination  (2014-2015)  of  good  practice  examples 
for road safety planning13. 

More  recent  electro-mobility  projects  have  focused 
on  the  progressive  deployment  of  electric  vehicles. 
Projects  in  Austria  (CEMOBIL)  and  Spain  (CONNECT) 
have respectively made such vehicles available to the 
general public and staff of targeted organisations. Us-
ers taking part in the trials have been offered free or 
subsidised recharging as a means of stimulating inter-
est and uptake of this ‘clean transport’ alternative for 
medium-distance journeys in urban areas. 

In Gothenburg, the HYPER BUS project is demonstrat-
ing a new plug-in technology and fast-charging ser-
vice, based on renewable energy, for hybrid electric 

13 Together towards competitive and resource-efficient urban 
mobility COM(2013) 913 Final

CONNECT established five ‘zero-emission’ electric recharging points for electric vehicles

buses.  In  trials  to  date,  the  new  vehicles  have  met 
set goals in terms of fuel reduction (81% less), en-
ergy savings (61% less) and reductions of emissions 
and CO2 (approximately 80% for both) in comparison 
with the company’s standard diesel buses.  

Projects introducing innovations often require signifi-
cant investments. However, it can also be extremely 
difficult  to  predict  their  results,  as  state-of-the-art 
technologies  don’t  always  correspond  to  initial  ex-
pectations. It is also important to take lifecycle con-
siderations into account. For instance, is the energy 
for charging electric vehicles derived from renewa-
bles or fossil fuels? LIFE projects such as CEMOBIL 
and CONNECT have explicitly included such consid-
erations  in  their  initial  proposals,  providing  an  im-
portant demonstration value for others. CEMOBIL is 
deriving 3 800 MWh of electricity from non-fossil re-
sources, whilst CONNECT developed the first network 
of recharging points (which includes installations in 
workplaces) run entirely off renewable energy. 

Financial  and  other  incentives  have  already  been 
shown  to  encourage  people  to  adopt  greener  solu-
tions (such as solar power, through favourable feed-in  

The Clean Air project created the “European Biking Cities” network of cycle-friendly cities to 
enable the transfer of best practices

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BIOGASSYS is using by-products, waste and other biomass for biogas production to fuel different types of vehicles

tariffs). A LIFE project in Greece (IMMACULATE) dem-
onstrated  how  this  could  effectively  work  in  terms 
of  urban  transport  through  a  system  of  incentives 
for the acquisition of electric vehicles (bikes, scoot-

ers  and  cars)  in  the  city  of  Thessaloniki.  Incentives 
included VAT refunds and tax breaks for purchasing 
the cleaner alternatives, as well as exemption from 
any future congestion charging scheme, free parking 
and free eco-driving training.  

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LIFE11 ENV/NL/000793  

E-mobility 3 cities NL

This project is working to introduce a number of charging points for fre-
quent urban drivers, such as taxi and delivery van drivers, in Amsterdam, 
Rotterdam and Utrecht. 

“In many cases electric driving is not only green and comfortable, but also 
financially attractive for these frequent urban drivers as they drive many 
kilometres a day,” says project manager, Pieter Looitjestijn.  He  concedes 
however, that “the market for electric transport charging infrastructure is 
not yet fully developed.” Yet despite the constraints (the business case is 
uncertain,  as  is  public  opinion)  the  project  has  already  installed  the  first 
standard chargers, with the fast chargers set to follow.

An important element being addressed by the project is that “different lo-
cations require different chargers,” says Mr Looitjestijn. Residential areas 
are well serviced by regular chargers, or semi-fast chargers. However, loca-
tions such as petrol stations and restaurants require fast chargers: “Here 
people can have a coffee or a meal while their car is charging. In about 20 
minutes most cars can be charged up to 80%.” 

The plan is to install 16 fast chargers and at least 100 regular ones at a 
total cost of €384 000 and €500 000 respectively.  Whilst the new fast 
chargers are currently much more costly than standard ones Mr Looitjestijn 
and his colleagues are convinced that following these initial investments, 
“the market size can be brought to a level where [electric-powered frequent 
urban driving] becomes economically feasible.”

Provision  of  infrastructure  (e.g.  sufficient  charging 
points  for  electric  vehicles)  has  been  identified  as 
another  barrier  to  cleaner  mobility.  This  has  been 
largely overlooked by LIFE, although a current Dutch 
project  is  providing  one  example  of  how  the  issue 
may be addressed (see box). 

Another ongoing project in Sweden is making innova-
tive use of existing public transport infrastructure for 
trials of a novel electric-powered bus (see pp. 21-23). 

Alternative fuel vehicles

Alongside  electric  vehicles,  LIFE  has  also  demon-
strated  a  number  of  other  alternatives  to  petrol  or 
diesel. For instance, another aspect of the already-
mentioned PARFUM project was to provide individu-
als and companies with incentives to switch to using 
compressed  natural  gas  (CNG)-powered  vehicles. 
This was supported by a new network of fuelling sta-
tions  and  resulted  in  154  new  CNG  cars  being  put 
into operation during the project’s lifetime, reducing 
emissions of NOx by 2 450 kg and of PM  by  some 
171 kg. The implementation of these measures was 
important for the acceptance of Bremen’s Low Emis-
sion Zone (LEZ). 

16

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
Hydro-methane powered buses have been trialled by 
LIFE projects in Italy (MHyBus and SIDDHARTA). The 
former  project  has  tested  in  real-world  conditions 
the  efficiency  and  fuel  consumption  of  the  optimal 
hydro-methane  blend  (15%  hydrogen,  85%  meth-
ane). Results show a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions 
and NOx values within EU legal limits. The SIDDHAR-
TA project pioneered an ‘on demand’ public transport 
service which is expected to reduce emissions of CO 
by 1%, NOx by 4.1%, SOx by 3.7% and VOCs by 0.3%, 
and health costs by €34 500 per year. 

Projects  that  highlight  links  to  public  health  are 
likely to find more favour with policy-makers and 
achieve  greater  public  acceptance.  One  ongoing 
project,  MEDETOX,  is  focusing  on  the  develop-
ment of innovative methods to assess the possi-
ble health risk connected with the exposure of the 
general  public  to  diesel  exhaust  particles  under 
real-life  traffic  conditions  in  the  city  of  Prague. 
By September 2015, the project will deliver a set 
of  standardised  protocols  for  the  sampling  and 
toxicity testing of diesel emissions under real-life 
traffic conditions. These will enable ‘hazard iden-
tification’  and  ‘risk  assessments’  based  on  the 
toxic effects of vehicle emissions, thus potentially 
providing an important tool for decision-makers. 

LIFE08 ENV/S/000269

CLEANTRUCK

Targeting  heavy  goods  vehicles,  this  partnership  project,  coordinated  by 
the city of Stockholm, aims to establish new filling stations for renewable 
truck fuel, and to demonstrate new types of ‘clean trucks’ in Stockholm. 
Eco-driving, nitrogen-filled tyres and cooling units with liquid CO2 for refrig-
erated vehicles are also being promoted, with the aim of further reducing 
pollutants from goods distribution.

Spokesperson for the city of Stockholm, Helene Carlsson, says the project is 
now entering its evaluation phase. The results will feed into work on a ‘fos-
sil fuel free Stockholm 2050’ strategy, and influence the regulatory frame-
work for heavy transport applications, both nationally and internationally.

Over  50  clean  trucks  have  been  demonstrated  in  real-life  operation  by 
some 18 transport companies. “Preliminary evaluations suggest that the 
heavy traffic CO2 emissions could be reduced by 40-50%*, or more, if all 
transport vehicles running in Stockholm were of the same type as in the 
project,” she comments, adding that it seems likely that reductions of the 
“same magnitude” would be possible for NOx and PM emissions.

“There  is  no  universal  solution  to  the  problem  of  emissions  from  heavy 
traffic.  The  type  of  clean  truck  to  use  depends  on  the  situation  and  the 
route,” says Ms Carlsson. For instance, preliminary results indicate that a 
hybrid electric lorry is well suited to inner-city distribution, but not suitable 
for longer routes; methane diesel technology is most suitable over medium 
distances and ethanol ED95 vehicles provide good results in all scenarios. 
However, as the available engines for the latter are smaller, the vehicles 
are better suited to lighter loads.

Urban traffic logistics

*  The project’s expected results are a 1 500 tonne/yr reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, 

total NOx reduction of 17 tonnes/yr and a 240 kg/yr reduction of total PM2.5 or less.

MHyBus tested hydro-methane powered buses in real world conditions 

Urban  logistics  are  essential  for  cities  to  func-
tion successfully and make up a significant share 
of urban traffic as part of regional, national and 
international  supply  chains.  However,  logistical 
needs are often neglected in urban planning and 
management.  Member  States  and  local  and  re-
gional  authorities  need  to  provide  a  framework 
(delivery spaces, access regulations, enforcement 
etc.) to ensure there is a commercial case for pri-
vate logistics operators to invest in the necessary 
new  technologies  and  solutions.  Urban  logistics 
also needs to be inserted in SUMPs.  

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Some LIFE projects have demonstrated improve-
ments  in  city  traffic  logistics  in  the  context  of 
sustainable urban mobility, if on a rather limited 
scale. Light- and heavy-duty vehicles are consid-
erable sources of emissions in urban areas. Such 
fleets are also well-suited to testing alternatives 
to combustion engines, as shown by the Swedish 
project, CLEANTRUCK (see box). 

Other  solutions  to  reduce  emissions  from  light-
duty vehicles have focused on the creation of ur-

17

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
LIFE05 ENV/IT/000870

CEDM

This pilot project implemented eco-friendly freight distribution in the his-
toric centre of the city of Lucca, Tuscany. Central to this was the estab-
lishment  of  a  ‘city  distribution  terminal’,  or  warehouse,  as  the  main  in-
frastructure  to  support  eco-  and  business-efficient  distribution  schemes. 
The project led to a 19% reduction in circulation of freight vehicles, with 
measurable improvements in air quality, as well as energy and CO2 savings. 

Importantly, the legacy still continues, as Mauro Di Bugno of the Municipality 
of Lucca, confirms. After the project ended, he says the city has invested re-
sources to further develop the distribution warehouse, now called ‘LuccaPort’ 
(www.luccaport.it),  in  cooperation  with  all  relevant  stakeholders  and  busi-
nesses. The aim is to achieve “further significant reductions” of traffic-related 
energy consumption, NOxious gases emissions and noise, and to preserve the 
quality of the environment and the historical and tourist assets. 

He  emphasises  that  the  strategic  planning  established  under  CEDM,  has 
become  “more  and  more  relevant”.  Moreover,  he  says,  the  experience 
gained  from  the  project  is  being  disseminated  to  several  European  pro-
jects (e.g. IEE ENCLOSE - www.enclose.eu) and networks (e.g. CIVITASNET). 
Finally, in order to fully raise awareness about the benefits of sustainable 
city logistics, the city of Lucca has recently founded the Logical Town As-
sociation (“International Association for Sustainable City logistics for small 
and mid-sized historic towns”).  

ban  logistics  systems  that  involve  the  last-mile 
delivery  of  goods  using  low-emission  vehicles 
(C-DISPATCH,  PARFUM,  URBANNECY,  CEDM  –  see 
box).  These  are  often  linked  to  the  implementa-
tion of an LEZ in the city centre in question. 

A  similar  system  is  being  developed  by  ELBA,  a 
LIFE  project  on  the  Italian  island  of  the  same 
name,  where  an  eco-sustainable  integrated  mo-
bility scheme for both people and goods is being 
demonstrated.  Making  use  of  eco-friendly  vehi-
cles, this mobility scheme will involve ‘intermedi-
ate’ and ‘flexible’ transport and logistics solutions.

Two projects have demonstrated sustainable ap-
proaches  to  peri-urban  commuting  to  industrial 
areas  (GESMOPOLI  and  I.MO.S.M.I.D).  In  both  in-
stances,  the  project  developed  a  coordinating 
body  to  organise,  plan,  programme  and  promote 
services within the trial district, such as car shar-
ing and public transport using hybrid buses (elec-
tricity and methane/clean diesel). 

Smart  technologies  can  also  help  improve  urban 
logistics,  particularly  in  towns  and  cities  with  a 
historic  centre,  where  the  impacts  of  individu-
al  and  commercial  traffic  are  more  severe.  The 
PEHRT  project  in  Treviso,  Italy,  is  trialling  a  sys-
tem for delivering multi-modal travel information 
to commuters, visitors and businesses before and 
during  trips.  This  ICT-based  solution  provides  an 
integrated  overview  of  different  mobility  services  – 
including public transport, car parks (location, state, 
routing), bike-sharing, taxi-sharing and bike stations. 
As this project illustrates, there is scope for LIFE to 
do much more in terms of Intelligent Transport Sys-
tems (ITS). 

CEDM is replicating its last mile delivery system in several EU countries

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
Surprisingly, given that they are such an indispen-
sable part of the urban environment, the impact of 
refuse  collection  vehicles  has  been  addressed  by 
just  one  LIFE  project  (CLEANOWA  -  see  box).  This 
example from Sweden also shows how transfer of 
known  technologies  could  be  a  viable  (and  cost-
effective) alternative to new investment in sector-
specific technologies. 

Emission abatement

The  LIFE  programme  has  also  demonstrated  the 
possibility  of  introducing  innovative  emission-
abatement technologies to tackle pollution in ur-
ban ‘hot spots’ or more sensitive areas. A project 
in Austria (CMA+) used liquid calcium-magnesium 
acetate  (CMA)  as  a  dust-binder  on  roads,  reduc-
ing  PM10  re-suspension  by  1-4  µg/m3.  This  was 
accompanied  by  other  measures  to  reduce  PM10 
concentrations,  such  as  retro-fitting  with  particle 
filters on buses and implementing new clean dis-
trict  heating  and  extending  the  natural  gas  con-
nections to facilitate fuel shift.

Another  emission-abatement  technology  being 
trialled by LIFE is heterogeneous photocatalysis, 
with the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and solar 
radiation.  The  aim  of  the  LIFE  EQUINOX  project 
is  to  reduce  NOx  emissions  by  30%.  Earlier  at-
tempts to use TiO2 in real-world situations have 
not  matched  the  results  of  laboratory  trials,  so 
lessons from this ongoing LIFE project could pro-
vide a valuable best practice example. 

Wider focus and more integration

Despite  its  overall  positive  impact  on  urban  air 
quality,  it  could  be  argued  that  the  focus  of  the 
LIFE programme has been too narrow, supporting 
clusters  of  projects  that  provide  single  solutions 
rather than an integrated approach to urban and 
peri-urban  mobility.  Co-financing  for  infrastruc-
ture and smart technologies – particularly ITS - is 
a key element of such integrated solutions and an 
area in which LIFE has the opportunity to make a 
difference.  

Above all, the programme could be used to fill in 
the gaps 14 that act as barriers to the adoption of 
SUMPs by local and regional authorities. 

14  Communication  -  Together  towards  competitive  and  re-
source-efficient urban mobility [COM(2013) 913 Final]

LIFE03 ENV/S/000592

CLEANOWA 

The  CLEANOWA  project  was  carried  out  from  2003-2006  by  the  private 
waste and recycling company, Renova. Its purpose was to run a full-scale 
trial in the city of Gothenburg and evaluate the use of CNG-fuelled (com-
pressed natural gas) engines for its waste collection fleet. 

When the truck stops at a collection point, the internal engine automati-
cally cuts out after 30 seconds. Instead, an electric motor is used to power 
the hydraulics  for  loading and compacting. This motor is  quiet  and  does 
not generate emissions. Overall, the project was successful and reached its 
main objectives, achieving it is claimed, “significant improvements” in CO 
(90%), HC (80%), NOx (50%), CO2 (20%) and PM.

Today, the beneficiary is continuing to build upon the project. According to 
Renova spokesperson, Kurt Lindman, 10 of the original 16 eco-trucks are 
still in operation: “This is quite surprising as the specially-equipped trucks 
are more sensitive to wear and ageing,” he says, noting that the electrical 
compaction unit and the battery package have “worked very well”. Despite 
this, over the next 12 months or so these trucks will be phased out because 
there are “better solutions available today,” he adds.

Mr Lindman believes the project “hastened development work” at Renova 
in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable fuels. For example, by the 
end of 2013, the company had substituted 79% of its diesel consumption 
from its then fleet of 170 trucks in favour of renewable fuels. 

19

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyThere is also scope to address in more depth the 
impact  of  other  forms  of  transport  on  urban  air 
quality, such as ships and trains. LIFE has already 
made a small contribution through projects such 
as WINTECC and LNG Tanker, which demonstrat-
ed  the  reduction  of  pollutants  (100%  soot  and 
methane,  80%  NOx,  60%  hydrocarbons)  along-
side  fuel  and  cost  savings.  The  PVTRAIN  project 
showed  how  photovoltaic  cells  could  be  used  to 
charge accumulators on board locomotives, rail-
way coaches and freight wagons. 

Thirdly,  it  is  important  for  LIFE  to  contribute  to 
a  better  understanding  of  the  impact  of  urban 
mobility measures during the new programming 
period. Few projects until now have incorporated 
the  use  of  modelling  tools  that  might  gave  a 
more  accurate  assessment  of  their  impact  be-
yond  measurements  for  a  particular  place  over 
a  limited  timeframe  (e.g.  the  last  year  of  the 
project).  Furthermore, the new programme could 
be used to develop methods to assess the costs 
and benefits of proposed measures, allowing au-
thorities to adopt realistic, cost-efficient and in-
tegrated solutions that deliver sustainable urban 
mobility and cleaner air for all.

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The first fuel cell passenger ship was developed by the Zemships project

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LIFE  projects  for  2014-2020  should  also  focus 
on issues that are essential for meeting air qual-
ity standards, such as the use of electric or very 
low-emission  vehicles  (including  support  infra-
structure),  new  drive  train  technologies,  devel-
opment and implementation of high-impact Low 
Emission Zones and road pricing schemes, train-
ing for ‘cleaner driving’, retrofit programmes for 
public-service  vehicles  and  innovative  logistics 
platforms for last-mile delivery of goods. 

The innovative wind propulsion technology for cargo vessels tested by WINTECC brought considerable fuel savings

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
S u S t a I n a b l e   m o b I l I t y   a n d   t r a n S p o r t

Passengers ‘test’ prototype 
SLIDE IN bus

The  ongoing  LIFE  project,  SLIDE  IN,  is  demonstrating  a  new,  energy  efficient  and  fossil-

free public transport concept for electric trolleybuses and trams. A prototype trolleybus is 

already in operation in the city of Landskrona, Sweden. 

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The new SLIDE IN bus is 
already in service

T 

he overall objective of this partnership project, 
which  runs  until  2015,  is  to  demonstrate  how 
greenhouse gas emissions, and other forms of air pol-
lution, can be reduced through the introduction of the 
unique ‘SLIDE IN’ concept for trolleybuses and trams. 
Led  by  Lund  University,  a  prototype  bus  is  currently 
being  tested  in  the  city  of  Landskrona  (population  c. 
40 000), southern Sweden. Project coordinator Jesper 
König, says: “It’s the first working prototype ever – as 
far as we know.”

Trolleybuses  have  been  around  since  the  late 
19th  century  (see  box  p  23)  and  hybrid  trolley-

buses  that  can  travel  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
electric  cables  since  the  late  20th  century.  The 
innovative  aspect  driving  this  LIFE  project  is 
the  development  of  technology  that  allows  the 
battery  of  a  hybrid  electric  bus/trolleybus  to  be 
charged whilst the vehicle is in use – ‘sliding in’ 
rather than ‘plugging in’. 

Introduced in August 2013, the hybrid SLIDE IN ve-
hicle runs alongside four traditional trolleybuses on 
the circular route connecting Landskrona’s mainline 
railway station with the city centre and port, a line 
used by some half a million passengers each year. 

21

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
Mr König. “The good thing is it doesn’t have to be 
parked while charging the battery.”

Another important objective was to ensure the sys-
tem  would  be  cost-effective.  The  project  coordina-
tor estimates that while there are extra costs for the 
SLIDE  IN  bus  compared  with  existing  trolleybuses 
(costs related to the batteries, monitoring equipment 
and adjustment of the poles), once in production, the 
unit  price  is  expected  to  fall.  Similar  economies  of 
scale  are  expected  for  the  battery,  which  currently 
costs SEK 500 000-600 000 (c. €60 000). 

Optimising operations 

Jan-Erik Olsson is the driver/instructor in charge of 
operations  of  the  SLIDE  IN  bus  for  Nobina  (which 
operates public transport in Landskrona under fran-
chise from Skånetrafiken). He says there is “no dif-
ference” from driving a regular trolleybus. Indeed, so 
straightforward is it to use that the SLIDE IN vehicle 
was  put  into  service  just  three  days  after  delivery. 
Since  then,  there  have  been  “no  mechanical  fail-
ures”,  although  one  day  the  bus  was  taken  off  the 
route  temporarily  after  the  driver  forgot  to  charge 
the  battery,  says  Mr  Olsson.  Even  then  the  vehicle 
had enough charge to complete its journey, however 
the project team has recommended that the battery 
is always kept at least 40% charged to extend bat-
tery life. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  bus  is  charged  over-
night  at  the  depot,  using  a  small,  plug-in  electrical 
charger, explains technician Johan Björnstedt, a sci-
entist  from  Lund  University  who  is  responsible  for 

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One of Landskrona’s existing trolleybus fleet

The vehicle can connect and disconnect with the trol-
leybus cables at two points and, after recharging on 
the move, then extend its route (fossil-free) beyond 
the limits of the existing infrastructure. 

A key challenge for the LIFE team was to find out 
whether  the  battery  fitted  in  the  new  bus  would 
be  powerful  enough  to  allow  it  to  run  indepen-
dently of the existing trolleybus line over the re-
quired distance. In the real-life traffic conditions 
currently being tested in Landskrona, this has al-
ready  proved  to  be  the  case:  “The  bus  operates 
for about 6 km ‘under the wire’ then goes 10 km 
offline, [before] returning to  the wires,” confirms 

Jan-Erik Olsson and Johan Björnstedt discuss the performance of the SLIDE IN bus as it travels round Landskrona

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
 
 
rona’s buses were electric, rather than gas or diesel-
powered,  whilst  28%  of  respondents  said  that  the 
SLIDE IN bus was better than a standard trolleybus 
and just 2% said it was worse. A second survey will 
take place at the end of the project. 

Air quality impact

In 2009, a study to assess the environmental impact  
of installing a trolleybus line in Landskrona showed 
that  -  if  the  general  performance  of  vehicle  types 
was  applied  to  this  scenario  -  in  comparison  with 
(Euro 4) diesel buses, the trolleybus journeys would 
have contributed to annual reductions of 1 200 kg 
of NOx, 5 kg of particulate matter and 11 kg of hy-
drocarbons (as well as 275 tonnes of CO2). Trolley-
buses are, in general, more energy efficient than the 
biogas-powered buses that have replaced diesel ve-
hicles on Landskrona’s other routes (consuming 1.6 
kWh/km  in  comparison  with  5.6  kW/h  for  a  biogas 
bus). “Combustion engines waste roughly two-thirds 
of  the  energy  input  in  heat,  using  only  a  third  for 
forward motion. An electric engine wastes less than 
10% in heat, using the rest for forward motion,” ex-
plains Mr König. 

Whilst  tests  of  the  SLIDE  IN  concept  are  ongoing, 
early results indicate that it could be a viable means 
of  integrating  existing  trolleybus  (and  tram)  lines 
into the sustainable urban mobility concept of many 
towns and cities across Europe, potentially contribut-
ing to improvements in air quality without the need 
for  new  infrastructure.  “You  can  extend  electrifica-
tion without putting up more cables and wires,” says 
Mr König. “Many cities are building tram lines – the 
technology  could  be  used  there  as  well  of  course. 
Also - and this is more a political decision - you could 
close off a city centre to regular trucks allowing only 
electric trucks to run into the centre, using batteries 
to reach each customer. These are potentials: It’s not 
the aim of this project to tell people what to do, the 
aim is to show the world that we have a technology 
here, show that it works and could be used and, if it 
works, to inform people so that they have it in mind 
when they plan new systems.” 

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The new technology makes use of existing trolleybus infra-
structure to charge the vehicle whilst in motion 

assessing  the  performance  of  the  bus,  the  battery 
and  other  equipment.  Data  from  an  onboard  ‘fleet 
management  system’  are  sent  10  times  a  second, 
providing him with essential information about bat-
tery capacity, temperature and driving distances. 

Mr König emphasises that the (four) SLIDE-IN drivers 
were carefully selected – and have received special 
eco-driving training. He says this is important for a 
number of reasons, not least because they are the 
“ambassadors  for  the  project”.  “They  will  meet  the 
passengers and be asked about the bus, especially 
when it is running on battery…They need to feel part 
of the project.”

To find out what the general public thinks about the 
SLIDE IN concept, the project has just completed its 
first  public  attitude  poll,  carried  out  by  Motivation-
shuset. Responses from 136 passengers questioned 
were generally positive. Key findings include the fact 
that 82% of respondents would prefer that Landk-

Project number: LIFE10 ENV/SE/000035

Contact: Jesper König

Title: SLIDE IN - Life without oil: Slide in - energy efficient 
and fossil-free public transportation for a sustainable society

Email: jesper.konig@luopen.lu.se

Website: http://www.slidein.se/

Beneficiary: Lund University

Period: 01-Sept-2011 to 31-Dec-2015

Total budget: 1 665 000

LIFE contribution: 759 000 

Did you know?

•  Dr. Ernst Werner von 

Siemens invented the first 
trolleybus, or Elektromote, 
which made its maiden 
voyage in Berlin in 1882

•  The first passenger-

carrying trolleybus began 
operating at Bielatal near 
Dresden, Germany on 10 
July 1901

•  There are currently some 
300 trolleybus systems in 
operation in 43 countries 
worldwide

•  Since 2000, new trolley-
bus lines have been built 
in European towns and 
cities such as Castellón de 
la Plana (Spain - 2008), 
Landskrona (Sweden - 
2003) and Lecce (Italy 
- 2012).  

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
M O N I T O R I N G  
M O N I T O R I N G  
A N D  
A N D  
M O D E L L I N G
M O D E L L I N G

Breathing LIFE into the Air 
Quality Directive

The LIFE programme has helped develop necessary tools for the monitoring and modelling 

of air quality in Europe to help mitigate against the negative impacts of pollutants. It has 

also played a pivotal role in shaping European air policy.

I 

n  May  2008,  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council  adopted  the  Directive  on  ambient  air 
quality  and  cleaner  air  for  Europe  AQ  Directive  - 
(2008/50/EC).  This  sets  legally-binding  limits  for 
concentrations  of  major  air  pollutants,  to  address 
their major public health impacts.

Traditionally monitoring data have been used to as-
sess  air  quality.  However,  the  limited  spatial  repre-
sentativeness  of  these  data  does  not  allow  for  the 
complete spatial coverage required by the AQ Direc-
tive  or  to  properly  assess  human  and  eco-system 
exposure.  The  use  of  models  allows  for  complete 

The AIRUSE team monitoring air quality in Athens

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
spatial coverage but these are generally considered 
to  have  a  higher  uncertainty  than  monitoring.  By 
combining  these  two  sources  of  data  it  is  possible 
to provide more optimal estimates of the spatial dis-
tribution  of  air  quality.15  The  AQ  Directive  foresees 
within its reporting requirements the combined use 
of monitoring and modelling tools for: assessing and 
reporting on current air quality and determining ex-
ceedance  areas;  for  source  apportionment;  and  for 
near-real time assessment, including forecasting, for 
public information and alerts.16 In general, a model-
ling capability bridges the gaps between monitoring 
points, thereby improving the analysis of past pollu-
tion events and the forecasting of air quality. 

To achieve policy targets for the 2008 AQ Directive 
and  an  earlier  directive  relating  to  heavy  metals 
in  ambient  air  (2004/107/EC),  pollution  emissions 
for all Member States need to be substantially re-
duced. The instrument for doing this, the National 
Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive (2001/81/EC) un-
der which EU Member States that exceed emission 
ceilings  are  liable  to  fines,  under  revision  in  2013 
with stricter national emission ceilings for six major 
air pollutants.

The LIFE programme has funded many projects that 
have  developed  monitoring  and  modelling  tools  to 
help implement AQ policy objectives. Typically, these 
have  been  LIFE  Environment  projects,  but  a  little-
used branch was activated that anticipated air policy 
development  needs.  LIFE  Environment  Preparatory 
Action  projects  were  established  to  address  clear 
gaps in knowledge; one such was the need to evalu-
ate emission control strategies for both air pollutants 
and  greenhouse  gases  to  help  steer  the  Thematic 
Strategy  on  Air  Pollution  (COM(2005)446),  which 
was addressed by the EC4MACS project (see box).

Decision-making and planning

Planners face a range of problems when establish-
ing  air  quality  monitoring  networks  according  to 
general criteria set out in AQ directives. To increase 
harmonisation,  some  local  authorities  have  argued 
for  clearer  criteria,  for  example,  regarding  the  sit-

15  The  application  of  models  under  the  European  Union’s  Air 
Quality Directive: A technical reference guide (EEA Technical 
Report  –  No10/2011  (https://www.eionet.europa.eu/events/
EIONET/Technical%20report_3)

16  The  combined  use  of  models  and  monitoring  for  applica-
tions related to the European Air Quality Directive: a working 
sub-group of fairmode - Bruce Denby and Wolfgang Spangl 
(http://fairmode.ew.eea.europa.eu/monitoring-modelling-
sg1/denby_harmo13_h13-261_updated_list.pdf/download)

LIFE06 PREP/A/000006

EC4MACS 

This LIFE project addressed the need for a comprehensive information base 
to  provide  scientific  and  economic  analyses  for  the  revision  of  the  The-
matic Strategy on Air Pollution (2013) and the European Climate Change 
Programme. Some air pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) are known 
to  have  interactive  effects,  which  highlights  the  need  for  such  a  multi-
pollutant and multiple-effect approach. 

The  project,  which  was  coordinated  by  IIASA  (the  International  Institute 
for Applied Systems Analysis), integrated well-established modelling tools 
from relevant fields to explore the synergies and interactions between cli-
mate change, air quality and other policy objectives. The findings helped 
improve emission control strategies for air pollutants and GHGs. 

EC4MACS  was  the  first  fully-integrated  study  for  assessing  government 
actions  to  reduce  air  pollution  and  GHG  emissions  across  Europe.  Its  in-
novative approach incorporated all of the major contributors to air quality 
problems by sector, provided a full economic analysis of costs and benefits 
for mitigation methods, and identified the synergies and trade-offs result-
ing from policy responses in different sectors and regions. The system has 
helped update existing databases with current statistical data and projec-
tions on pollution emissions, from energy, transport, agriculture and other 
economic sectors for all EU Member States since 2011.

The EC4MACS toolbox is available on a dedicated website (www.ec4macs.
eu). For example, actual emissions data (SO2, NOx, PM, NH3, VOC, CO2, CH4 
and N2O) can be obtained by economic sector (such as energy, transport, 
land-use, agriculture and forestry) for each EU Member State, as well as 
projections for future years. 

EC4MACS has contributed to many policy proposals, including the EU En-
ergy and Climate Package, the EU Roadmap for moving to a low-carbon 
economy in 2050 and the review of EU air quality legislation. It was used 
for numerous studies to help revise the NEC Directive, including integrated 
assessment modelling, cost-benefit analysis, and the valuation of ecosys-
tem damage. Thus, it can be said to have played a pivotal role in shaping 
European air policy.

ing  of  traffic-pollution  monitoring  stations  in  terms 
of distance from the roadside17. Monitoring data are 
used  variously:  to  verify  air  quality  compliance,  to 
give real-time information to citizens, and to develop 
long-term actions and investments. There is thus a 
need for modelling systems, based on common crite-
ria, that can provide comprehensive and easy-to-use 
information for decision-making and planning. 

17  The review of Annex III of the Air Quality Directive 2008/50/
EC - JRC- AQUILA Position Paper “Assessment on siting cri-
teria,  classification  and  representativeness  of  air  quality 
monitoring  stations”  (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/
pdf/SCREAM%20final.pdf) - suggests a few improvements, 
such as macro-scale siting criteria for monitoring stations, 
criteria for siting of urban background monitoring stations, 
flexibility  in  the  micro-scale  criteria,  better  criteria  on  how 
monitoring networks should be designed and guidelines for 
defining station representativeness

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KAPA GS retrofitted vehicles with particle filters to reduce PM

The basic problem addressed by LIFE projects is that 
existing European air quality monitoring networks and 
modelling capability does not provide the range of lo-
cal  information  that  decision-makers  and  planners 
need. This is not too surprising, given that European-
scale networks were set up within global approaches 
to air pollution and climate change. The lack of preci-
sion offered by large-scale networks has driven work 

LIFE05 ENV/RO/000106

AIR-AWARE 

Bucharest is one of Romania’s most polluted cities, which has long-term 
public health consequences. The AIR-AWARE project helped implement AQ 
Directive requirements by developing a decision-making tool that is now 
used by local authorities in the Bucharest metropolitan area to predict the 
impact  of  air  pollution  episodes  and  improve  air  quality  through  better 
planning and urban development policies. The tool has also been used in 
updating  Bucharest’s  Urban  Zoning  Plan.  It  provides  user-friendly  visual 
information on the current status of atmospheric pollution, by measuring 
emissions and reviewing bio-indicator species in the city’s parks. The short-
term effects of acute pollution episodes are calculated, using monitoring 
data and weather forecasting. The general public is informed and the rel-
evant authorities can take remedial actions. 

Reducing air pollution in Bucharest is expected to lead to a reduction in the 
incidence of diseases such as lung cancer, with consequent reductions in pub-
lic health costs. Furthermore, the project manager believes that the system 
can easily be replicated in at least 20 other hotspot areas in Romania.

at the local demonstration level. Approximately 75% 
of LIFE’s air quality projects fall into this category.

Traffic pollution

The 2008 AQ Directive introduced new provisions, 
such as the possibility of extensions of time lim-
its for complying with limit values of three years 
for PM10 or up to five years for NO2 and benzene. 
It  also  introduced  new  air  quality  objectives  for 
new  air  quality  objectives  for  PM2.5  (fine  parti-
cles),  which  is  associated  with  traffic  pollution 
and  the  burning  of  fossil  fuels.  Eight  LIFE  pro-
jects  since  2000  have  focused  on  traffic  pollu-
tion,  especially  the  modelling  of  traffic  and  air 
quality  data  to  predict  pollution  episodes  and  to 
provide information for citizens and planners. The 
AIR-AWARE  project  developed  a  decision-support 
tool to predict air pollution episodes in Bucharest 
(see box), for instance, while ROMAIR implement-
ed  a  forecasting  system  to  help  Romania  meet 
EU  PM10  targets.  The  forecast  model  developed 
by  KAPA  GS  similarly  helped  to  reduce  PM10  and 
PM2.5  levels  in  Austrian  pollution  hotspots.  LIFE 
projects  have  also  provided  policy-relevant  in-
formation on traffic pollutant sources. For exam-
ple,  the  PARFUM  project  showed  that  heavy-duty  
vehicles contributed about 50% of NOx levels even 

26

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
though they only represented about 10% of road 
vehicles. The tools developed by this project clus-
ter enable the costs of improving public transport 
and other actions to be set against estimated air 
quality  improvements.  Comparisons  of  available 
emission mitigation options also can be made and 
the best selected.

Several LIFE projects have dealt with the produc-
tion  or  re-suspension  of  particulate  matter  (PM) 
caused  by  traffic.  This  is  a  problem  exacerbated 
by particular climatic and seasonal conditions, for 
instance,  it  can  be  26%  worse  in  winter.  There-
fore,  traffic  patterns  have  been  integrated  with 
weather  predictions  to  produce  warnings  and  to 
trigger  traffic  restrictions  (e.g.  KAPA  GS).  Best 
winter practices in Finland were identified for re-
ducing  PM,  using  a  mobile  system  to  help  focus 
dust-mitigating measures (REDUST). LIFE projects 
have  led  to  the  retro-fitting  of  public  transport 
fleets  with  catalytic-converters  for  NOx  and  par-
ticle  filters  for  PM,  and  have  even  changed  how 
roads are salted. The Austrian project SPAS devel-
oped roadside noise and dust filters, which cut PM 
levels by 15-30%. 

Fine  dust  particles  from  natural  sources  can  be 
especially  problematic  in  arid  areas  when  they 
combine  with  traffic  pollution.  The  LIFE  pro-
gramme  has  helped  to  improve  the  understand-
ing of air pollution in 14 Mediterranean cities, by 
quantifying incidences of Saharan dust and forest 
fires on PM particle size and composition in terms 
of potential health impacts (MED-PARTICLES) and 
has  brought  improvements  in  assessing  this  im-
pact (see AIRUSE box). 

In  addition  to  traffic  pollution,  other  hotspot  ar-
eas include ports and industrial sites. These have 
been  targeted  by  several  LIFE  projects.  Ports 
are  problematic  because  of  the  bulk  handling  of 
goods  with  high  dust  content.  The  HADA  project 
developed  a  real-time  decision-making  and  re-
sponse  tool  to  determine  best  working  practices 
in Spanish ports, including delaying certain activi-
ties  to  reduce  pollutant  dispersion  risk.  One  out-
come of the SIMPYC project was the Valencia Port 
Authority  expanding  its  air  monitoring  activities 
to  improve  air  quality.  Smelting  has  a  range  of 
work  streams,  some  of  which  can  be  more  pol-
luting than others; the AIRFORALL project helped 
adjust these in Romanian smelting plants, taking 
into  account  the  meteorological  conditions  that 
exacerbate pollution. 

LIFE11 ENV/ES/000584

AIRUSE 

“Several urban and industrial areas in Europe are not capable of meeting 
new standards for PM,” according to Xavier Querol of CSIC, Spain’s National 
Research Council. The problem is most acute in arid urban areas in south-
ern Europe, where the health effects of road traffic pollution are worsened 
by  PM  from  natural  sources.  “African  dust  and  marine  aerosols  are  the 
main natural sources contributing to increased PM10, and to a lesser pro-
portion PM2.5, in the Mediterranean region,” he explains. 

In  Barcelona,  around  4%  of  annual  PM10  levels  were  found  to  originate 
from African dust. On a daily basis, this can cause ambient PM levels to 
far exceed daily limits. “It is important for national authorities to be able 
to calculate the daily contribution of African dust,” says Dr Querol. “Dust 
forecasts can raise public awareness and reduce health risks. Furthermore, 
additional measures could be applied to reduce anthropogenic emissions 
during episodes of high natural PM loads.” 

The AIRUSE project is testing mitigation methods to reduce road dust in cit-
ies. Kerbside measurements in Barcelona showed that street washing re-
duced daily PM10 concentrations by 7-10% on average. Dust suppressants, 
such as calcium-magnesium acetate (CMA), MgCl2 and nano-polymers, are 
being tested. Technology to reduce PM from wood-burning activities is also 
being  assessed.  Appropriate  measures  will  be  proposed  to  regional  and 
national policy-makers.

Health and the environment

Air  quality  is  an  extremely  important  issue  for  pub-
lic health, the economy and the environment. A high 
proportion of Europe’s population lives in cities, where 
air  quality  limit  values  are  often  breached.  Poor  air 
quality contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular 
diseases. Exposure to PM, ozone (O3) and polycyclic 

27

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyaromatic  hydrocarbons  (PAHs),  in  particular,  is  as-
sociated with serious health risks. The AQ Directive 
requires that local authorities monitor air pollution, 
inform the public if pollutants exceed EU limits, and 
take action to reduce the adverse health effects of 
air pollution.

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LIFE10 ENV/FR/000208

FO3REST 

The main objective of the FO3REST project has been to refine criteria and 
suggest validated thresholds for Mediterranean forest protection against 
ozone and climate change.

“Concentrations of ozone in the air are not representative of actual impacts 
on vegetation, as injury occurs only when ozone is absorbed into the plant,” 
explains Pierre Sicard of project beneficiary ACR-ST. “The present European 
standard for vegetation protection (AOT40) is based on ozone concentra-
tions in the air and is inadequate for the derivation of scientifically-sound 
thresholds.”

Dr Sicard adds that “epidemiological evidence from the FO3REST project 
suggests that the responses of vegetation to ozone are related to the ab-
sorbed gas flux through the stomata.” Therefore, the project proposes new 
critical levels, based on the actual quantity of ozone absorbed.

The project’s findings are transferable. “Most European countries carry out 
forest  monitoring,  but  the  different  approaches  used  make  comparisons 
at the European level problematic,” says Dr Sicard. “The FO3REST results 
serve  as  a  harmonised  forest  monitoring  technique  for  ozone  and  as  a 
decision-support tool for national and European authorities.” 

Acknowledging the importance of cooperation with the JRC’s Air and Cli-
mate  Unit,  Dr  Sicard  hopes  that  the  FO3REST  results  will  help  reinforce 
collaboration between forest ecologists and atmospheric scientists.

28

A  group  of  LIFE  projects  have  developed  health 
risk  maps  and  models  for  air  pollutants.  One  pro-
ject  (SINESBIOAR)  developed  a  tool  to  evaluate  air 
quality  and  its  social  impacts  in  the  Sines  area  of 
Portugal,  with  air  pollution  and  environmental  cost 
risk maps being created for urban areas and natural 
habitats. Air quality is being monitored and modelled 
to study the links between different pollutants (e.g. 
PM, nitrogen oxides and PAHs) to provide estimated 
health risks for children (MAPEC_LIFE). Also in Italy, 
the links between air pollution, health risks and the 
weather are being analysed with seasonal exposure 
models for PAHs and PM2.5 helping to provide health 
assessments  for  children  and  the  elderly  (EXPAH). 
The need for Member States to monitor the impacts 
of  air  pollution  on  ecosystems  is  a  new  provision 
of  the  revised  National  Emissions  Ceiling  Directive 
(NECD).  The  most  significant  LIFE  contribution  to 
this emerging field is FO3REST, which created ozone 
thresholds for trees (see box).

Cost benefits

A key challenge for LIFE projects has been the cost-
benefit estimation of air quality mitigation measures. 
The challenge is to consider investments not just in 
terms of pollution reductions, but also in considera-
tion economic, social and other factors. For instance, 
measures such as cycle lanes can seem ineffective 
compared to technical measures (e.g. particle filters) 
if emissions criteria alone are considered. However, 
cycle  lanes  have  other  benefits,  such  as  reducing 
congestion. Calculating benefits from such structural 
measures can be difficult, but it is especially relevant 
for policy-makers and politicians.

In general terms, modelling and assessing the cost 
of technical measures is easier than doing the same 
for  structural  measures,  which  seek  to  change  citi-
zens’ habits and may have several benefits. Several 
LIFE projects have calculated the costs of straight-
forward  technological  measures  and  compared 
them with existing measures (e.g. REDUST). Value for 
money is also a common theme in LIFE monitoring 
and modelling projects. ACEPT-AIR, for example, de-
veloped a cost-efficient policy tool for reducing PM, 
whilst  OPERA  developed  an  integrated  assessment 
methodology for cost-effective local and regional air 
quality policies (see pp. 40-42). 

The  European  Commission  estimated  the  health 
costs  of  air  pollution  to  be  between  €330  billion 
and  €940  billion  in  2010  (3-9%  of  EU  GDP).  Be-
cause most LIFE projects in the air monitoring and 

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
modelling thematic area have gone on to deliver air 
quality benefits, real savings have been made. For 
example, as a result of AIR-AWARE, Bucharest’s sur-
veillance and warning plan was expected to reduce 
pollution by up to 50% and therefore make substan-
tial savings.

Innovative methodologies

The  LIFE  programme  has  always  aimed  to  meet 
the  decision-making  needs  of  policy-makers  in  a 
cost-effective manner. Therefore, existing systems 
have  been  adapted  and  used  whenever  possible. 
This aim has also been a driver for innovation, with 
low cost and reliable technology being developed 
by  several  projects.  Volatile  organic  compounds 
(VOCs)  from  petrol  engines  in  urban  areas  have 
been  monitored  by  using  a  novel  solution  involv-
ing  membrane  technology  (ARTEMIDE).  Similarly, 
the  need  for  cheaper  technology  than  previously 

available  to  monitor  ultra-fine  particles  such  as 
PM2.5  drove  the  development  and  demonstration 
of  prototype  systems  in  the  UFIPOLNET  project. 
Elsewhere,  remote  sensing  was  linked  to  ground 
data as an innovative solution to the management 
of air pollution exposure levels in an area of West 
Macedonia  (Greece)  that  uses  lignite  for  power 
production. The SMAQ project developed scenarios 
based on geo-referenced information to estimate 
the  impacts  of  improved  environmental  technol-
ogy at lignite power plants.

The  importance  of  getting  real-time  information 
to  citizens  and  decision-makers  has  been  dem-
onstrated by the LIFE programme.  Policy support 
systems  that  link  coupled  multi-scale  models  to 
web-based  tools  have  been  developed  within  the 
ATMOSYS project (see pp. 32-34). In some cases, 
projects  have  identified  constraints  with  existing 
methodologies  and  developed  their  own  cheaper, 

EXPAH is quantifying exposure amongst children and elderly people to PAH content in particulate matter in the city of Rome

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faster  or  more  reliable  alternatives.  The  DIAPASON 
project is developing prototype LIDAR ceilometers (to 
determine cloud heights by laser) and optical particle 
counters,  whilst  LIFE  DIOXDETECTOR  is  developing  a 
detection method for dioxins (see box p.31).

Involving citizens

The revised NECD foresees the mandatory indicators 
at all sites of the network that have to be adopted. 
This  also  allows  citizens  to  see  the  progress  of  air 
quality  actions.  To  this  end,  LIFE  projects  have  be-
gun to assess the impact of photo-catalytic building 
materials in reducing air pollution. The LIFE MINOx-
STREET project is testing and comparing the poten-
tial usefulness of a range of commercial photo-cat-
alytic materials to act as NO2 (NOx) sinks, and see if 
promising  solutions  can  be  selected  to  be  used  on 
urban surfaces and in real conditions. 

The LIFE programme has made significant contri-
butions in enabling policy-makers, administrations 
and citizens to assess local actions, such as meas-
ures  for  dealing  with  traffic  pollution  hotspots 
(e.g.  the  ATMOSYS,  SIMPYC,  AIR-AWARE,  OPERA 
and  MAPEC_LIFE  projects);  although  perhaps  the 
most  striking  indicators  are  those  relating  to  the 
implications of air pollution on public health (e.g. 
EXPAH, SINESBIOAR). 

Building capacity to address the big 
picture

The  LIFE  programme  has  provided  many  innova-
tive  and  cost-effective  tools  and  methodologies 
for air pollution monitoring and modelling, by ef-
fectively  building  on  existing  knowledge,  encour-
aging collaboration, and developing solutions that 
are  diverse  and  multidisciplinary.  In  so  doing,  it 
has built capacity. For example, PM management 
planning  guidelines  have  been  produced  for  cit-
ies,  communities  and  councils.  Tools  produced 
by  the  European  Commission’s  Joint  Research 
Centre  (JRC)  have  been  trialled  within  the  LIFE 
programme  under  End  User  License  Agreements 
(e.g. OPERA) and some outputs have been passed 
to  the  Clean  Air  For  Europe  (CAFÉ)  programme 
(e.g. UFIPOLNET). LIFE has established guidelines 
to  help  regions  and  cities  select  the  best  means 
of  pollution  abatement  and  it  has  demonstrated 
ways to integrate local monitoring networks into 
regional,  national  and  European  networks.  These 
tools  can  also  be  used  as  a  stepping  stone  for 
future developments in LIFE. 

The monitoring and modelling solutions developed 
have generally been for specific sets of pollutants 
and places, but recent projects are addressing the 
bigger picture. The LIFE programme has contributed 

EuroBionet proposed a standardised method for the use of bioindicator plants as a means to assess and evaluate EU air quality

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
to  tackling  severe  air  pollution  problems,  with  fi-
nancial savings and health benefits made possible 
by optimising preventive measures; although more 
could  be  done  in  the  area  of  job  creation.  Policy 
development tools developed by LIFE already could 
help  improve  the  cost-effectiveness  of  spending 
on  air  quality  improvements,  whether  that  money 
comes  from  local,  regional,  national  or  European 
(e.g. Structural) funds. Thus they can help contrib-
ute  to  better  coherence  and  synergy  between  air 
quality  measures  and  other  environmental  goals, 
such as sustainable transport, noise reduction, en-
ergy efficiency and renewable energy. 

The programme is well placed to continue provid-
ing  financial  support  to  air  pollution  projects,  es-
pecially  given  their  trans-boundary  nature.  LIFE 
Environment is likely to remain at the forefront of 
air  quality  policy  implementation  in  Europe,  with 
LIFE offering an opportunity to develop more pro-
jects  on  the  impacts  of  air  pollution  on  ecosys-
tems. Moreover, LIFE Environment Governance and 
Information is a potentially useful platform to de-
velop  and  demonstrate  the  effectiveness  of  indi-
cators, which will be increasingly needed to inform 
the public about the effectiveness of air pollution 
abatement measures.

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000729

LIFE DIOXDETECTOR 

Incinerating solid waste releases pollutants into the environment, including 
dioxins. Analysis of these harmful substances is difficult, because dioxins 
are toxic at very low concentrations, meaning that very sensitive analysis 
techniques are required.

LIFE DIOXDETECTOR is developing a new analytical technique for the quan-
tification  and  continuous  monitoring  of  dioxins,  namely  75  compounds 
(congeners)  of  polychlorinated  dibenzo-p-dioxins  (PCDDs)  and  135  con-
geners of polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), around a municipal solid 
waste incineration facility in Spain. It will provide a better understanding 
of different dioxin pathways and greater insight into population exposure, 
thus enabling pollution to be tackled more efficiently, for instance by estab-
lishing measures to protect people and the environment.

“It is very important to monitor and model PCDDs and PCDFs, to obtain 
dispersion maps that indicate to what areas these pollutants are dis-
persed,” explains Marta Gómez of the coordinating beneficiary, Funda-
cion Cartif. “This identifies the areas of their highest concentration up 
to 5 km from the incinerator. The pollutants’ dispersion depends mainly 
on weather conditions.”

The  main  innovation  of  the  project  is  the  technique  for  dioxin  analysis, 
which is more sensitive than previous methods. “This technology is capable 
of  detecting  dioxins  below  the  parts  per  quadrillion  (ppq)  level,”  says  Dr 
Gómez; “and by using measurements at short intervals from air, soil and 
vegetal biota, it represents a more realistic estimate of emissions.”

The DIAPASON project’s desert dust detection methodology will help to determine the contribution of Saharan dust to particulate matter (PM) levels in Europe

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
m o n I t o r I n g   a n d   m o d e l l I n g

LIFE supports ATMOSYS  
innovation for healthier air

The  ATMOSYS  Air  Quality  Management  Dashboard  uses  coupled  regional  and  local  mod-

els  to  display  high-resolution  maps  for  archive,  near  real-time  and  forecast  air  quality 

 information.

T 

he  ATMOSYS  Air  Quality  Management  Dash-
board  uses  coupled  regional  and  local  mod-
els to display high-resolution maps for archive, near 
real-time and forecast air quality information. 

Traffic-related air pollution continues to be a major 
public  health  concern.  Limits  on  air  pollutants  set 
in the European Air Quality (AQ) Directive are often 
exceeded  in  pollution  hotspot  areas.  The  ATMOSYS 
project was initiated in the light of this directive, with 
the aim of improving the assessment and forecast-
ing of pollution episodes, to help improve urban air 
quality.  VITO  (the  Flemish  Institute  for  Technologi-
cal Research) collaborated with end-user beneficiar-
ies, the Flemish Environment Agency (VMM) and the 
Belgium Interregional Environmental Agency (IRCEL-
CELINE) throughout the project. 

Air quality measurement station

“We  have  an  ongoing  contract  with  the  VMM  and 
IRCEL-CELINE  to  help  them  on  policy  issues  for  air 
quality. When the 2008 AQ Directive came out, they 
realised they did not have an integrated system to 
get  air  quality  information  very  quickly,”  explains 
VITO’s Lisa Blyth. Tools developed by ATMOSYS now 
help these agencies to respond quickly when air pol-
lution thresholds are exceeded. 

“We firstly set up an improved air quality forecasting 
system for IRCEL,” recalls Ms Blyth. “The more infor-
mation you have, the more you reduce uncertainty. 
As  with  weather  forecasts,  the  more  models  you 
have running in parallel the better the prediction will 
be of conditions tomorrow.” The AURORA model uses 
traffic and industrial emissions data combined with 
meteorological data to predict concentrations of air 
pollutants. The ATMOSYS project enhanced this fore-
casting  system  using  data  simulation  techniques, 
which link model output with actual measurements, 
and mapping innovations.

Merging models

There has been greater attention on improved com-
puter modelling since the adoption of the 2008 AQ 
Directive. “With measurements you can only gather 
so  much  information,  because  the  measurement 
points are scattered around,” Ms Blyth explains, “but 
what is the air quality in all the other areas? Models 
fill in the gaps.” 

A major project task was to combine regional and lo-
cal models, to establish an archive of air quality maps 
for  multiple  scales:  regional,  urban,  local,  down  to 
micro-scale. “Grid size is too large on regional mod-
els to capture hotspots and assess how many people 
are affected by them,” says Ms Blyth. “The Directive 
wants to see whether anyone is exposed to overdose. 

32

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyIf,  say,  you  look  at  the  region  of  Flanders,  you  can 
see air quality for the whole region, but then zoom in 
and see the detail policy-makers want. They can then 
ask questions like: What is the extent of the problem? 
How many people live around this ring-road hotspot? 
How  many  people  are  exposed  to  air  pollution  over 
the EU-defined limits? Where do I start tackling the 
problem? It gives them a much better insight.”

The project merged the regional RIO model, which in-
terpolates data between measurement points using 
land use data, with a local Immission Frequency Dis-
tribution Model (IFDM) that calculates how emissions 
disperse in the air using hourly meteorological data. 
The coupling involved a great deal of development 
work; for example, care has to be taken to ensure no 
data are duplicated when combining models.

To focus on the micro-scale, the project used a com-
putational  fluid  dynamic  model  called  ENVI-MET, 
which  incorporates  local  wind-flow  patterns  and 
building height. Such modelling is expensive, but for 
key locations provides planners with valuable infor-
mation on how building design and tree planting can 
reduce air pollution.

High-resolution mapping

One of the main project outcomes was the making of 
high-resolution  maps  from  the  archive  of  air  quality 
information.  These  are  one  form  of  information  dis-
played  on  an  interactive  website  launched  in  June 
2013  (www.atmosys.eu):  the  ATMOSYS  Air  Quality 
Management  Dashboard.  The  services  and  tools  on 
the dashboard were soon providing important policy-
related and decision-making information. It is easy-to-
use and also implements an AQ Directive requirement 
to supply the public with air quality information, in this 
case for every region in Belgium. 

The daily air quality forecast service predicts concen-
trations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), two types 
of fine Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and elemen-
tal  carbon  for  two  days  ahead,  for  example,  whilst 
the exposure calculation tool informs users when EU 
thresholds  have  been  exceeded  for  the  four  pollut-
ants. Time evolution maps are animations that scroll 
through up to 8 760 hourly (one-year) archive maps, 
to show pollutant hotspots developing. “With ATMOS-
YS’s reanalysis service, VMM can answer queries from 
policy-makers  or  the  general  public  about  air  quality 
conditions at certain locations on particular dates,” ex-
plains Ms Blyth. “The tools can also assess whether air 
quality has improved or deteriorated over time.” 

Air quality modelling for Belgium

“Everyone can look up where they live and, if you put 
information on like ‘this hotspot is due to traffic pol-
lution’, it is a very good visual public awareness tool,” 
notes Ms Blyth. “The maps have generated a lot of in-
terest in Belgium.” ATMOSYS maps appear in the me-
dia, and one was held up in parliament to demonstrate 
poor air quality around Antwerp.

An evaluation tool was developed to quantify the accu-
racy of the maps. “You can click on a particular meas-
urement station and validate the model data predicted 
for each pollutant at that location against the actual 
data,” demonstrates Ms Blyth. This also helps to im-
prove the models. Making the forecast maps as reli-
able  as  possible  is  important  because  EU  Member 
States  can  be  taken  to  the  European  Court  fined  for 
exceeding pollutant levels in line with the AQ Directive.

Monitoring campaigns

David Roet works in the VMM team responsible for air 
quality measurement in Flanders. In addition to gath-
ering data from the permanent network of measur-
ing stations, the project also conducted two specific 
monitoring campaigns, in four cities and along a busy 
motorway, to gain further insights into pollution hot-
spots.  He  explains:  “In  Antwerp,  Ghent,  Bruges  and 
Ostend,  we  concentrated  on  three  location  types: 
street canyon, urban background and regional road.” 
Street  canyons  are  typically  narrow  roads  enclosed 
by tall buildings, which means that pollution builds up 
and NO2 and PM10 often exceed EU limits.

“When we looked at the average composition of PM10, 
we  saw  secondary  inorganic  ions,  mineral  dust,  sea 

33

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyINPUT

Measure DB

GAINS Technology

Measure DB

OUTPUT

Mapping

GAINS/Emission 

Activities

Emission data

- areal, point sources 

and gridded -

S/R Function

Artiﬁcial Neural Network 

or model

Emission Inventory

Emission Inventory

Source Receptor Function

Optimizator

RIAT + CORE SYSTEM

Pre Processors

Post Processors

Macrosector

Maps and Tables

Run Results

Optimized application rate 

Costs per Technologies and 

per Technologies

Tables

Emissions and AQI

Maps and Tables

ATMOSYS project structure

P U B L I C   I N F O R M A T I O N   I N T E R F A C E

Awareness

E X P E R T   A I R   Q U A L I T Y   M A N A G E M E N T   D A S H B O A R D

Forecast

Assess

Plan

B A C K - E N D   C O M P O N E N T S

Data
• Monitoring data (near-real time in-situ data)
• Meteo & Emission data
• Geo-information (road maps, 
land use, population data)
• Model output data (tables, 

graphs, maps)

Validation

• Model evaluation tool
• Forecast validation

Modelling
• Regional and local modelling
• Multi-scale model integration

Analysis

• Statistical forecast
• Regional chemisty transport model
• Interpollation techniques

Reporting

• E-reporting in line with legislation

salt,  compounds  related  to  wood-burning,  organic 
matter,  and  a  small  fraction  of  elemental  carbon, 
roughly on average 4%. However, if you look at the 
toxicity of these compounds, elemental carbon is the 
fraction especially causing negative health effects.” 
Monitoring also revealed previously lacking data on 
proportions of PM coming from car exhaust and non-
exhaust  (e.g.  brake-wear)  sources.  “We  also  found 
that PM coming from wood-burning in winter is eight 
times  higher  than  in  summer,”  notes  Dr  Roet.  This 
can make the difference between going over or stay-
ing  below  the  threshold.  Measurements  on  a  busy 
motorway  (the  E40  between  Brussels  and  Ghent) 
showed  that  NO2,  PM10  and  PM2.5  levels  dropped 
away  rapidly  with  distance  from  the  road.  This  in-
formation is needed to calculate exposure levels for 
people living close to major roads, and has relevance 
for cycleway and other infrastructure planning.  

“Elemental  carbon  is  a  fraction  of  particulate  mat-
ter coming from the combustion of fossil fuels, so it 
is a very good indicator of traffic pollution and it is 
one of the most deadly components of PM in terms 
of  health,”  explains  Dr  Roet.  The  ATMOSYS  project 

established the first elemental carbon emissions in-
ventory and maps for Flanders.

The AQ Directive requires the public to be informed of 
pollution episodes and mitigation plans. The  ATMOSYS 
forecast system has been one of the models used at 
IRCEL  this  year  to  help  issue  smog  alerts.  If  PM10  is 
forecast to exceed 70 µg/m3 for two days in a row, IR-
CEL sends out an alert and informs the media. Weath-
er is a key factor, because when inversions occur and 
winds  drop  air  pollution  cannot  disperse.  In  Belgium, 
short-term  measures  initiated  by  IRCEL  to  mitigate 
against  the  effects  of  air  pollution  include  reducing 
traffic speed limits (from 120 to 90 km/hr) and advis-
ing people to use public transport whenever possible. 

Modular dashboard aids 
transferability

“It was important that the tools we developed were 
easily  transferable  to  other  air  pollution  hotspot 
regions,”  says  Ms  Blyth.  The  analysis  tools,  for  in-
stance,  were  produced  within  a  modular  structure 
allowing selected parts to be transferred to new pro-
jects as needed.

Since  the  2008  AQ  Directive,  there  has  been  in-
creased attention on using models. In response, the 
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
and European Environment Agency (EEA) established 
FAIRMODE (Forum for AIR quality MODElling), to en-
sure the reliability and compatibility of European air 
quality  models.  The  ATMOSYS  modelling  system  is 
based on the DELTA FAIRMODE tool, but in an easy-
to-use online version compared to the JRC’s desktop 
version.

The  LIFE  project  built  into  the  design  of  the  AT-
MOSYS  Air  Quality  Management  Dashboard  the 
possibility  of  tailoring  its  services  and  tools  to 
the needs of any environmental agency in Europe. 
“Eventually, the idea is that other countries upload 
their data,” concludes Ms Blyth, “and from a Euro-
pean map you could zoom in to any EU country or 
hotspot region.”

Project number: LIFE09 ENV/BE/000409

Title: ATMOSYS - Policy support system for atmospheric pol-
lution hot spots

Beneficiary: VITO (Vlaams Instituut voor Technologische 
Ontwikkeling)

Contact: Lisa Blyth

Email: lisa.blyth@vito.be

Website: http://www.atmosys.eu

Period: 01-Sept-2010 to 31-Dec-2013

Total budget: 2 354 000

LIFE contribution: 1 087 000

34

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyC A P A C I T Y 
C A P A C I T Y 
B U I L D I N G
B U I L D I N G

LIFE helps build the capacity  
to implement policy

The  LIFE  programme  has  helped  build  capacity  in  all  aspects  of  air  quality,  through  the 

understanding and removal of obstacles that prevent local authorities from implementing 

Air Quality Directive objectives.

A 

lthough  improvements  in  urban  air  quality 
have been made over recent decades, there 
are major public health concerns relating to air pol-
lutants,  such  as  nitrogen  dioxide  (NO2),  particulate 
matter (PM), and ozone (O3), which frequently exceed 
set limits. During the review of the latest Air Quality 
(AQ) Directive (2008/50/EC), it became apparent that 
legislation  addressing  these  air  pollutants  had  not 
been effectively implemented by EU Member States, 
and that steps needed to be taken to overcome chal-
lenges to policy implementation18.

One of the conclusions of the 15-month Air Imple-
mentation  Pilot  (AIP)  project19  (see  pp.  8-12)  was 
that there was a lack of capacity to develop, imple-
ment and monitor plans to cut air pollution. With dif-
ferent systems evolving in different cities, influencing 
everything from emission inventories and monitoring 
networks  to  management  practices  for  abatement 
and  how  the  public  is  informed  about  air  quality, 
there  has  been  relatively  poor  harmonisation  and 
coordination between national and local actions. 

18  EC Communication on ‘Improving the delivery of benefits from 
EU environmental measures: building confidence through bet-
ter knowledge and responsiveness’ (COM/2012/095 final)
19  Air Implementation Pilot: Lessons learnt from the implemen-
tation of air quality legislation at urban level (EEA Report No 
7/2013)

The central problems identified by the project were 
incompatibility  between  modelling  tools  used  by 
different cities, difficulties in interpreting modelling 
results,  and  a  lack  of  cost-benefit  analysis  to  help 
planners and policy-makers choose between avail-
able measures. In all cases, experts, who  were of-
ten  external  consultants,  were  required  to  run  and 
interpret  air  quality  models.  Therefore,  one  of  the 

The AIR-AWARE project trained urban planners to use its air quality modelling tool

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
are  seen  as  the  deliverers  of  policy  on  the  ground. 
However,  when  it  comes  to  air  pollution,  capacity 
building needs are much broader than just training. 
Capacity  building  is  required  at  numerous  stages, 
from monitoring and modelling, through to generat-
ing expertise and best practice, drafting, implement-
ing and evaluating air quality plans in government, 
and developing NGOs and other stakeholders’ ability 
to act as consumer watchdogs. 

Dealing with air pollution issues is expensive, tech-
nically  difficult  and  involves  a  multi-disciplinary 
approach.  Solutions  include  long-term  changes  in 
behaviour  and  attitudes,  technological  innovation, 
and better planning and decision-support systems. 
The LIFE programme is well-placed to support the 
additional efforts that Member States need to ad-
dress  capacity-building  issues.  It  can  also  help 
provide  access  to  other  funding  sources  and  help 
make the best use of available European Structural 
and  Investments  Funds  to  provide  policy-support 
measures.

Air quality policy objectives can be achieved by using 
regulatory  measures  to  deliver  compliance  (‘hard’ 
measures) or by using non-regulatory measures and 
actions  to  improve  capacity  building  and  coordina-
tion (‘soft’ measures). The LIFE programme has con-
tributed  to  both  of  these  areas  (see  the  EC4MACS 
project on p. 25 for an example of the former). The 
driver  for  the  development  of  a  project  is  usually 
to  achieve  compliance  with  air  pollution  policy  ob-
jectives  or  legislation,  whilst  non-regulatory  activi-
ties appear as part of the cost-effective solution to 
achieving that.  A good example  of  the  latter  is  the 
AIRUSE project, which set out a comprehensive ap-
proach for solving air quality problems that included 
capacity building (see box opposite and pp. 25). 

It is characteristic of the LIFE programme that where 
capacity-building  needs  have  been  identified,  the 
projects  have  included  those  within  demonstrated 
solutions. Most notably, LIFE has provided improve-
ments in capacity building within the fields of air pol-
lution monitoring and modelling.

Monitoring and modelling

The AIP showed that there was a great diversity of 
models  used  by  European  cities,  hindering  coop-
eration  and  data  sharing;  frequent  shortcomings 
in emission inventories and other inputs (e.g. back-
ground  pollutant  concentrations,  meteorological 
data  and  topography);  and  outputs  that  the  cities 

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lessons  learnt  from  the  pilot  project  was  that  lo-
cal  planners  and  policy-makers  should  be  trained 
to  work  alongside  experts  in  translating  modelling 
results  into  cost-effective  measures  to  mitigate 
pollution. The pilot project findings were integrated 
into the Clean Air Policy Package. One of the options 
suggested was to increase the use of LIFE co-fund-
ing to build capacity.

Approaches to capacity building 

Capacity building is often thought of in terms of the 
training provided to local and regional authorities, who 

LIFE11 ENV/ES/000584

AIRUSE 

“The aim of AIRUSE is to support decision-making in Southern Europe by 
generating new data on source apportionment and remediation measures 
for which local planners do not own the opportune methods because sci-
entific tools are needed,” explains project manager Xavier Querol of CSIC, 
Spain’s National Research Council. 

To address this issue the project has put together a multi-disciplinary con-
sortium  of  professors,  researchers  and  technicians  to  advise  and  train  lo-
cal planners in air quality management issues. The end result will be better 
trained  planners  who  will  be  able  to  accurately  assess  the  (scientific  and 
economic) efficiency of a number of air quality measures, such as road dust 
cleaning, Low Emission Zones, speed restriction zones and eco-efficient bio-
mass burners. “The ultimate goal is to give planners the right knowledge so 
that they can include correct measures in their plans,” says Mr Querol. 

36

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
found  difficult  and  time-consuming  to  interpret.  In 
particular,  capacity  was  limited  in  the  cost-benefit 
assessment  of  different  pollution  intervention  op-
tions, because of the wide range of skills and vari-
ables involved. Therefore, capacity needs to be built 
if data are to be used and shared more effectively 
for  solving  local  and  regional  air  quality  problems, 
e.g.  when developing, implementing and evaluating 
air quality plans. 

Predictive  capability  is  central  to  designing  effec-
tive solutions to air pollution problems. This requires 
measuring the right parameters with the right pre-
cision,  whilst  delivering  compliance  within  resource 
constraints.  It  is  also  challenging  for  the  technical 
teams  within  Member  States  to  keep  abreast  of 
new developments elsewhere whilst also managing 
their own networks. Making improvements to exist-
ing networks, therefore, means developing skills and 
knowledge, and learning from others whenever pos-
sible.  Collaborating  to  share  expertise  can  reduce 
costs  and  help  identify  the  best  means  available 
to  achieve  compliance.  The  provision  of  training  is 
therefore a key factor.

A cluster of some 30 LIFE projects since 2000 have 
focused  on  air  pollution  monitoring  and  modelling. 
Most of these have capacity-building elements with-
in them. As noted previously (see pp. 24-34), these 
projects  are  usually  driven  by  local  compliance  is-
sues,  and  often  include  improved  data  gathering 
methodology.  Almost  all  of  them  adjust  how  the 
data collected are used, by developing modelling and 
decision-support tools.  

In  some  cases,  the  tools  and  training  developed  in 
LIFE  projects  have  focused  on  particular  types  of 
pollutants.  For  instance,  the  ARTEMIDE  project  pro-
vided training to enable local planners to use a high 

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KAPA GS provided solutions for municipalities in combating fine particulate matter

temporal resolution device for monitoring more fre-
quently, and at a lower cost, airborne volatile organic 
compounds (VOCs) emitted by cars. 

Many  LIFE  projects  have  produced  specific  training 
courses or packages to promote the uptake of new 
tools  and  methodology  (examples  include  SMAQ  in 
Greece and ROMAIR in Romania). The LIFE programme 
has also helped forge links between scientific agen-
cies and consultants and local and regional author-
ity end-users. Such long-term stakeholder synergies 
increase authorities’ capacity to use the monitoring 
and modelling tools and to translate results into ef-
fective measures.  Such a synergy operates between 
the Cypriot authority running the National Air Qual-
ity Network, which is used to prepare cost-effective 
fine particulate matter management plans, and the 
scientific and technical partners developing state-of-
the art forecasting and scenario analysis software to 
improve this system (PM3 CYPRUS). 

I.MO.S.M.I.D. set up a District Mobility Management Office in the Municipality of Corregio (Italy)

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Other projects - such as OPERA (see pp. 40-42) - have 
developed  guidelines  for  individual  cities,  communi-
ties and community councils on how to use their mod-
els and on how to develop emission-control strategies. 
OPERA  is  also  an  excellent  example  of  trans-border 

LIFE11 ENV/DE/000495

CLEAN AIR

The aim of the project is to support the implementation of the Air Quality 
Directive  by  building  an  effective  network  of  administrators  and  experts 
from environmental and consumer protection NGOs. 

“Our main measure for capacity building is knowledge transfer,” explains 
Heiko  Balsmeyer  of  Verkehrsclub  Deutschland  (VCD),  the  project  benefi-
ciary. To date VCD and its project partners have organised two conferences 
focusing on measuring stations, Low Emission Zones, and the sources and 
health effects of ultrafine particles.  

“We are working in different fields on capacity building,” Mr Balsmeyer con-
tinues. “For example, our partner NABU organises workshops about clean 
ports.”  These  workshops  discuss  issues  such  as  the  health  effects  of  air 
pollution, particle filters for ships, onshore power supply and liquefied natu-
ral gas (LNG) barges. 

The project has published guidelines aimed at city and port administrations 
about the benefits and costs of possible air quality measures. It has also 
set up workshops (led by legal experts) that provide NGOs with an under-
standing of applicable air quality legislation, thus building their capacity “to 
use law as an instrument for air quality,” says Mr Balsmeyer. 

The CLEAN AIR network prepares legal cases in different countries. “There 
are local cases, where citizens try to uphold their right to clean air,” says Mr 
Balsmeyer. “The bigger cases are against Member States that don’t hold to 
European limits for air quality; they can be forced to revise their national 
programmes and to take additional air quality measures. The aim is in both 
cases the same, civil society uses the law for the enforcement of European 
air quality policy.”

cooperation, having worked with public authorities in 
both Italy and France. The trans-boundary nature of 
air pollution makes it important for projects to take a 
trans-national approach to dissemination and capac-
ity-building  activities.  Projects  that  have  envisaged 
from the start the need to test solutions with public 
authorities from more than one country have had a 
greater impact (aside from  OPERA, examples include 
the CLEAN AIR project, which is working with NGOs 
from seven EU Member States and SMAQ, which held 
training seminars in Greece, Hungary and Italy). 

Future LIFE projects could further emphasise trans-
national  capacity-building;  the  Environmental  Gov-
ernance  and  Information  strand  of  the  new  LIFE 
Environment sub-programme offers a means of bet-
ter disseminating best practices across borders and 
throughout the EU. 

Capacity building for local  
authorities and NGOs

Capacity building is usually an indirect ‘softer’ con-
sequence  of  LIFE  projects  aiming  to  achieve  com-
pliance  with  local  air  pollution  standards,  but  one 
project dealing with traffic congestion addressed the 
issue directly by establishing a specific coordinating 
body  to  support  local  authorities.  The  I.MO.S.M.I.D. 
project set up a District Mobility Management Office 
to organise, plan, programme and promote services 
within  a  demonstration  district  of  the  Municipality 
of Corregio, Italy. This capacity building was viewed 
from the outset of the project as an integral part of 
efforts to improve mobility at a district level. 

Capacity building is also a key objective of the CLEAN 
AIR project (see box).

38

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
The CLEAN AIR project represents a departure from 
usual approaches, in that it targets NGOs every bit 
as much as local authorities. The recognition of the 
consumer  protection  role  of  NGOs  for  air  quality, 
for  example,  corresponds  with  the  non-regulatory 
measures that the Clean Air Policy Package recog-
nises  as  important.  Indeed,  the  network  that  the 
project is establishing is almost tailor-made to be a 
platform as part of the European Clean Air Forum, 
which  the  Commission  will  use  to  bring  relevant 
stakeholders together every two years. 

Creating new opportunities

Although few LIFE air quality projects have explic-
itly aimed to do so, they have often indirectly built 
capacity where it is needed as part of the solution 
to a problem.

This  has  been  achieved  through  training  and  the 
creation  of  guidelines  that  spread  knowledge  of 
the best tools and methods for air quality assess-
ment across Europe, an important step towards the 
harmonisation  of  air  monitoring  systems.  LIFE’s 
greatest  contribution  has  been  in  terms  of  build-
ing the capacity of local authorities to understand 
and apply monitoring and modelling tools (see the 
feature article on the OPERA project, pp. 40-42). 

However,  as  the  AIP  highlighted,  decision-makers 
need more and better tools to assess the cost-ef-
fectiveness  of  different  air  quality  measures.  The 

LIFE programme could provide an extremely valu-
able contribution in this area, which it has largely 
overlooked to date. Another future goal for the LIFE 
programme could be to assess the cost-effective-
ness of projects in terms of their impacts on local, 
regional and national air pollution compliance, us-
ing transferable benchmarks. 

Capacity ‘building blocks’ have already been put in 
place to deliver compliance with Air Quality Direc-
tive  requirements.  The  Clean  Air  Programme  for 
Europe  (CAFE)  has  been  providing  policy  advice 
since 2001, for example, whilst the EEA manages 
the  European  air  pollution  data  set  (Airbase).  To 
help integrate and make best use of the expand-
ing range of air quality models used in Europe, the 
JRC  and  EEA  set  up  the  FAIRMODE  forum,  which 
has a coordination role but relies on the input of 
EU projects and networks. One outcome of the AIP 
(see pp. 11-12) is a proposal that all the capacity 
‘building blocks’ should be aligned and a platform 
for the exchange of best practices and knowledge 
created,  perhaps  initially  through  a  LIFE  project 
under  the  Environmental  Governance  and  Infor-
mation strand. 

Analysis  of  the  programme’s  existing  capacity-
building  work  shows  that  LIFE  is  ideally  placed 
to develop and demonstrate solutions to air pol-
lution at a scale sufficient to convince local and 
regional  authorities  of  their  ‘workability’  in  real 
world situations.

INTEGREEN  provides public authorities in Bolzano with integrated data to underpin eco-friendly traffic management policies

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
c a p a c I t y   b u I l d I n g

OPERA tool is building capacity  
to reduce emissions

The  goal  of  the  OPERA  project  was  to  develop  a  methodology  that  supports  local  and 

regional authority actions to improve air quality. This was implemented using an innovative 

software tool called RIAT+ (Regional Integrated Assessment Tool). 

R 

IAT+  was  designed  for  regional  authorities 
with  limited  budgets  to  reduce  population 
exposure  to  air  pollutants  and  to  meet  air  qual-
ity  standards,  especially  for  fine  particulate  matter 
(PM10, PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). 
It  differs  from  typical  decision-support  systems  by 
using  a  closed  loop  (optimisation)  rather  than  an 
open loop (scenario) analysis. RIAT+ can be set either 
to maximise environmental benefits at fixed cost or 
to minimise costs for a fixed environmental benefit. 
Each action within an air quality plan (AQP) is eval-
uated  in  terms  of  the  change  in  air  quality  and  in 
terms of cost, thereby enabling users to select cost-
effective emissions-reduction measures.

The RIAT+ system acts both as a regional assess-
ment  software  and  as  an  integrated  modelling 
environment  through  which  air  quality  simula-
tions  on  a  regional  scale  can  be  produced.  As  a 
modelling  system,  RIAT+  uses  air  quality  indi-
cators  to  assess  potential  pollution  abatement 
measures in light of EU limits and future concen-
tration  reduction  deadlines.  It  incorporates  Arti-
ficial  Neural  Networks  (ANNs),  to  capture  non-
linear relationships between pollutant emissions 
and concentrations. 

Between  2010  and  2013,  the  OPERA  project 
tested  RIAT+’s  methodology  and  software  in  two 

RIAT+ BLOCK DIAGRAM

T
U
P
N

Measure DB
GAINS Technology

I

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, 
sed diam nonummy nibh 
euismod tincidunt ut laoreet

Measure DB

Mapping
GAINS/Emission 
Activities

Emission data
- areal, point sources 
and gridded -

S/R Function
Artiﬁcial Neural Network 
or model

Emission Inventory
Emission Inventory

Source Receptor Function

Pre Processors

refaire 
graph

Post Processors

Optimizator

RIAT + CORE SYSTEM

Optimised application rate 
per Technologies
Tables

Costs per Technologies and 
Macrosector
Maps and Tables

Emissions and AQI
Maps and Tables

Run Results

T
U
P
T
U
O

40

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyregions: Alsace (France) and Emilia-Romagna (Italy). 
In both regions, it highlighted effective measures to 
reduce air pollution. In Emilia-Romagna, for instance, 
the system’s cost-effective analysis was used to set 
emissions targets within the regional AQP.

Emilia-Romagna’s experience 

The regional administration of Emilia-Romagna had 
previously  worked  on  other  modelling  tools  with 
ARPA, the environmental agency responsible for de-
veloping the software, and was interested in the pos-
sibilities of RIAT+, explains Katia Raffaelli, who is re-
sponsible for the region’s AQP: “In the past we would 
make a hypothesis on which measures to adopt, we 
would verify the costs and the availability of the re-
sources only in a second moment. [RIAT+] manages 
to  create  an  interaction  between  the  two  immedi-
ately.  Thus it gives us the most cost-effective solu-
tions that will reach the best environmental results 
for each pollutant.” Scenarios are based on the spe-
cific topography of the area, include a climatic model 
and incorporate the costs of the measures. The lat-
ter is “fundamental”, says Ms Raffaelli: “We have to 
include in our AQP the best measures in terms of air 
quality effectiveness based on a limited budget.” 

“RIAT+ helps planners find the optimal compromise 
between air quality improvements and their implied 
costs,  the  maximum  air  quality  improvements  for 
a  given  budget  and  the  most  efficient  abatement 
measures  (both  technical  and  non-technical)  to 
achieve  a  given  air  quality  improvement  goal,”  ex-
plains  Eriberto  de  Munari,  ARPA  Emilia-Romagna, 
OPERA project manager. 

The tool’s ability to determine the cost of measures 
in advance, particularly structural measures, makes 
it especially useful to public administrations. It is likely 
that  other  regional  administrations  thinking  of  using 
the tool would also need to work with a consultancy 
or other external agency, as Emilia-Romagna did with 
ARPA.  There  are  two  main  elements  to  this  collabo-
ration: firstly, “the consultant and policy-makers must 
work together in determining the data, the costs and 
the estimates that will feed RIAT+, based on previous 
scenarios,” says Ms Raffaelli. Secondly, and, she says, 
most  importantly  in  terms  of  capacity  building,  “the 
consultant  must  help  the  policy-maker  in  translating 
the results that come from running the tool into cost-
effective measures to insert in an air quality plan.” 

Spatial distribution of the annual mean concentration of PM10 
for the Emilia-Romagna Region in 2012

Mr de Munari, who adds that one of the strengths of 
the system is the flexibility to define initial parameters 
based on the specificity of the territory in question: “A 
rigid tool could have been used directly by policy-mak-
ers, but it would have been less effective.” 

RIAT+ can thus be customised for use by any local or 
regional authority, whilst maintaining common fea-
tures.  “We  use  the  GAINS  20  model  along  with  the 
CORINAIR emission inventory which are common to 
the whole EU, thus making the tool usable all over 
the EU,” explains Mr de Munari. 

Supporting AqP implementation

RIAT+  supports  decision-makers  in  the  practical 
implementation  of  air  quality  plans  by  suggesting 
optimal  emissions  reduction  measures  to  improve 
air  quality,  given  a  pre-defined  budget.  Users  may 
introduce their own source of information/data (e.g. 
emissions inventories, air quality models, abatement 
technologies) on top of default assigned values. This 
allows a more precise assessment of the impact of 
user-defined abatement measures on regional/local 
air quality. 

“The use of the RIAT+ tool has not only allowed us 
to  adopt  a  first  air  quality  plan,  but  it  has  allowed 
us  to  adopt  measures  that  are  based  on  scientific 
and technical data and for which we know the cost,” 
points out Ms Raffaelli. This increases the credibility 
of  the  regional  authority’s  decisions,  which  in  turn 
“will translate into a stronger policy that can be en-
forced on the territory. It has also enabled us to give 
a technical and scientific response to all our stake-
holders (citizens, local authorities, agricultural sector, 
and industries) on the issue of air quality manage-

“To make it work we need continuous collaboration be-
tween the technician and the policy-maker,” highlights 

20  The Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Syn-
ergies  (GAINS)-Model  provides  a  consistent  framework  for 
the analysis of co-benefits of reduction strategies from air 
pollution and greenhouse gas sources.

41

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
JRC input

The  JRC  -  the  European  Commission’s  Joint  Research  Centre  -  was  one 
of  the  stakeholders  of  the  project,  and  Philippe  Thunis  from  the  Air  and 
Climate Unit in the JRC, is now working with this tool: “RIAT+ works at the 
regional  scale  in  both  “what-if”  analysis  and  “optimisation”  modes.  This 
combination  (“regional  scale”,  “what-if  analysis”  and  “optimisation”)  is 
quite unique. Other approaches either solve the problem through optimisa-
tion but at larger scale (European scale) or work at regional scale but only 
in “what-if” analysis mode,” he explains.

The JRC will continue to work with the other project partners to develop the 
tool so that it can be applied at high spatial resolution across Europe and 
enable EU-wide impact assessment analysis with a focus on the regional 
scale. In particular, the JRC will support training courses and workshops so 
that local and regional authorities can learn how to use the tool and share 
best practices. The first such event is expected to take place in 2014. 

ment which has a greater impact on changing their 
behaviour,” she adds. 

Emilia-Romagna  began  developing  its  AQP  in  early 
2013. Results from the tool are being used to define 
the emissions-reduction objectives of the plan. “We are 
now in the phase of running the tool and singling out 
measures. It’s a different approach because by using 
the tool we know exactly what are the objectives for 
each  sector  (energy,  transport,  agriculture)  and  what 
are the measures to adopt,” says Ms Raffaelli. 

Katia Raffaelli, Emilia-Romagna Regional Authority

The LIFE project is enabling the regional authority to 
evaluate the effects of measures on its territory and 
develop  scenarios  for  implementation  at  local  level. 
Support  for  proposed  measures  is  being  assessed 
through citizen surveys, as well as meetings with inter-
est groups such as agricultural, energy and industrial 
associations  and  communal  and  provincial  adminis-
trations. “We are finalising these meetings in order to 
guarantee integration among all policies. The tool al-
lows for integration among policies and this is another 
one of its strengths,” says Ms Raffaelli.

The tool developed with LIFE’s support already has 
led  to  a  change  of  objectives  within  the  regional 
AQP, with less of a focus on PM reductions, stricter 
targets  for  NOx  and,  for  the  first  time,  measures 
to  address  ammonia.  Ms  Raffaelli  also  notes  that 
whilst  SOx  values  in  Emilia-Romagna  are  low,  be-
cause the substance is a precursor to PM, “we used 
the  model  to  establish  which  economic  areas  are 
still  problematic  and  which  measures  to  adopt  in 
 order to reduce SO2.” 

Emilia-Romagna plans to adopt the AQP by the end 
of 2014, after further discussions with local admin-
istrations and stakeholders within the region. The re-
gional administration is also talking with neighbour-
ing  regions  about  using  the  RIAT+  tool  throughout 
the  Padana  Plain  “in  order  to  develop  coordinated 
measures for the whole of the Po river basin, given 
the  similar  territorial  characteristics  and  given  the 
trans-boundary nature of air pollution,” says Ms Raf-
faelli. Regions elsewhere in Italy and in France have 
also expressed interest in the RIAT+ tool, which can 
be downloaded from the OPERA website.

“In  the  end  the  tool  is  fundamental  for  integrating 
policies  because  it  provides  scientifically  and  eco-
nomically sustainable solutions and measures,” says 
Ms Raffaelli. “If a policy is to be implemented and if 
it’s going to be a winner it has to tackle all pollutants 
generated  by  the  activities  that  are  practiced  on  a 
given territory and this tool allows us to adopt these 
ambitious targets and for them to be accepted by all 
counterparts,” she concludes.

Project number: LIFE09 ENV/IT/000092

Title: OPERA - An integrated assessment methodology to 
plan local cost-effective air quality policies harmonized with 
national and European actions 

Beneficiary: ARPA (Agenzia Prevenzione Ambiente Emilia-
Romagna)

Contact: Eriberto De Munari

Email: edemunari@arpa.emr.it

Website: http://www.operatool.eu

Period: 01-Sept-2010 to 30-Sept-2013

Total budget: 2 301 000

LIFE contribution: 1 090 000 

42

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyE N C O U R A G I N G  
E N C O U R A G I N G  
B E H A V I O U R A L 
B E H A V I O U R A L 
C H A N G E
C H A N G E

LIFE shows soft and hard side  
of behavioural change

LIFE has helped encourage people to change their behaviour in ways that benefit Europe’s 

air quality.  What lessons can be learned from the programme’s achievements? 

T 

he Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) includes 
an obligation for Member States to inform the 
public of the risks of exposure to elevated SO2, NOx 
and  ozone  concentrations.  The  National  Emissions 
Ceiling  Directive  (NECD)  also  obliges  EU  Member 
States to keep citizens informed about air pollutant 
emissions  (including  when  limits  are  breached),  as 
well as providing information about inventories and 
control programmes. This information, which can be 
made available online and via public display boards, 
will help raise awareness of the need for behavioural 
change to improve air quality.

The  Air  Implementation  Pilot  (see  pp.  8-12)  high-
lighted  ways  in  which  air  quality  information  could 
be more effectively communicated so as to encour-
age behavioural change, such as the adoption of a 
common  system  of  indicators  making  information 
more understandable at the European level. Another 
conclusion  was  for  enhanced  use  of  smartphones 
and social media. To this end, the European Commis-
sion is now promoting smartphone apps (e.g. the free 
obsAIRve iPhone app) to deliver current and forecast 
air quality information across Europe.

The  Clean  Air  Policy  Package  highlights  different 
areas  of  focus.  Information  and  advice  must  be 

targeted to have the appropriate impact upon dif-
ferent audiences (e.g. packaged differently for com-
muters and farmers). It should also be easy to un-
derstand and easy to access (i.e. requiring minimal 
effort and cost to do so).

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The European Day “In town, 
without my car!” project inspired 
the creation of European Mobility 
Week

43

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
LIFE’s ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approaches 

Raising awareness about the risks of air pollution, 
as a precursor to changing behaviour, is therefore 
a  major  European  air  policy  objective,  which  the 
LIFE programme is well-placed to address. Policy 
objectives can be achieved using ‘hard’ measures 
to  deliver  compliance  or  ‘softer’  non-regulatory 
measures. ‘Hard’ measures include laws and leg-
islation,  road  tolls,  obligatory  road  closures,  en-
forced  speed  reductions  and  technological  solu-
tions.  ‘Soft’  measures  include  awareness-raising 
programmes (e.g. to promote cycling and the use 
of  public  transport),  educational  campaigns  and 
events  encouraging  behavioural  change,  such  as 
car-free days (see below). 

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essential  for  growing  the  economy,  but  it  needs 
to  be  controlled  because  it  can  have  damaging 
consequences, especially for public health. 

Driving the message home

In  most  cases  LIFE  projects  have  been  driven  by 
the  need  to  achieve  compliance,  and  the  ‘softer’ 
activities  -  such  as  making  less  polluting  activi-
ties more attractive - appear as part of the cost-
effective solution to deliver that. 

LIFE  has  contributed  to  behavioural  change 
across  the  full  spectrum  of  thematic  priorities 
identified in the Clean Air Policy Package. Traffic-
related air pollution problems, for instance, have 
generated many LIFE projects. The starting point 
for  these  is  that  mobility  is  a  social  good  and  is 

Of the cluster of LIFE projects that deal with mobility 
issues (see pp. 13-20), a total of 10 since 1999 aim to 
raise awareness and change behaviour. These projects 
have sought to achieve their goals through a host of 
different means: from offering alternatives to private 
car use, such as the VOTE FOR BICYCLE project, which 
implemented cycle lanes and parking, promoted bike 
use  and  provided  real-time  pollution  data  via  street 
signs; to encouraging a switch to cleaner types of pri-
vate  vehicles,  including  electric  power-assisted  bikes, 
electric scooters, hybrid cars and a natural gas minibus 
(e.g. see the IMMACULATE project). 

LIFE has encouraged behavioural change by organising the first pan-European car-free days

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
Other  projects  have  demonstrated  park-and-ride 
schemes,  car-sharing  and  methods  of  making  pub-
lic  transport  more  attractive,  such  as  reducing  ticket 
prices (KAPA GS). 

One lesson from this cluster of projects is the need for 
supporting infrastructure (e.g. charging stations, cycle 
parking) to be widely available in order for road users 
to feel comfortable about making a switch to a more 
innovative  and  cleaner  technology.  One  recent  LIFE 
project  -  E-mobility  3  cities  NL  (see  pp.13-20)  -  at-
tempts to demonstrate one solution through trials in 
cities in the Netherlands. 

LIFE can also inspire behavioural change by focusing 
on the link between greener mobility, health benefits 
and improved quality of life. Emphasising this link in 
LIFE projects has been central to achieving behaviour-
al changes21, such as getting people to walk and cycle 
more to improve their health, which in turn can lead 
to  reduced  car  use.  Rising  costs  of  providing  health 
care and covering productivity losses due to air pollu-
tion is likely to mean that it will become more attrac-
tive to invest in prevention rather than cure. Several 
LIFE projects have led the way in this area. The GOAL 
project, for example, helped reduce noise and air pol-
lution emissions through the promotion of alternative 
means  of  transport.  An  innovative  approach  to  con-
necting  environmental  issues  with  personal  well-be-
ing  and  fitness  succeeded  in  motivating  people  and 
helping  them  to  change  their  behaviour,  while  a  ‘si-
lent driver’ programme established by the project has 
been incorporated into driver training to reduce road 
noise, thus providing a good example of how holistic 
approaches can deliver coherence and synergy effects 
between air quality and noise reduction measures. 

Reaching the public

Almost  all  LIFE  projects  addressing  the  monitoring 
and modelling of air quality have sought to present 
information  on  pollution  levels  in  a  more  under-
standable format for the lay person as a precursor to 
behavioural  change  (either  through  hard  measures 
such  as  congestion  zones  or  softer  measures  such 
as ‘leave the car at home’ campaigns). Projects have 
begun  using  technology  such  as  smartphones  and 
roadside signs to help spread air quality alerts (see 
INTEGREEN box). 

21  Behavioural  change  was  also  tackled  during  the  Platform 
Meeting on Alternative Future Urban Mobility http://ec.europa.
eu/environment/life/news/newsarchive2014/february/index.
htm#mobility

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000389

INTEGREEN

The INTEGREEN project in Italy is providing Bolzano’s citizens and visitors 
with advanced real-time  traffic and air  pollution information that  will be 
delivered through multiple platforms and devices to allow people to make 
“more informed and optimised travel choices,” explains Roberto Cavaliere, 
from the Municipality of Bolzano. 

The project is organising a number of awareness-raising events and cam-
paigns aimed at particular groups, such as an eco-driving competition, to 
be held later in 2014. “Through public events we believe that is possible to 
significantly raise the awareness of the target audience,” says Dr Cavaliere. 
One project action will focus on working with secondary school pupils to 
organise awareness-raising activities aimed at primary school children – 
and their parents. 

Dr Cavaliere believes the key to behavioural change is the creation of “an 
‘engine’ involving all relevant stakeholders that is able to strongly promote 
and exploit the local best-practices in a harmonised way, putting local trav-
ellers at the centre of the local mobility system.” He adds: “We must build 
‘cooperative’ systems not only from a technological point of view, but in 
particular from an institutional perspective, with the support of all relevant 
parties, including public administrations and private industry.”

Raising  citizens’  awareness  of  alternative  modes  of 
transport has been a central component of urban mo-
bility projects. Future projects should continue to focus 
on this whilst also recognising the need to encourage 
behavioural change to address other air quality issues 
(such  as  biomass  which  reduces  CO2 emissions,  but 
may increase PM for example.

45

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyOne  of  LIFE’s  greatest  successes  in  terms  of  be-
havioural  change  has  been  its  multiplier  effect  on 
the  car-free  days  movement  through  projects  such 
as  European  Day  ‘In  town,  without  my  car!’  and  its 
follow-on, SMILE (see box). 

Flexible and responsive tools

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LIFE  has  demonstrated  other  tools  for  behavioural 
change,  including  planning  initiatives,  tools  for  urban 
investment and public-private cooperation. Such meas-
ures only succeed when accompanied by other actions 
that  encourage  citizen  buy-in.  Systems  must  also  be 
flexible, as the LIFE project SIDDHARTA demonstrated. 
This project trialled a ‘demand-responsive’ public trans-
port  system  (using  methane-fuelled  buses)  to  cope 
with seasonal fluctuations on an island with a signifi-
cant  tourism  economy.  Demand-responsive  transport 
can  be  used  to  complement  or  replace  conventional 
scheduled  passenger  services,  and  has  increased  the 
use of public transport by around 20% in some cases.

Two LIFE projects (I.MO.S.M.I.D and GESMOPOLI - see 
box p.47) drew up mobility plans specifically aimed 

at changing the behaviour of people commuting to 
industrial zones. 

The Italian I.MO.S.M.I.D project incentivised people in 
Emilia-Romagna  to  car  pool  by  awarding  ‘mobility 
tickets’  to  groups  of  at  least  three  people  for  every 
300 km they travelled together. Worth 10 euros, these 
mobility  tickets  can  be  used  to  purchase  goods  and 
services related to sustainable mobility at participat-
ing businesses, such as bike shops, installers of LPG 
and  methane  fuel  systems  on  vehicles,  local  public 
transport and car sharing and carpooling services. 

(LIFE99 ENV/F/000459) 

European Day ‘In town, without my car!’ 

Change on the farm

Following successful actions in France and then Italy, this project initiated the 
first Europe-wide car-free day on 22 September 2000 as a practical response 
to widespread concerns about air pollution and the quality of urban life. This 
project, which has helped inspire millions of people, promoted the then novel 
concept of car sharing, as well as the introduction of dedicated bus and cycle 
lanes, and pedestrian zones. European Day ‘In town, without my car!’ enabled 
people to reclaim their streets, often by holding special events, while meas-
urements of air quality and noise on the car-free day compared to normal 
proved a valuable awareness-raising exercise. 

Recognising the success of this LIFE project, which was strongly-backed by 
then Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallström, the European Commis-
sion launched the first European Mobility Week in 2002. A car-free day on 
22 September is an integral part of this now annual event, which has grown 
from 320 participating towns and cities in 21 countries, to more than 2 000 
participating municipalities across 43 countries in 2013, when the theme of 
European Mobility Week was ‘Clean air – it’s your move’.  

The car-free days movement is today supported by the United Nations and 
the initiative has spread worldwide, encompassing cities such as Jakarta and 
Bogota. 

SMILE, a second LIFE project led by the same beneficiary, ADEME, collected 
feedback from the conurbations that had participated in the LIFE-led car free 
day and in European Mobility Week. This helped in the drafting of recommen-
dations and guidelines for both local authorities and public transport opera-
tors, offering multi-modal solutions for changing behaviour, enhancing public 
sector transport, and making it cleaner in terms of emissions. 

Changes to farming practices can be achieved through 
‘hard’  means  such  as  the  greening  requirement  for 
Common  Agricultural  Policy  (CAP)  cross-compliance 
payments and through ‘softer’ measures such as farm-
scale demonstrations of new techniques and practices. 

All of the approximately 50 LIFE projects since 2000 
that have addressed air pollution abatement in agri-
culture have involved farm-scale demonstrations. Pro-
jects such as Crops for better soil, AgriClimateChange 
and SINERGIA have encouraged behavioural change by 
showing the practical benefits (not only cost savings, 
but also reduced air emissions) of low-impact farming 
methods (see pp. 48-56). 

Other farm-related projects have promoted a change 
in attitude towards livestock by-products (to see them 
as high-value nutrients rather than low-value waste). 
This  helps  to  get  them  into  the  soil  rather  than  into 
the atmosphere as pollutants or into water supplies as 
contaminating slurry. By encouraging such behavioural 
change, LIFE can not only benefit the environment, it 
can also help farmers avoid fines and penalties. 

Agriculture  projects  provide  several  good  examples 
of how awareness-raising comes before and leads to 

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LIFE05 ENV/E/000262

GESMOPOLI 

The Spanish GESMOPOLI project brought workers, management and mu-
nicipalities from the participating industrial areas of Barcelona together in 
‘mobility roundtables’. Each roundtable had the task of drafting a mobility 
plan. “A mobility manager was in charge of monitoring the implementation 
and update of the plans in each industrial area,” explains project manager 
Carlos González. 

Each  mobility  manager  received  60  hours  of  training  and  900  hours  of 
work practice. Awareness-raising sessions were organised for people work-
ing on the industrial estates, whilst employees from the local administra-
tions were trained during the mobility roundtables, recalls Mr González. 

He notes that it was not easy to change established commuting patterns: 
“We had to take into account the duration of the journey, which has to be 
competitive in order to change people’s behaviour.” The project established 
a  ‘magic  formula’:  “a  worker  will  be  willing  to  use  public  transportation 
as long as the duration of the journey, compared to private car, does not 
increase by more than 15 minutes,” explains Mr González. 

GESMOPOLI also looked into car sharing, another promising action to re-
duce traffic-related pollution. One conclusion, highlighted by Mr González, 
is “that cars carrying more than one passenger should be ‘privileged’ both 
on the road and in the car park.” 

‘Soft’  approaches  have  been  successfully  demon-
strated in many LIFE projects, so a future task for the 
LIFE programme could be to quantify the air quality 
benefits of these ‘softer’ measures. This has not hap-
pened  sufficiently  to  date,  so  it  would  be  beneficial 
if  there  were  a  greater  overlap  between  social  sci-
ence and air quality analysis. Ideally projects would 
report on how behaviour has changed and the impact 
of that change on air quality. However, it is important 
to recognise that ‘soft’ measures are more likely to 
be cut when budgetary restrictions are in place, with 
funding  tending  to  focus  on  meeting  regulatory  re-
quirements, hard measures whose impacts are easier 
to quantify and whose costs are easier to justify. Ul-
timately, however, it is the routine daily choices made 
by  individuals  which  multiply  to  have  enormous  ef-
fects. Changing people’s habits is certain to remain a 
vital part of the Clean Air Policy Package.

AIRUSE organised summer courses to raise awareness amongst students

behaviour change. The AgriClimateChange project, for 
example,  developed  and  demonstrated  an  auditing 
tool to assess energy and greenhouse gas emissions 
from  farms.  This  type  of  tool  enables  farmers  to 
learn where pollution is occurring and where precious 
nutrients  are  being  lost.  Only  when  they  are  aware 
of that can they determine the best actions to take. 

Assessing the programme’s impact

The LIFE programme has helped to make technical 
information  on  air  quality  become  more  accessible 
and more easily understandable to citizens. This has 
enabled  people  to  make  informed  decisions  and  to 
adjust their behaviour. The most useful LIFE projects 
in  this  respect  have  made  information  available  in 
real-time  and  provided  air  quality  forecasts  that 
have  allowed  people  to  plan  ahead,  an  important 
factor  in  changing  behaviour.  The  programme  has 
provided new opportunities to demonstrate the pre-
vention of air pollution, rather than to only focus on 
controlling the problem once it exists. 

LIFE projects have clustered around thematic areas 
such  as  mobility,  traffic  management,  public  trans-
port,  industry  and  agriculture.  Findings  have  been 
easily  transferable  within  these  specialist  areas, 
where  in-depth  work  has  added  value  in  terms  of 
levels of awareness. This has been achieved through 
actively engaging the people dealing with air pollu-
tion problems on the ground. In the case of agricul-
ture, in particular, LIFE has helped pave the way for 
the establishment of an agriculture forum as part of 
the European Clean Air Forum, and it has fed into the 
development and implementation of the CAP.

Going  forward,  the  Environmental  Governance  and 
Information strand of the new LIFE programme for 
2014-2020 could be used more effectively to raise 
awareness  about  air  quality,  to  promote  collective 
action and to influence personal behaviour. Projects 
could, for example, provide useful information about 
real-time  and  expected  air  quality  in  relation  to 
physical activities such as gardening or going to the 
shops, environmentally-friendly mobility or purchas-
ing  choices.  The  success  of  projects  such  as  Euro-
pean Day ‘In town, without my car!’ or the European 
Week  for  Waste  Reduction  highlights  the  potential 
of LIFE as a multiplier of behavioural change. These 
examples suggest there may be scope for a similar 
pan-European campaign - kickstarted through a LIFE 
project  -  to  help  improve  air  quality  across  the  EU 
(and eventually globally). 

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A G R I C U L T U R E
A G R I C U L T U R E

LIFE’s potential for preventing 
agricultural air pollution 

Although much has been done to address air pollution from agriculture, problems linked to 

ammonia remain significant. LIFE projects have demonstrated tangible ways of implement-

ing policy to address this and other air quality challenges. 

T 

he  intensification  of  agriculture  has  helped 
keep  Europe  consistently  supplied  with  high 
quality  and  affordable  food.  However,  it  also  has 
been  linked  to  an  increase  in  air  pollution  from 
farms, especially livestock husbandry businesses. It 
is essential to improve knowledge about these issues 
and farmer confidence about the cost-effectiveness 

of  associated  mitigation  measures.  Here,  LIFE  con-
tinues to play a key role.

LIFE know-how

The  LIFE  programme  has  produced  useful  ap-
plied results for farms that both give it a degree 

Sinergia demonstrated agricultural practices that mitigate ammonia emissions

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of  credibility within the EU’s agriculture sector and 
that  feed  back  into  agriculture  policy.  The  pool  of 
knowledge gathered in the LIFE project database is a 
significant source of advice and guidance for Mem-
ber State authorities involved in designing or imple-
menting the new Codes of Practice for air pollution 
that are foreseen in Annex III of the National Emis-
sion Ceiling Directive (NECD). However, there is also 
a need to further streamline the process of feeding 
back into policy.

Farm-based air pollution can be caused by emissions 
of  ammonia  (NH3),  methane  (CH4),  nitrogen  oxides 
(NOx)  and  particulate  matter  (PM),  which  includes 
PM2.5, PM10, and black carbon. Ammonia is considered 
to be particularly problematic and is acknowledged 
as one of the EU’s six main air pollutants. It can harm 
human health and acts as a building block for sec-
ondary PM. Ammonia also contributes to acidification 
and eutrophication. 

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Policy in practice

The EU’s Clean Air Policy Package highlights the need 
to  further  reduce  harmful  emissions  from  agricul-
ture22. Farm-based LIFE projects have already dem-
onstrated measures for curbing air pollution that are 
highlighted in Annex III of the revised NECD. 

Such LIFE projects have been used with good effect 
by Member States to put policy into practice. They in-
clude LIFE support for, among others: nitrogen man-
agement, taking into account the full nitrogen cycle; 
low-emission manure and slurry spreading and stor-
age approaches; manure processing and composting 
systems; and reduced emissions from black carbon 
by avoiding incineration of agricultural waste.

A  lot  of  the  LIFE  projects’  results  in  these  fields 
prove useful from multiple perspectives. This allows 
their  findings  to  be  replicated  in  ways  that  reduce 
environmental risks on various fronts. For example, 
farmers have benefitted from LIFE’s involvement in 
demonstrating  the  advantages  of  EMAS  certifica-
tion, or nature conservation, or precision and organic 
agriculture by introducing agricultural practices that 
mitigate air pollution and ammonia emissions espe-
cially. These actions promote good agricultural and 
environmental  conditions  through  best  practices  in 
tillage, irrigation, fertiliser use, timing of nitrogen in-
puts, etc. that can create co-benefits for air quality. 

22  In addition to targeting agriculture, the policy also highlights 
the importance of reducing air pollution from industry, traf-
fic, and energy plants.

Low-protein feeding strategies for livestock reduce ammonia release on farms

One  of  the  highest  impact  areas  for  LIFE  projects 
in  this  multi-functional  field  involves  demonstrat-
ing sound management of farm nitrogen use. Many 
farm-based LIFE projects here have been developed 
to  address  nitrate  pollution  in  water  but  with  out-
comes that also help to improve air quality. 

Sound nitrogen management

LIFE  has  consistently  developed  tools  and  pushed 
the boundaries of agricultural best practice by dem-
onstrating what can be achieved through sound ni-
trogen  management.  A  large  percentage  of  these 
actions have helped local, regional, and national au-
thorities to reduce air pollution via improved compli-
ance with the Nitrates Directive23. 

An analysis of some 20 different LIFE projects (since 
1998)  related  to  nitrogen  management  on  farms 
highlights the extent to which the programme’s co-
finance  can  be  used  to  reduce  air  pollution24.  This 
sample  of  LIFE  projects  exhibits  strong  similarities 
in their approach, with the majority tending to tackle 
several separate, but simultaneous and coordinated, 
ways of reducing pollution risks from nitrogen. 

23  Targets in the Nitrates Directive require Member States to 
reduce ammonia emissions by 14% on 2000 levels by 2020.
24  Spain and Italy have made the most use of LIFE support for 
tackling agricultural air pollution problems. Opportunities ex-
ist for LIFE projects to better reflect the balance of ammonia 
pollution problems aligned with productivity patterns. Hence 
other major EU agricultural countries, notably France, Germa-
ny, Poland etc. could also make good use of LIFE in this area.

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
One project (AGRI-PERON) used a satellite tool called 
Farmstar  to  diagnose  fertilisation  requirements 
down  to  farm-scale  across  the  whole  territory.  The 
maps  and  other  information  provided  to  farmers 
enabled  them  to  better  assess  the  environmental 
impact  of  their  agricultural  practices  and  modify 
their  nitrogen  inputs.  The  project  developed  codes 
of good agricultural practices and demonstrated tai-
lored practices to reduce nitrogen applications on 76 
farms.  Developing  low  environmental  impact  agro-
nomic  techniques  and  monitoring  their  impacts  on 
nitrate levels has helped establish regional nitrogen 
balance  and  crop  requirements  as  well  as  control 
pollution (PETRIGNANO). Several other projects (SIN-
ERGIA, Crops for better soil, AgriClimateChange, SOL-
MACC) have focused on promoting organic farming 
techniques  that  helped  reduce  nitrogen  application. 
Such techniques have been applied across a range of 
crops, from viticulture, to citruses, leguminous plants 
and wheat. In addition to nutrient application, such 
projects  have  focused  on  tilling,  fertilisation,  crop 
protection, irrigation and the reintroduction of tradi-
tional crops whose roots fix nitrogen, thus requiring 
less fertilisation.

costs  or  increasing  the  total  fertiliser  value.  The 
Crops for better soil project has demonstrated that 
the same yield can be achieved from a lower nitro-
gen  application.  Recognising  the  cost  saving,  farm-
ers who participated in the project are now applying 
the  same  methods  on  other  parts  of  their  land,  as 
well  as  passing  on  the  know-how  to  neighbouring 
farmers who are doing likewise. Many wineries par-
ticipating in the SINERGIA project are now producing 
organic wine, whilst others (without certification), are 
following similar sustainable practices that lower ni-
trogen application. 

LIFE’s  demonstration  value  extends  beyond  crop 
farming.  Piggeries  and  poultry  farms  are  con-
sidered  to  be  a  significant  source  of  air  pollution. 
LIFE  has  demonstrated  a  solution  based  on  flush-
ing  techniques  that  have  reduced  ammonia  emis-
sions  and  nitrous  oxide  by  up  to  70%    (Zero  Nui-
sance Piggeries). Although the project found that its 
method is more expensive than existing techniques 
for  treating  manure  (by  some  €5-8/m3),  costs  are 
expected to fall significantly with further technical 
adaptations.

A  feature  common  to  all  20  projects  analysed  has 
been  to  address  economic  considerations  –  a  vital 
part of persuading farmers to adopt the new meth-
ods.  Most  techniques  designed  to  reduce  nitrogen 
losses  have  been  shown  to  have  other  advantages 
for farmers, such as providing energy, reducing fuel 

Other  projects  -  “Odour  reduction”  and  “InfoN-
itrate“- have helped to identify cost-effective solu-
tions for reducing piggery odours and atmospheric 
threats. However, few projects have addressed air 
pollution  from  poultry  farms  and  one  other  area 
that could be addressed by LIFE in the future is for 

The NITRATES project is defining best farming practices to reduce nitrate contamination

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Additional scope also arises to revisit past work and 
improve on the quantification of various agronomic 
techniques  using  standard  emission  assessment 
methodology.    It  would  be  useful  to  develop  farm-
scale  audit  tools  for  NECD  parameters,  combining 
these  with  GHG  audit  tools  where  possible.  These 
could  feed  into  the  development  of  future  cross-
compliance requirements, and national reporting re-
quirements for air pollutants.

Nitrogen management by precision 
farming

Precision  farming  provides  win-win  benefits  for 
farmers (mainly through cost savings) and the envi-
ronment (mainly through reduced use of agri-chem-
icals and energy). LIFE has been at the forefront of 
progressing  resource–efficient  approaches  to  preci-
sion agriculture through project actions that confirm 
the feasibility of reduced nitrate usage, and thus re-
duced air pollution threats.

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Experimental field monitoring and sampling for nitrate con-
centrations

projects  to  clarify  optimal  nitrogen  management 
methods on farms in upland areas, or operating in 
areas  dominated  by  marginal  land  with  low  pro-
ductivity.

Significantly,  LIFE  has  highlighted  the  value  of 
applying real-time monitoring data to establish a 

Co-benefits from GHG reduction

LIFE09 ENV/ES/000441

AGRICLIMATECHANGE

Many  of  the  more  recent  LIFE  projects  examining 
sound nitrate management on farms are concentrat-
ing  on  climate-related  matters,  and  these  too  pro-
duce  useful  co-benefits  for  air  quality.  Greenhouse 
gas (GHG) reductions often remain the core goals for 
such projects, which normally exhibit stronger direct 
correlations with air quality agendas than LIFE pro-
jects dealing with water-based nitrate problems.

Techniques associated with measuring and reducing 
GHG emissions from Europe’s farms offer useful in-
sights into methods for tackling air pollution (see the 
box on AgriClimateChange). Indeed projects such as 
LIFE+AGRICARBON have shown how actions to miti-
gate the impact of GHGs through improved fertiliser 
management  can  contribute  to  reducing  air  pollut-
ants such as ammonia and NOx. 

This  trend  towards  using  emission  assessments, 
rather  than  water  quality  analysis,  to  evaluate  air 
quality impacts from LIFE (and other) projects is ex-
pected to continue to grow in prominence. Thus LIFE 
could  play  an  important  role  in  helping  to  improve 
our  ability  to  quantify  environmental  benefits  such 
as emissions reductions. 

This  Spanish  project  focused  on  demonstrating  the  effectiveness  of  a 
toolkit that helps to quantify the impacts of on-farm interventions (such 
as ammonia emission reductions) in terms of environmental benefits and 
economic savings. 

The project toolkit included methods that can be applied to tackle ammonia 
emissions, such as covering all slurry pits and liquid manure facilities on 
livestock farms. The AgriClimateChange team highlights scientific evidence 
that at least 17 000 tonnes of ammonia emissions could be prevented in 
this way. It also notes that around 75% of EU farms already have covered 
storage  facilities  for  liquid  manure  but  comment  that  countries  such  as 
France, Italy, and Spain “have a significant potential for progress”.

The project also assessed the potential impact in terms of ammonia man-
agement of low-level slurry application techniques such as shallow or deep 
injection or the use of modern technology such as ‘trailing hoses’ and ‘trail-
ing  shoes’.  The  project  says  that  such  methods  could  have  “an  average 
reduction potential of 350 000 tonnes of ammonia in the EU-27”.  

The  project’s  success  is  being  widely  promoted  at  EU  level  and  has  at-
tracted high-level interest from policy-makers. This includes invitations to 
the project team to present the results at meetings of EU agricultural min-
istries, and to act as key advisors to the European Parliament’s Committee 
on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) during production of a 
new policy document concerning lowering of farm emissions. 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
LIFE10 ENV/BE/000699

DEMETER

In  Belgium’s  Flanders  region  the  DEMETER  project  is  testing  a  decision-
support tool (DST) for agri-businesses that allows them to maximise or-
ganic  matter  and  reduce  nitrate  residuals.  Multi-purpose  outcomes  from 
the project to date can help to tackle both air quality and climate change 
challenges.

With a focus on sustainable management of both soils and nutrients, the 
DST is designed to be simple and user friendly. It helps farmers to translate 
technical and scientific details within practical applications and it is being 
made  available  online  as  a  free  resource  for  Dutch-speaking  farmers  in 
Flanders.   

“The online DEMETER tool presents farmers with a hands-on report about 
the  organic  matter  and  nutrient  management  on  their  land.  In  this  way, 
it  offers  the  farmer  practical  advice  for  improving  soil  management  and 
reducing emissions such as ammonia and GHGs,” explains project leader 
Sarah Steyaer from the Flemish Land Agency. 

“This uniquely integrated and sustainable approach is being tested on 80 
farms where it makes it possible for farmers to improve their own farm 
management in ways that also make positive contributions to important 
policy priorities including reducing air pollution and other emissions,” she 
concludes. 

farm’s ideal nitrogen requirements (the OptiMa-N 
project). This approach has attracted the interest 
of  authorities  dealing  with  nitrogen  regulations, 
since LIFE project results have shown objectively 
that current nitrate usage levels on EU farms can 

be  over-estimated  (and  thereby  reduced)  by  as 
much as 30%. 

Other  LIFE  projects  exploring  precision  farming 
methods  point  to  the  importance  of  managing  soil 
nutrients and organic matter simultaneously. Adding 
manure to soil can improve the soil’s water retention, 
resistance to erosion, and nutrient uptake. However, 
adding  too  much  manure  exceeds  nutrient  require-
ments and leads to pollution. LIFE has demonstrated 
a decision-support tool for agri-businesses that helps 
farmers  achieve  the  correct  balance  of  manure  in-
puts and thus avoid air pollution (see DEMETER box).

DEMETER’s  results  add  value  to  other  LIFE  pro-
jects such as SOWAP, which carried out a success-
ful  cost-benefit  analysis  for  different  precision-
farming  techniques  (e.g.  conservation  tillage, 
nutrient  management,  etc.).  Results  from  such 
multi-national  applied  research  work  show  that 
whilst yields may decrease slightly from reduced 
nitrogen  inputs,  the  associated  financial  savings 
counter any loss of overall profitability. 

Such projects thus provide farmers with the objec-
tive information they need to make environmental 
business decisions, and ultimately boost farmer con-
fidence in measures that reduce air pollution risks. 

More  emphasis  on  cost-benefit  analysis  in  future 
LIFE projects will add more credibility to their results. 

DEMETER is providing farmers with a practical tool that will support them in sustainable nutrient management

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The ECOREGA team showing how to produce a natural fertiliser by mixing liquid manure from cattle farms with other types of 
organic waste 

New LIFE projects in this field should aim to report on 
the  cost  of  their  environmental  solutions  against  a 
conventional ‘control’ cost. Additionally, new projects 
could  aim  to  better  estimate  the  cost  of  commer-
cialising prototypes, or of adapting them to different 
climates or agricultural sectors. 

Manure management and  
composting 

Most  LIFE  projects  with  a  role  in  reducing  air  pol-
lution on farms have found that improving manure 
management provides consistently effective results. 
New know-how has been developed by LIFE here, and 
this knowledge is now in the public domain, allowing 
it to be applied by agri-stakeholders responsible for 
implementing statutory manure management meas-
ures. For example, from the start of 2020, farms will 
be  required  to  cover  manure  stores  and  emissions 
from livestock barns will need to be reduced by 20%. 

responded to this challenge by showing how a combi-
nation of bio-washers and bio-filters can reduce am-
monia emissions by around 95% on such farms.  

In this type of technological project, LIFE’s ability to 
co-finance economic feasibility studies is vitally im-
portant to help promote replication of the technology 
by  the  sector.  Follow-up  work  (via  ex-post  evalua-
tions)  provides  even  more  valuable  information  to 
help  broaden  the  knowledge  transfer  opportunities 
concerning  mainstreaming  of  air  pollution  controls 
on farms.

LIFE’s  mainstreaming  successes  are  demonstrated 
by  France’s  Smelox  project,  which  tackled  both  ni-
trogen and odours from manure through a new high 
temperature vapour process that oxidises ammonia. 
Largely self-sustaining on low-energy inputs and ex-

MIX FERTILISER is producing a new fertiliser containing a nitrification inhibitor which reduces NOx 
emissions

LIFE’s good practice approaches in manure manage-
ment  can  also  help  implement  the  new  codes  and 
standards for low emission manure processing and 
composting that have been proposed by the NECD. 
Another cluster of some 20 recent LIFE projects offer 
new  and  proven  ideas  about  effective  methods  for 
processing  and  composting  manure  -  in  ways  that 
retain nutrient content but reduce emissions.

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Mushroom farms use large quantities of manure com-
post. Consequently, they can be a significant source 
of  EU  ammonia  emissions  (estimated  in  2004  at  
13 000 tonnes per annum). LIFE’s ECOFILTER project 

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ES-WAMAR showed that direct injection of slurry can reduce ammonia emissions by 95%

othermic processes, this innovative high-tech system 
was  endorsed  by  the  local  water  authority,  which 
meant that local businesses could apply for financial 
assistance to install it. 

dairy  farms  to  reduce  air  pollution  threats  using 
anaerobic  digestion  to  improve  manure  manage-
ment (LIFE-OPTIMAL 2012 - see box). 

Another cluster of useful LIFE project results have 
demonstrated  different  ways  of  helping  Europe’s 

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000347

LIFE-OPTIMAL 2012

This ongoing project is testing an anaerobic digestion technology designed 
to  transform  the  ammonia  present  in  livestock  manure  from  a  potential 
pollutant into a high quality liquid fertiliser.  

“We expect to significantly contribute to the NECD by demonstrating how 
the  digestate  can  reduce  ammonia  emissions,”  explains  Helmut  Döhler 
from  the  project.  “Manure  digestate  will  emit  much  less  ammonia  com-
pared to common practice, since it will be stored in covered tanks. In ad-
dition, the production of organic fertilisers will replace artificial fertilisers, 
which can cause high ammonia emissions during production. In our project, 
the  conversion  of  liquid  digestates  into  organic  fertilisers  is  largely  free 
of ammonia emissions because we have installed an air purification and 
treatment unit,” he says. 

Dr Döhler adds that the prototype liquid manure and digestates spreader 
“is designed to reduce environmental impacts to air, soil and water bodies 
by  combining  several  technical  components,  including:  online  measuring 
of the nutrient content of the digestate during spreading by near-infrared 
spectroscopy detectors; low-emission spreading devices (trail hose spread-
er and open slot spreader) and electronic control of the application rate of 
digestate  to  provide  an  accurate  distribution  of  nutrients.”  The  project  is 
also testing a carrier vehicle with a low centre of gravity that would enable 
farmers to work on steep slopes in alpine areas. 

The  cluster  of  manure-related  projects  highlights 
the potential for individual farms to cost-effective-
ly treat different types of manure. However, wider 
uptake of aerobic and biogas treatment technolo-
gies  requires  a  demonstration  of  their  economic 
efficiencies.  Such  a  comparison  was  one  of  the 
useful actions of the UNIDIGES project, whilst the 
ongoing  ECOREGA  project  is  combining  compost-
ing  with  methane  recovery  for  energy  production 
in a coordinated project that aims to highlight the 
profitability  of  integrated  on-farm  approaches  to 
manure management. 

Low-emission spreading

Spreading  nutrient  onto  fields  presents  a  high  risk 
of polluting emissions and nutrient loss. Thus, low-
emission  spreading  is  a  specific  requirement  of 
the  NECD.  Until  recently,  spreading  systems  often 
sprayed manure and slurry high into the air and this 
increased  its  potential  as  a  pollutant.  Modern  ap-
proaches  generally  favour  direct  injection  methods 
and avoid spreading at times when crops or pastures 
are  not  growing.  Such  practices  help  to  maximise 
nutrient uptake by plants and can reduce ammonia 
emissions by up to 95%.

Two  LIFE  projects  -  ES-WAMAR  and  Farms  for  the 
Future  -  have  demonstrated  spreading  techniques 

54

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
that help deliver nutrients where and when they are 
needed  most.  The  former  employed  direct  injection 
of treated piggery waste across a network of nearby 
arable farms, whilst the latter equipped tractors with 
computer-controlled  spraying  technology  linked  by 
satellite  to  a  soil  database.  Business  and  environ-
mental  benefits  resulted  from  ES-WAMAR’s  separa-
tion  and  managed  redistribution  of  solid  and  liquid 
wastes for low-emission spreading using pipelines and 
transport, including the creation of 16 jobs. Outcomes 
from LIFE’s low-emission spreading projects could be 
adopted by future cross-compliance controls. 

Fertiliser control at source

Reduced  use  of  chemical  fertiliser  is  built-in  to  the 
NECD. This is referred to as ‘controlling the source’ of 
potential pollution. A cluster of around 15 LIFE pro-
jects dealing with manure processing and compost-
ing are tackling the issue by retaining farm nutrients 
and creating organic fertiliser. 

Another group of some 10 projects are tackling the 
problem from a different angle – demonstrating op-
tions for increasing the efficiency of fertilisers to de-
liver nutrients (thus less fertiliser is needed). Several 
projects have shown that slowing down the release 
of nitrogen can reduce input requirements, and thus 
pollution risks. This can be done by incorporating a 
nitrification inhibiter with the chemical fertiliser, or by 
coating the fertiliser to manage the rate of release.  

LIFE10/ENV/IT/000347

UNIZEO

Urea-based  fertilisers  are  widely  used  by  EU  farmers  because  they  de-
liver high quantities of nutrient at relatively low cost. However, they can 
have  higher  ammonia  and  NOx  emissions  than  other  nitrogen  fertilisers. 
This  Italian  project  is  testing  the  effects  of  coating  urea-based  nitrogen 
fertilisers with zeolite (micro-porous minerals) in order to control nutrient 
releases and reduce pollution risks. Zeolite is particularly efficient at hold-
ing and slowly releasing valuable nutrients to plants. 

“The UNIZEO-coated product has the potential to reduce ammonia and ni-
trous oxide losses in two ways. Firstly, through the physical protection of 
urea  granules  once the fertiliser has been applied to soils, and secondly 
through soil-exchangeable ammonium retention in the zeolite coating ma-
terial,” explains project coordinator Simone Salvetti. 

He  adds  that  the  project  team  is  evaluating  this  product’s  overall  envi-
ronmental  benefits  in  terms  of  ammonia  emissions  reduction,  fertiliser 
nitrogen  efficiency,  and  nitrate  leaching  and  says  that  so  far  results  are 
“promising”. A pilot plant has been set up to produce 1 000 tonnes/yr of 
the  new  fertiliser  treatment,  which  is  expected  to  reduce  application  of 
urea on farms by as much as 40% throughout the test sites and provide 
a demonstration of an economically-viable way for farmers to reduce the 
overall amount of nitrogen used per hectare. 

plans to achieve a 45-50% reduction in NOx emissions 
from wheat plots, as well as a 30% reduction in chem-
ical fertiliser use. Good replication of these results is 
anticipated because the slow release means one ap-
plication of fertiliser may be possible (saving on opera-
tional costs) and a 10% increase in yields is forecast. 

The  MIX  FERTILIZER  project  is  working  on  mixing  or-
ganic  treated  pig  manure  with  chemical  fertiliser  to 
create a new type of fertiliser containing a special in-
hibitor (3-4 dimethylpyrazole phosphate). This project 

Another  technique,  coating  fertilisers  with  zeolite 
(micro-porous  minerals)  to  control  nutrient  release, 
is being demonstrated by the Italian projects Help-
Soil and UNIZEO (see box). 

Zeolite-coated nitrogen fertilisers reduce ammonia and nitrous 
oxides

Further reductions at source can be achieved by re-
placing chemical fertilisers with suitable substitutes. 
A  number  of  LIFE  projects  have  trialled  the  substi-
tution  of  farm  residues  for  commercial  fertilisers.  
Alternatively,  the  substitute  could  contain  urban 
organic  waste  or  bio-char  (charcoal  produced  from 
bio-mass)  -  the  RESAFE  project  is  currently  blend-
ing farm residues with these other waste streams to 
establish soil fertility improvements.    

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Nutrition control at source

The  NECD  makes  it  clear  that  Member  States  will 
need to make use of low-protein feeding strategies 
for livestock. This reduces the nitrogen input to farm 
systems  and  subsequently  may  cause  farmers  to 
worry about productivity implications.

55

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
By  way  of  abating  such  concerns,  a  cluster  of  ho-
listic  nitrogen  management  projects  has  looked  at 
nitrogen efficiency. Most of these have assumed that 
high  protein  inputs  will  be  maintained  (in  order  to 
retain high yields) and few have worked out protein 
concentration requirements for livestock. Opportuni-
ties exist for new LIFE projects to fill this knowledge 
gap through more work with farmers and livestock 
nutrition experts, building on earlier successes such 
as the 1999 Swedish project, Ammonia (see box).

Black carbon reduction

When agricultural waste is burnt it can produce a 
specific  type  of  PM  called  black  carbon,  which  is 
an  air  pollutant  highlighted  in  the  NECD.  Hence-
forth, certain burning activities will be restricted or 
prohibited  (e.g.  open  field  burning  of  agricultural 
residues).  

More LIFE projects are expected to focus on this is-
sue in the future because it is a priority within the 
clean  air  policy  package.  Aside  from  the  previous-
ly-mentioned  projects  turning  farmyard  waste  into 
compost,  other  LIFE  projects  have  focused  on  al-
ternatives  to  incineration  of  such  waste.  Initiatives 
through the ECORICE, BIOVID and BIOCOMPOST pro-
jects,  for  instance,  have  demonstrated  successful 

LIFE99 ENV/S/000625

AMMONIA 

Demonstrating the LIFE programme’s capacity for innovation, this Swedish 
project from 1999 addressed nearly all of the requirements for ammonia 
reductions and manure/slurry management now included in the proposed 
National Emissions Ceiling Directive (NECD) Annex.

Knowledge  developed  by  the  pioneering  LIFE  project  included:  quantify-
ing ammonia emission reductions; establishing Best Available Techniques 
(BATs) for spreading manure; identifying livestock diet changes; and creat-
ing  an  advisory  service  about  ammonia  that  was  joined  by  some  4  000 
farmers.  The  service  highlighted  such  ammonia-reduction  measures  as 
improving nitrogen efficiency in milk production; creating conditions within 
livestock barns to limit ammonia release; using bio-filters to trap ammonia 
particles in outgoing air from such barns; storing slurry in covered contain-
ers; and applying the BATs for spreading manure. 

The bio-filters were shown to provide particularly useful benefits since total 
ammonia emissions from farms involved in the project were reduced by 
66% when the effect of the bio-filter was included. Even without bio-filters, 
it was shown to be possible to reduce ammonia on farms by 48% using 
methods mentioned above. Furthermore, the project demonstrated that a 
1-2% reduction in dietary protein per head of cattle could reduce Sweden’s 
ammonium-nitrogen emissions by up to 1 700 tonnes per year. 

56

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Open burning of agricultural residues produces black carbon

ways to reduce burning of rice straw and vine shoots 
by developing marketable products from the mate-
rial that was formerly burnt, such as blankets from 
rice straw or cardboard made from vine shoots. 

Cleaner agriculture

The Clean Air Programme for Europe promotes “ac-
tive engagement with the farming sector” and LIFE 
can be seen to offer many success stories in such 
engagement. It has provided on-farm demonstra-
tions  in  real-world  conditions.  Education  and  tar-
geted  knowledge  transfer  have  been  an  integral 
part of the projects in the sector. LIFE projects take 
account of the economic viability of their proposed 
solutions,  and  their  cost  assessments  have  been 
suitably robust to address concerns from EU farm-
ing communities.  

In summary, LIFE has already made major progress in 
developing effective techniques that Member States 
can adopt within the NECD Codes of Practice for ad-
dressing ammonia emission challenges. These codes 
need to be operational before January 2020 and so 
LIFE’s  popularity  with  the  EU  farming  sector  could 
help Member States to identify more new farm-led 
solutions.  It  will  be  important  for  these  future  pro-
jects to focus their actions on farming systems that 
have the most potential for making long-term posi-
tive improvements to the quality of Europe’s air.

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
a g r I c u l t u r e

LIFE GAS-OFF: reducing ammonia 
emissions from dairy farms

Dairy  farms  can  be  a  significant  source  of  air  pollution  from  ammonia  emissions  and  an 

Italian LIFE project successfully identified methods for reducing such pollution risks 

Geographic  features  can  influence  air  pollu-

tion. A case in point is the Po Plain – a large 
enclosed  river  basin  stretching  from  west  to  east 
across some 64 000 km2 of northern Italy. Wind lev-
els in the plain are very low which limits the ability 
of fresh air to circulate and cleanse. Consequently, it 
is prone to high levels of air pollution, especially dur-
ing winter months when inversion occurs and cold air 
clings to the ground.

Air  pollution  associated  with  agriculture  is  exac-
erbated  by  this  natural  phenomenon  and  LIFE  has 
been  involved  in  helping  the  region’s  dairy  farmers 
to better understand options for reducing air pollu-
tion.  LIFE’s  GAS-OFF  project  undertook  three  years 
of applied studies in the Po Plain area to determine 
a toolkit of practical actions that dairy farmers can 
apply to reduce atmospheric emissions. Much of the 
project  focused  on  challenges  related  to  emissions 
from ammonia (NH3) and the greenhouse gas (GHG) 
methane (CH4). 

explore the effects on emissions from changing dairy 
cow diets. Other useful project work assessed effects 
of  emission-reduction  measures  on  farm-based  bi-
ogas plants. 

Federica  Borgonovo  was  a  member  of  the  project 
team  who  was  involved  in  confirming  emission  ‘hot-
spot’ areas for dairy farms: “We measured ammonia 
and  GHG  emissions  in  the  feeding  and  resting  areas 
inside the dairy farm barns. We also monitored sea-
sonal emissions from different floor structures such as 
perforated floors, concrete floors, or floors covered by 
rubber  matting.  We  compared  emissions  from  floors 
that were cleared regularly and from different clean-
ing methods – such as scrapers and flushing systems. 
In addition we monitored the effect on emissions from 
husbandry  practices  using  straw  as  bedding  in  the 
cows’ resting areas.”

Rubber matting increases cleaning effectiveness

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GAS-OFF results offer useful insights for helping oth-
er EU dairy farms to reduce air pollution problems, 
as noted by project coordinator Flavio Cammi. “Our 
project produced findings that should be of interest 
and  relevance  to  all  countries  because  dairy  farm-
ing is common to nearly every part of rural Europe,” 
explains  Mr  Cammi.  “We  are  pleased  with  the  out-
comes of the LIFE project because these prove that 
relatively  easy  actions  on  dairy  farms  can  make  a 
real difference to reducing air pollution.” 

Mitigation measures

LIFE  co-finance  was  used  to  investigate  a  series  of 
pollution  mitigation  measures.  These  included  stud-
ies on pilot farms to: firstly, identify the main locations 
and  sources  of  emissions  on  dairy  farms;  secondly, 
test  mitigation  measures  in  these  areas;  and  thirdly, 

57

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
Federica Borgonovo

The measurements showed that the highest emis-
sions of ammonia and other gases occurred from 
concrete flooring in the feeding area, whilst farms 
with rubber flooring or that used flushing systems 
to remove manure produced less emissions. “It is 
possible to reduce emissions by manure manage-
ment  methods  that  frequently  remove  manure 
from  both  the  surface  of  flooring  and  from  un-
derneath  perforated  floors  in  the  feeding  area,” 
highlights Ms Borgonovo. 

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Changes in manure management systems there-
fore emerge as a key success factor for mitigating 
ammonia  pollution  problems  from  dairy  farms. 
The  LIFE  project’s  results  demonstrate  the  air 
quality benefits from regular cleaning of feeding 
and  resting  areas.  Installation  of  rubber  matting 
and  flushing  systems  further  helps  to  maximise 
air quality benefits. Such findings can help to in-
form Member States’ Codes of Good Practice for 
ammonia  emissions  that  are  proposed  via  the 
new National Emissions Ceiling Directive.

Whilst being relatively simple in technological and 
practical  terms,  such  changes  to  a  dairy  farm’s 
daily  operations  may  often  require  investments. 
EU  funds  from  the  2014-2020  Rural  Develop-
ment  Programmes  are  prioritising  their  support 
for  actions  on  farms  that  create  more  environ-
mental  benefits,  such  as  reducing  air  pollution 
and  GHG  emissions.  Hence,  Europe’s  dairy  farm-
ers  could  make  good  use  of  this  EU  funding  to 
replicate the best practice methods demonstrated 
during GAS-OFF. 

Dietary effects

Additional  air  quality  benefits  were  shown  to  be 
possible  from  changing  the  diets  of  dairy  cattle. 
“Changing the proportions of different feed ingre-
dients can have an advantageous effect on reduc-
ing emissions,” says Gianni Crovetto, who carried 
out a series of tests during the LIFE project. “Us-
ing feed supplements with more starch and sugar, 
like  maize,  rather  than  fibrous  carbohydrates  or 

soya  bean  for  example,  tends  to  produce  lower 
emissions,” he explains. 

“Different  factors  have  to  be  considered  when 
changing diets, and it is important to achieve the 
correct  balance  of  supplements  in  order  to  en-
sure  good  animal  welfare,  profitable  economic 
performance, and overall environmental impacts,” 
notes  Professor  Crovetto.  “The  GAS-OFF  project 
has helped us to better understand some of these 
important  interactions.  In  the  future  we  are  in-
terested in expanding our knowledge about emis-
sions reductions by looking more at the relation-
ships  between  livestock  genetics  and  livestock 
nutrition.”

Policy coordination

Other  opportunities  for  improving  air  pollution 
from  dairy  farms  were  identified  during  a  lifecy-
cle  analysis  of  biogas  plants.  Much  of  this  work 
centred  on  improving  the  quality  and  quantity  of 
biogas  that  can  be  produced  from  the  different 
manure management systems that were studied. 

GAS-OFF  identified  a  major  conflict  between  ag-
ricultural  and  environmental  policy  support,  as 
described  by  Professor  Stefano  Amaducci  from 
the project team: “We found that we could reduce 
GHG emissions using biogas plants but farm sub-
sidies for biogas plants here are based on produc-
ing  electricity,  which  actually  increases  air  pollu-
tion. Various atmospheric pollutants, including an 
increase  of  up  to  40%  in  photochemical  ozone, 
occur  during  the  electricity  production  process. 
However, this could be avoided if farms were not 
forced to produce electricity and instead were able 
to  concentrate  their  methane  to  supply  the  na-
tional grid of natural gas, which is feasible in this 
part of Italy.” 

This is another useful conclusion from the GAS-OFF 
project and it highlights the LIFE programme’s stra-
tegic potential for identifying policy areas in need of 
improved flexibility and better integrated action.

Project number: LIFE09 ENV/IT/000214

Title: GAS-OFF - Integrated Strategies for GHG Mitigation in 
dairy farms

Beneficiary: Azienda Sperimentale Vittorio Tadini

Contact: Flavio Cammi

Email: tadini@aziendatadini.it

Website: http://www.gasoff.eu

Period: 01-Oct-2010 to 31-Dec 2013

Total budget: €1 806 000

LIFE contribution: €903 000 

58

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
I N D U S T R Y , 
I N D U S T R Y , 
W A S T E 
W A S T E 
A N D   E N E R G Y
A N D   E N E R G Y

Assessing LIFE’s impact on 
emissions from industry 

LIFE  has  made  a  useful  contribution  to  improving  air  quality  by  demonstrating  ways  to 

clean-up  emissions  from  industry,  energy  and  waste  incineration.  This  article  highlights 

the programme’s strengths, points out areas where more could be done and features best 

practice examples suitable for follow-up and replication. 

T 

he industrial processes, energy and waste sec-
tors  are  all  sources  of  emissions  of  airborne 

pollutants in the EU (see Table 1).

The  LIFE  programme  has,  since  2000,  funded 
close  to  50  projects  that  have  helped  to  reduce 
air  emissions  in  different  industrial  sectors.  Rel-
evant projects can be divided into those that have 
developed  and  demonstrated  less-polluting  pro-

cesses  and  technologies  (63%),  those  that  have 
implemented end-of-pipe emissions reduction so-
lutions  (29%)  and  those  that  have  concentrated 
on disseminating information and providing train-
ing (8%). 

The  relevant  projects  have  presented  technical  so-
lutions  for  different  pollutants  emission  reductions 
in  various  industrial  sectors,  often  explicitly  linked 

Table 1 - Emissions in the EU by sector in 2011 (EEA, 2013)

Sector

Energy use and supply (excl. transport)*

Road transport

Other transport

Industrial processes

Agriculture*

Waste*

Other

NOx

49%

40%

6%

3%

2%

0%

0%

NMVOC

28%

14%

2%

8%

2%

1%

44%

SO2

91%

0%

4%

5%

0%

0%

0%

NH3

1%

2%

0%

1%

93%

3%

0%

PM2.5

66%

16%

3%

9%

3%

1%

2%

* Partially covered by the IED and for the energy sector, also covered by the Large Combustion Plants Directive

59

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyto the provisions and limits set out in the Integrated 
Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive and 
its  successor  the  Industrial  Emissions  Directive.  Pro-
jects have targeted cuts in emissions of non-methane 
volatile  organic  compounds  (NMVOCs),  NOx,  SOx  and 
particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5 – fine particulates). 

VOC emissions take precedence

As Table 2 shows, half of all LIFE air quality projects 
since 2000 have focused on reducing emissions of 
volatile  organic  compounds  (VOCs)  across  a  range 
of  sectors,  including  application  of  industrial  coat-
ings,  degreasing  and  printing.  VOC  emission  limits 
were introduced under the VOC Solvents Emissions 
Directive  (1999/13/EC).  Of  these  24  VOC-related 
projects, 16 have demonstrated innovative process-
es  and  technologies,  some  of  which  have  achieved 
dramatic reductions in emissions to air. For instance, 
in  the  tannery  sector,  the  Italian  project  N.E.S.S.    - 
New EcoSpray System - implemented a method of 
precision spraying for the skin-finishing phase, which 
has  been  shown  to  reduce  VOC  emissions  by  95% 

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VOC emissions were reduced by 95% in wood panel  
manufacturing

(accompanied by reduced operational costs through 
lower energy and water consumption). 

Projects  have  demonstrated  different  methods  for 
achieving  dramatic  reductions  in  VOC  emissions  in 
the metal coating business, including using a water-
borne epoxy coating (the Zero Emission Lacquer pro-
ject) or galvanising with physical vapour deposition 
(PVD) technology (as demonstrated by CLEAN DECO, 
a LIFE Best Environment project 2005-2006). 

Total

8

Other  VOC-related  projects  have  targeted  the  dry 
cleaning (DETECTIVE), newspaper printing (Resolve), 
degreasing  (BIO  DEGREASING  SYSTEM),  industrial 
decoration (VOC-Free Decals) and pulping industries 
(VOCless pulping and VOCless waste water – see pp. 
66-68). 

NOx, SOx and particulate matter

Since 2000, there have been just eight LIFE projects 
that have attempted to tackle NOx emissions, includ-
ing  two  projects  in  glass  manufacturing,  one  in  the 
food industry, one relating to water treatment and one 
in the ceramics sector (see LIFE ZEF-tile box p.61).

As  well  as  scope  for  more  NOx-related  projects  in 
general,  the  LIFE  programme  needs  to  more  effec-
tively target the sectors that are responsible for the 
highest emissions, such as the pulp, paper and print-
ing  and  iron  and  steel  industries.  Nevertheless,  the 
lone  project  in  the  latter  industry,  ECOTRANSFLUX, 
does provide a good example of what LIFE co-fund-
ing can help achieve (see box p.61).

There are similar gaps in LIFE project coverage with 
regard  to  some  of  the  most  significant  emitters  of 
SOx,  including  again  iron  and  steel,  food  and  pulp 
and paper, as well as cement and asphalt production.  

24

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4

4

2

Table 2 – Relevant LIFE projects since 2000  
by key pollutant and sector

Pollutant

By sector

Nitrogen dioxide

VOCs

Sulphur dioxide

Particulate matter

Heavy Metals

Food production (1)
Glass production (2)
Iron and steel production (2)
Wastewater treatment (3)
Resins, polymers and textile 

production (1)
Tanneries and leather production (4)

Coating (5)

Degreasing (1)
Dry cleaning (1)
Vehicle production (1)
Ceramic industry (2)
Printing (2)
Pulp production (2)
Construction (1)
Packaging (1)
Wood panel production (1)
Wastewater treatment (2)
Oil refining (1)
Glass production (2)
Road construction (1)
Vehicle production (2)
Ceramic industry (1)
Metal coating
End-of-life vehicles
Electronic industry

Ammonia

Wastewater treatment

Different industrial processes

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
Of the projects that have been funded, one particu-
larly  worthy  of  note  is  RefinARS,  a  LIFE  Best  Envi-
ronment project from Italy that targeted one of the 
key  sources  of  SOx  emissions:  petroleum  refineries, 
achieving 96% recovery of sulphur dioxide (SO2) for 
the Eni di Sannazaro de’ Burgondi (PV) refinery. 

Few  LIFE  projects  to  date  have  tackled  the  impact 
of particulate matter and fine particulates and again 
key  sectoral  sources  of  such  emissions  have  been 
largely  overlooked  by  potential  beneficiaries  (e.g. 
cement, iron and steel, pulp and paper). One of the 
major  sources  of  PM  emissions,  road  construction, 
was  addressed  by  the  2003  UK  project,  Ref  Pro-
ject, which developed the first modular and portable 
batch-heater plant for producing roadstone, achiev-
ing  a  particulate  emission  of  less  than  10  mg/m3, 
well  below  the  limit  value  of  50  mg/m3  defined  in 
UK legislation. 

End-of-pipe solutions

Fewer  LIFE  projects  have  attempted  to  implement 
end-of-pipe solutions - technical measures to reduce 
emissions  through  effluent  treatment  or  filtration 
prior to discharge into the environment, as opposed 
to making changes in the process. Again, VOCs have 
been  the  air  pollutants  most  targeted  by  LIFE  pro-
jects implementing end-of-pipe solutions (six of 14 
such projects since 2000). Projects have addressed 
industries  ranging  from  resin,  polymer  and  textiles 
(VOCFREE), to wood-based panels (ECOSB). Projects 
such as SOREME and NT-Plasma demonstrated inno-
vative  end-of-pipe  VOC  reduction  techniques  appli-
cable in a number of sectors. Methods trialled have 
proved effective, for instance ECOSB cut VOC emis-
sions  by  more  than  95%  and  VOCFREE  by  98.5%. 
In Germany, the NT-Plasma project demonstrated a 
means  of  improving  the  efficiency  of  non-thermal 
plasma procedures for purifying waste air from the 
plastic  foil  coating  process.  The  project  most  nota-
bly reduced odours by 97-99.9%, ending complaints 
from the plant’s neighbours. The method used could 
also  be  applicable  in  other  industries  facing  the 
same challenges, such as the processed food sector.  

An integrated approach 

EU  industrial  emissions  policy  assumes  that  permits 
should take into consideration the whole environmen-
tal performance of an installation, including emissions 
to air, water and land, generation of waste, use of raw 
materials, energy efficiency, noise, prevention of acci-
dents, and site restoration upon closure.

LIFE12 ENV/IT/000424

LIFE ZEF-tile

The objective of this Italian project is to demonstrate the feasibility of ap-
plying oxy-fuel technologies to the firing stage of ceramic tile production. 
The use of 95% oxygen instead of air is expected to reduce NOx emissions 
in the manufacturing process by some 95%. Installation of ash filters “will 
reduce to zero particulate emissions…the resulting product will be only CO2 
and water vapour,” explains Chiara Ghini from the project beneficiary, Ce-
ramica Alta. The carbon dioxide produced in the firing stage will be con-
verted into calcium carbonate and reused in the manufacturing process as 
a substitute for lime and dolomite. 

The project will be implemented on a small-scale roller kiln (10 m x 1.5 m) 
with a single preheating module, a single firing zone (eight burners) and 
two single cooling modules. “Despite its small scale, the prototype oxy-fuel 
fired roller kiln will have dimensions relevant enough to allow us to cor-
rectly evaluate the mass and energy balance of a larger industrial-scale 
roller kiln,” explains Ms Ghini. She cites two reasons why hot-oxy firing has 
not been attempted previously in ceramics manufacturing: “the roller kiln 
is a continuous open-ended furnace, which makes the proper control of the 
combustion air more complex; and (secondly) the apparent costs related 
to the need for an oxygen supply.” The beneficiary’s pilot plant will run at 
a lower load advancement speed to enable preheating of the ceramic tiles 
with a much smaller volume of exhaust gases.

The LIFE programme already demonstrates good im-
plementation of this philosophy: Some 70% of LIFE 
projects  addressing  air  pollutants  since  2000  pro-
vided one or more additional environmental benefits, 
contributing  to  the  reduction  in  emissions  of  other 
pollutants,  greenhouse  gases,  smells  and  noise,  or 
reduced  energy  consumption,  generation  of  less 
waste (in particular hazardous waste) or less waste-
water. 

VOC  emissions  provide  a  good  example,  since  they 
are  often  present  in  wastewater  effluents,  as  well 
as emitted directly to the atmosphere. The LIFE pro-

LIFE09 ENV/FR/000591

ECOTRANSFLUX

ECOTRANSFLUX developed a technology that, if applied to 20% of existing 
stainless steel processing lines, would reduce annual consumption of nitric 
acid by 12 000 tonnes, and of hydrofluoric acid and associated sludge each 
by 4 000 tonnes. It would also avoid emissions of 3.2 tonnes/yr of hydro-
gen fluoride gas, 50 000 tonnes/yr of CO2 and 4 000 tonnes/yr of NOx (the 
latter through replacing natural gas furnaces with induction furnaces) . The 
project  beneficiary,  Five  Celes,  forecasts  growing  turnover  and  employee 
recruitment in the next five years thanks to the ECOTRANSFLUX process’s 
“higher production rate, better process reactivity, and a lower-weight mate-
rial with improved mechanical properties.” 

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
gramme has supported the development of various 
emission-reduction  techniques,  particularly  in  the 
context of wastewater treatment from tanning and 
leather  production  (e.g.  the  TANEFTREAT,  Tanwater, 
RIWAC  and  BIOSUR  projects  –  see  box).  The  exam-
ple of the VOCless Pulping and VOCless waste water 
projects (see pp. 66-68), also provides a powerful il-
lustration of the benefits of an integrated approach. 
This  is  taken  even  further  by  an  ongoing  Italian 
project (WW-SIP) that is creating a self-sustainable 
platform for the treatment of waste water at an ur-
ban  wastewater  treatment  plant,  introducing  elec-
tro-chemical pre-treatment to enable the extraction 
of high-quality sludge for compost, a combined heat 
and power (CHP) plant with desuplhurisation technol-
ogy to reduce SO2 and sulphuric acid (H2SO4) emis-
sions  from  biogas  combustion  and  a  CO2-powered 
micro algae photo-bioreactor delivering a renewable 
fuel for biogas production. 

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Another strong example is the Italian RefinARS pro-
ject, which set out to reduce SO2 emissions from oil 
refineries  by  using  an  absorbing  buffer.  As  well  as 
achieving 96% recovery of SO2 emissions across the 
whole  refinery,  the  project  generated  only  460  kg/
day of solid waste (in comparison with 24 000 kg/
day with other techniques), cut concentrations of sul-
phates and sulphites in wastewater (from 9 tonnes/
hr to 1 tonne/hr), reduced consumption of absorbing 
solution by 97%, energy consumption by 25%, and 
operating  costs  by  40%.  Results  are  applicable  to 
more than 150 refineries across Europe and project 
outcomes  are  expected  to  feed  into  reviews  of  the 
relevant BREF (BAT Reference Document). 

LIFE and BAT

In  this  sense,  RefinARS  is  indicative  of  a  notable 
and  lasting  achievement  of  the  LIFE  programme: 
its  impact  on  BAT  -  the  application  of  Best  Avail-
able Techniques to ensure that the largest industrial 
and energy facilities comply with the emission limits 
that correspond to the latest technological and envi-
ronmental developments - and the incorporation of 
project results into BREFs developed under the EU’s 
industrial emissions legislation. 

For  instance,  in  the  tanneries  sector,  a  project  that 
ran from 2001 to 2004 (GIADA), successfully imple-
mented a BATNEEC - Best Available Technology Not 
entailing Excessive Economical Costs - with the re-
sult that VOC emissions were reduced by 28% whilst 
leather  production  increased  by  17%.  The  N.E.S.S. 
project (2004-2007) built on the work of the earlier 

The ECOTRANSFLUX technology could reduce NOx emissions from stainless steel processing lines 
by up to 4 000 tonnes/yr

LIFE11 ENV/IT/000075

BIOSUR

The project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of an innovative mov-
ing bed biotrickling filter technology for treating polluted gaseous streams 
from Tuscany’s tanneries. 

“The  measured  annual  average  air  concentration  of  hydrogen  sulphide 
(H2S), within the tannery district, ranges from 0.3 to 5.0 µg/m3 (depend-
ing on the location) and it is often above the olfactory threshold,” explains 
project manager, Gualtiero Mori.

Wastewater and solid waste treatment facilities are the main point source of 
H2S. Such facilities use chemical scrubbing systems to limit such emissions, 
but this requires significant consumption of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). 

The BIOSUR project will introduce a biological reactor as a buffer before 
final chemical scrubbing, preventing peak loads entering the scrubbers and 
improving the quality of effluents. “To the best of our knowledge rotating 
bed biotrickling filters have never been tested at full scale for the treat-
ment of gaseous effluent,” says Mr Mori. 

Using this technology will make it possible to control solids retention time 
(SRT),  “hence  dramatically  improving  not  only  the  removal  efficiency  but 
also  the  removal  capacity,”  he  adds.  The  project  will  also  test  different 
types of innovative discs to support biomass growth and introduce an auto-
mated monitoring and control system for adjusting biomass retention time.

The project is expected to demonstrate that implementation of the rotating 
bio trickling filter, prior to the existing chemical scrubbers, will, in addition 
to reducing H2S emissions, also reduce operating costs. Mr Mori highlights 
a potential “decrease in consumption of chemical reagents (especially so-
dium hydroxide, which could be reduced by approximately 80%), as well 
as energy for gas pumping or water recirculation, and water consumption.” 

62

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
project,  cutting  VOC  emissions  by  95%,  as  well  as 
lowering operating costs. 

Tanwater,  another  LIFE  Best  Environment  project 
relating to leather tanning, ran full-scale trials of 
a  wastewater  treatment  system  that  reduced  ni-
trogen discharge by 89%, above the forecast 80% 
and better than BAT performance at the time of the 
project. These exceptional results led to meetings 
between the beneficiary and the IPPC Bureau in Se-
ville to discuss the revision of the BREF document 
for tanneries. 

A  Spanish  project  (PREVOC  PLAN)  demonstrated  a 
means of significantly reducing VOC emissions from 
surface treatment plants by applying a zeolite mol-
ecule  filter  at  the  inlet  of  a  thermal  oxidiser  plant 
to remove potential peak solvent concentrations. The 
resulting VOC concentration in waste gases was 8.5 
mgC/Nm3, which is significantly lower than the limit 
of 100 mgC/Nm3 defined in the VOC Solvents Emis-
sions Directive and IED. 

Other relevant project examples include SONATURA, 
which  successfully  and  cost-effectively  used  Va-

pour  Phase  Bioreactors  for  air  pollution  control  in 
Portugal’s  leather  and  cork  industries,  transferring 
an  existing  BAT  to  two  new  sectors  with  positive 
results;  and  Zero  Emission  Lacquer,  which  demon-
strated the benefits of a new low-solvent metal lac-
quer. The latter project not only achieved reductions 
in  overall  emissions,  helping  to  ensure  compliance 
with legislation, by limiting process-related odour it 
has helped improve the local environment. A further 
good example of how LIFE can help improve compli-
ance and feed into BREF procedures comes from the 
pulp and paper sector (see pp. 66-68). 

Constraints and cost benefits

The  replicability  of  lessons  from  LIFE  projects  will 
be determined by the ease with which potential con-
straints can be overcome and cost benefits demon-
strated. Over half (26) of the projects analysed for 
this  chapter  showed  that  their  proposed  emissions 
reduction solutions were economically viable, either 
having  comparable  investment  costs  to  existing 
technologies or providing opportunities to cut opera-
tional costs. Only three projects concluded that their 
proposed technologies were less economically viable 

The RefinARS project achieved 96% recovery of SO2 emissions across a whole petroleum refinery

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HotOxyGlass tested the oxy-combustion technique, which avoids the production of nitrogen and reduces NOx by 80%

than  existing  alternatives,  although  one  of  these, 
HotOxyGlass, could overcome these constraints with 
further development and higher production volumes 
(see box). 

trial  scale.  The  2012  thematic  study  on  air  quality25 
highlights the fact that a number of projects had sig-
nificantly greater costs than originally foreseen, which 
threatens their ability to achieve full implementation 
of their objectives. 

One weakness of the programme in terms of reduc-
ing air pollution from industry has been the lack of 
cost-benefit analysis of project results at an indus-

LIFE07 ENV/F/000179

HotOxyGlass

This French project to limit the environmental impact of flat glass produc-
tion demonstrated a furnace that combines the oxy-combustion technique 
(use of 92-100% pure oxygen instead of air) with the pre-heating of re-
actants  (oxygen  and  natural  gas).  HotOxyGlass  demonstrated  significant 
reductions in energy use (-25%), and emissions of CO2 (-15%), NOx (-83%) 
and SOx (-35%). According to Antonella Contino, from project beneficiary 
AGC, “the technology is now being further developed in other sites across 
Europe,  for  instance  in  AGC  Glass  Czech’s  production  plant  in  Řetenice 
(where coloured glass is manufactured) and Trakya Glass Bulgaria’s plant 
in Targovishte.” Both these sites are further developing the technology with 
the  support  of  LIFE  co-funding.  “It  is  possible  that  other  key  players  are 
also adopting this technology, but it is difficult to have a clear overview of 
their actions, as such investments are often confidential in the industry for 
strategic reasons,” says Ms Contino. 

She notes that reductions in energy use, CO2, NOx and SOx emissions could, 
depending on other factors, allow for operational cost savings. “Moreover, 
the technology can be combined with other energy-reduction technologies, 
thus adding to the financial benefit.”

This is underlined in the case of the BioSOFC project, 
which sought to tap landfill gas and biogas from an-
aerobic digestion, but which was forced to modify cer-
tain project activities when high costs led to technical 
difficulties.  In  2006,  the  project  beneficiary  predicted 
it  would  be  another  10-15  years  before  investment 
cost  and  equipment  size  barriers  were  overcome.  In 
another case, the Portuguese project BATinLoko, tests 
for the implementation of some BATS were not carried 
out because of the high costs involved. 

An unexpected fall in the price of a competing technol-
ogy (Sludge Redox) or sectoral changes (manufactur-
ing  moving  outside  the  EU  –  Odourless  casting)  can 
also limit the impact of LIFE projects. 

Other  constraints  could  include  the  fact  that  a  tech-
nology is not mature enough or is deemed unaccep-
table  by  the  public  or  authorities.  For  instance,  the 
Spanish  GREENING  BOOKS  project  faces  a  challenge 
to persuade publishers to switch to a new technology 

25  Assessing LIFE’s impact on EU noise and air policy - Contri-
bution of LIFE ENV/INF projects to the implementation, dis-
semination  and  further  development  of  EU  environmental 
policies  and  legislation,  focusing  in  particular  on  resource 
efficiency  (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/publications/
lifepublications/generalpublications/documents/noise_air_
study.pdf)

64

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
 
that offers significant benefits for air quality but which 
could also have a negative impact on their revenues. 
In the pulp and paper sector, efforts to measure and 
reduce VOCs are likely to be driven by external forces 
(i.e. legislation) as there is a limited appetite within the 
industry to implement project findings (see pp. 66-68). 
Political will and industry support and cooperation are 
thus also very important.  

The energy sector

Taking a programme level view, it is clear that few 
LIFE  projects  have  focused  on  energy  production 
from  biomass.  Those  projects  that  have  been  car-
ried  out  have  mainly  focused  on  reductions  of  CO2 
and on climate change issues. Air quality issues have 
hardly been taken into consideration26, even though 
it has been demonstrated that biomass burning may 
be highly polluting in terms of NOx, PM, SOx, CO, lead, 
mercury and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).  

A  few  projects  have  attempted  to  reduce  SOx,  NOx 
and  PM  in  energy  production  (FUEL  CELL  IN  PARIS, 
GREEN  PELLETS,  MICROPHILOX).  The  FUEL  CELL  in 
PARIS project, for example, demonstrated the poten-
tial of fuel cell technology to serve as an alternative 
heat and power production method. This highly effi-
cient system does not emit NOx or SOx and produces 
30%  less  CO2  on  average  than  a  traditional  com-
bined  cycle  gas  boiler  and  steam  turbine.  Another 
French project (GREEN PELLETS) carried out an envi-
ronmental assessment of herbaceous energy crops 
which  showed  that  whilst  heat  from  the  biomass 

26  Despite the frequent depiction of biomass as “clean” energy, 
data from permit applications and emission data demons-
trate that burning wood and other biological materials for 
energy may generate as much or more pollution than bur-
ning fossil fuels, including coal. In general biomass burners 
are always more polluting than natural gas and emissions 
are similar to coal – admittedly better for some pollutants 
such  as  sulphur  and  mercury,  but  the  same  or  worse  for 
particulates and NOx.

produces 10 times less CO2 than natural gas or fuel, 
this  biofuel  is  more  likely  to  cause  air  acidification 
than gas or wood. The project carried out combustion 
tests in laboratory and real conditions and concluded 
that if adjustments to boilers are made, use of the 
pellets could reduce emissions of CO2, NOx, SO2 and 
dust. 

Another  programme-level  gap  has  been  in  terms 
of  action  to  reduce  emissions  from  large-combus-
tion plants, one of the focal points of EU emissions 
legislation.  In  addition,  the  programme  has  not  yet 
addressed one of the main focus areas of the new 
clean air policy package - emissions from medium-
sized combustion plants (thermal capacity 1-50 MW) 
as  a  significant  gap  in  EU  air  quality  policy.  Future 
LIFE projects could help address this issue, alongside 
other EU funds dedicated to energy. 

Waste incineration

Few  LIFE  projects  have  addressed  the  impacts  on 
air quality of waste incineration. Of  the  seven  pro-
jects to date, three have concerned the incineration 
of  sludge  from  wastewater  treatment  plants  (with 
two of those attempting to find alternative solutions 
rather than reducing emissions). The remaining four 
projects  respectively  tackle  waste  oil,  hazardous 
waste,  municipal  waste  (mostly  pulp/wood  waste) 
and  methods  of  avoiding  the  incineration  of  bio-
waste. 

All seven projects concern types of waste covered by 
existing legislation and all focus on finding alterna-
tives to incinerating waste rather than implementing 
end-of-pipe  solutions.  Other  projects  targeting  the 
waste-air nexus have attempted to reduce emissions 
from landfills and wastewater treatment processes. 
The LIFE programme has a great number of waste-
water  treatment  projects  that  focus  on  other  envi-
ronmental impacts and do not tackle air pollution.

GREEN PELLETS showed how biomass burning reduces CO2 but increases NOx, SO2 and PM emissions unless adjustments are made to the boilers

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LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
I n d u S t r y ,   w a S t e   a n d   e n e r g y

Making pulp without volatile 
organic compounds 

Two LIFE projects in Finland have provided a valuable demonstration of effective ways to 

tackle VOCs from mechanical pulping, going beyond existing best available techniques. 

S 

ome  11  million  tonnes  of  mechanical  and 
semi-chemical  pulp  is  produced  in  Europe 
each  year27.  Volatile  organic  compounds  (VOCs)  are 
released  during  the  processes  needed  to  make  the 
pulp  for  paper  production,  such  as  debarking,  wash-
ing  wood  chips,  grinding  and  refining  (about  1  kg  of 
VOC per tonne of pulp produced). Mechanical pulping 
was excluded from the remit of 1999’s VOC Solvents 
Directive28 but installations may be covered by the In-
dustrial Emissions Directive (formerly the IPPC Direc-
tive).  Increasing  concern  about  air  quality  has  made 
VOC emissions from mechanical pulping a subject of 
growing regulatory interest. 

In  2006,  the  Finnish  company  AX  LVI  Consulting  se-
cured  LIFE  co-funding  to  carry  out  a  project  called 
 VOCless pulping. The aim of this project was to assess 
the efficacy of two ‘end-of-pipe’ VOC abatement tech-
nologies in trials at fully operational mechanical pulp 
mills. A system based on biofiltration technology was 
tested at Portonogaro mill in Italy, with Stora Enso An-

27  http://www.cobelpa.be/pdf/cepi%20Key%20Statistics%20 

Report%202012.pdf

28  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:319 

99L0013

Mechanical pulp mills produce VOCs when logs are processed

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66

jalankoski mill in Finland the site of trials of a catalytic 
incineration  method.  “Probably  70-80%  of  the  VOC 
abatement systems in the painting, printing, chemical 
and pharmaceutical industries use thermal or catalytic 
incineration: that’s why we wanted to use it as well,” 
explains project manager, Markku Tapola.

The project set itself a target of achieving VOC concen-
trations below 50 mg/m3. Measuring the VOCs proved 
more  demanding  than  anticipated  because  exhaust 
gases  are  released  at  several  different  stages  of  the 
process.  “It was not very easy,” says Mr Tapola. “The 
experience [of measurement] we gained was very use-
ful,” says his colleague Sara Hihnala. 

VOC  emissions  from  the  Finnish  mill  were  measured 
at 0.41 kg per tonne of pulp, whilst the Italian facility 
produced  just  0.03  kg/tonne.  “This  difference  was  be-
cause of the type of wood used, not the manufacturing 
process,” explains Mr Tapola. Portonogaro uses poplar, 
a broadleaved tree, which naturally emits lower levels 
of VOCs than the spruce used in the Nordic countries at 
mills such as Stora Enso Anjalankoski. 

Both trial technologies demonstrated their effectiveness 
in terms of VOC abatement. In the case of the catalytic 
system a cleaning efficiency of 82-94% was achieved, 
reducing  VOC  concentrations  from  both  thermo-me-
chanical pulp (TMP) and pressurised groundwood (PGW) 
processes  below  20  mg/m3.  The  biofiltration  system 
achieved a cleaning efficiency of 83%, cutting VOC con-
centrations in the exhaust gases to less than 10 mg/m3. 

The  project  also  considered  the  potential  of  a  full-
scale hybrid VOC-abatement system, carrying out a 
cost-benefit analysis which showed the potential to 
reduce total VOC emissions in Europe by some 6 000 
tonnes/yr, with only a marginal cost increase for pulp 
producers (of €0.3-3.3 per tonne of pulp, depending 
on the manufacturing process). 

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
 
 
In recognition of these positive results, VOCless pulp-
ing  was  a  LIFE  Environment  Best  Project  for  2009. 
One of the project’s key findings was that the meas-
ured  VOC  load  was  about  half  the  forecast  level. 
Where  had  the  rest  of  the  VOCs  gone?  “We  took 
some  samples  and  found  that  the  missing  fraction 
was  in  the  clear  filtrates,”  recalls  Mr  Tapola.  Thus, 
in  order  to  fully  address  the  impact  of  VOCs  from 
mechanical  pulping,  it  would  be  necessary  to  take 
an integrated approach that also included the mill’s 
wastewater treatment plant. 

Stage two: VOCless waste water

As a result, LIFE provided the backing for a follow-up 
project, VOCless waste water, this time coordinated by 
Meehanite Technology, although led by the same indi-
viduals as the first project. The second project again 
sought  to  demonstrate  the  abatement  potential  of 
biofiltration  and  catalytic  incineration  technologies, 
this time at the effluent treatment stage, as well as a 
third technology, UV-filtration (a method typically used 
in hospitals, the shipping industry and shopping malls 
to  abate  odours  and  other  emissions).  The  project 
aimed to test the three technologies in both aerobic 
and anaerobic wastewater treatment scenarios, with 
all trials taking place at pulp and paper mills in Finland 
this  time  (at  Kotkamills  –  anaerobic  –  and  again  at 
Stora Enso Anjalankoski – aerobic). For Markku Tapola, 
being able to work again at Anjalankoski was impor-
tant to the success of the project: “It was helpful for 
us because we were not experts in the process. Pekka 
Reponen,  the  mill’s  then  environment  manager,  now 
retired] kept our feet on the ground.” For Mr Reponen, 
the LIFE project was valuable because it could show 
others in the industry that there is no need to be afraid 
of the impact of VOCs, that aerobic treatment “is func-
tioning and eating the VOCs”. 

At  Anjalankoski,  the  VOC  load  was  measured  at  the 
cooling tower and the moving bed bioreactors – MBBR 
–  the  places  where  preliminary  measurements  had 
shown they were strongest. Tests of the three abate-
ment  technologies  took  place  at  Anjalankoski  from 
June-August 2011. “We needed three months because 
we tested a lot of combinations and tried to get the 
best  available  techniques  and  best  cleaning  efficien-
cies for each of the techniques. And also because VOC 
emission concentrations were really fluctuating,” says 
Sara Hihnala. In fact, airborne emissions varied by up 
to 300%. The project also detected unexpectedly high 
levels  of  methane  (CH4)  from  the  aerobic  treatment 
process. “Some kind of fermentation or digestion takes 
place during the two days the wastewater is there,” be-

8
6
5
0
0
0

/
I
F
/
V
N
E
9
0
E
F
I
L

:

o
t
o
h
P

Stora Enso Anjalankoski – aerobic wastewater treatment plant

lieves Mr Tapola. Whilst the LIFE project concentrated 
on non-methane VOCs, this knowledge could be useful 
when planning future air quality improvements. 

During the trials the biofilters had an average clean-
ing efficiency of 80% at the cooling tower and 70% 
at  the  MBBR  (rising  to  75%  with  high  initial  VOC 
concentrations).  The  cleaning  efficiency  of  cata-
lytic incineration was 71-83%, with the best results 
achieved at oxidation temperatures above 400oC. By 
contrast,  the  effectiveness  of  the  UV-filtration  sys-
tem  fluctuated  greatly,  achieving  85%  at  best,  but 
below 70% on average. “High humidity was a prob-
lem for this technique,” says Ms Hihnala.

High  humidity  and  acidity  also  hampered  the  ef-
fectiveness of the UV-filtration system when it was 
trialled  at  Kotkamills  the  following  summer  and 
achieved  only 20-30% cleaning  efficiency. This mill 
produces laminating paper, matt coated bulky paper 
and  sawn  timber  from  its  own  thermomechanical 
pulp and alongside an aerobic wastewater treatment 
system, treats the 10% of effluents with the highest 
pollutant loads anaerobically. 

The  biofiltration  system  was  reasonably  effective, 
but  was  sensitive  to  fluctuations  in  the  VOC  load, 
achieving an average cleaning efficiency of 65-70% 
at the aeration basin. “A more effective neutralising 
scrubber to control the acidity would have improved 
the  performance,”  says  Mr  Tapola.  The  catalytic  in-
cinerator  achieved  an  impressive  VOC  conversion 
rate at Kotkamills of 87-97%, meaning that if very 
low VOC limit values (below 10 mg/m3) are imposed, 
it would be technically feasible to abate those emis-
sions using this method.

67

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLIty 
 
Table 1 – Cost comparison of VOC abatement systems, 
including increase in production costs per tonne of pulp

Annual total 
cost of VOC 
abatement 
system

Increase in cost of 
produced pulp because 
of VOC abatement 
system

Unit

€/yr

€/tonne

TMP (Stora Enso Anjala)

Catalytic incinerator

Biofilter

PGW (Stora Enso Anjala)

Catalytic incinerator

Biofilter

76 600

53 500

109 700

116 700

Kotkamills anaerobic waste water treatment plant case study

Catalytic incinerator

Biofilter

68 000

42 000

0.9

0.6

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.2

Results from both sets of trials were collated to pro-
duce a cost-benefit analysis of the respective tech-
nologies (see Table 1). Summarising the findings, Mr 
Tapola says: “We would recommend biofiltration as a 
first system; if it is not working well or you have to 
achieve a bigger reduction of VOCs you should go to 
the incineration system.” He adds that “UV-filtration 
needs more development.” 

Next steps 

One important finding of the second LIFE project was 
that  VOC  emissions  from  the  mechanical  pulp  mill 

with aerobic wastewater treatment are already be-
low 50 mg/m3, so no additional abatement technol-
ogy is needed to achieve this limit value. By contrast, 
anaerobic treatment was found to be insufficient by 
itself to reduce the VOC load below this target. 

An industrial-scale installation of either biofiltration 
or catalytic oxidation abatement is feasible, but  is 
unlikely  without  regulation,  believes  Mr  Tapola.  In 
the  meantime,  both  techniques  could  be  used    by 
industries regulated by the VOC Solvents Emissions 
Directive  (now  Chapter  VI  of  the  IED).  “When  you 
have high concentrations you incinerate them. When 
you have low concentrations, and in the presence of 
odours, you use biofiltration,” he explains. 

There  are  some  immediate  outcomes  of  the  two 
projects for the mechanical pulping sector, however, 
including  a  set  of  transferable  techniques  for  the 
somewhat tricky task of measuring VOC emissions, 
which  could  be  used  by  regulatory  authorities,  as 
well as by the beneficiary. Mr Tapola highlights the 
fact  that  because  VOC  emissions  fluctuate  greatly 
from mill to mill it is necessary to measure first in 
order  to  find  the  most  appropriate  solutions.  Data 
such  as  those  provided  by  the  LIFE  projects  could 
then  be  used  by  the  authorities  to  set  appropriate 
VOC  emission  limit  values  for  Europe’s  mechanical 
pulping industry. 

The beneficiary now plans to submit its findings for 
inclusion in a future revision of the BREF document 
for  the  pulp  and  paper  industry.  Lessons  from  the 
LIFE  projects  could  also  influence  the  next  genera-
tion of pulping technologies: “Some of the pulp mill 
designers  have  asked  us  what  kind  of  techniques 
can and should be used for reducing VOCs,” says Mr 
Tapola. “They speak about Vocless pulping as a goal.”

Project number: LIFE06 ENV/FIN/000201

Title: VOCless pulping - Control of VOC emissions from 
mechanical pulping beyond BAT

Beneficiary: AX LVI Consulting Ltd

Contact: Markku Tapola

Email: markku.tapola@ax.fi

Website: http://voclesspulping.com/

Period: 01-Oct-2006 to 30-Sept-2009

Total budget: €579 000 

LIFE contribution: €286 000 

Project number: LIFE09 ENV/FI/000568

Contact: Markku Tapola

Title: VOCless waste water – Abatement of VOC load from 
waste water treatment in mechanical pulping

Beneficiary: Meehanite Technology Oy

Email: markku.tapola@meehanite.org

Website: http://voclesspulping.com/

Period: 01-Oct-2010 to 30-Sept-2013

Total budget: €1 840 026 

LIFE contribution: €915 000

68

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyProject list

The table below provides the complete list of LIFE projects related to air quality mentioned in this publication. For more infor-
mation on individual projects, visit the online database at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/projects/index.cfm

PROJECT REFERENCE  ACRONyM  

TITLE  

LIFE02 ENV/UK/000136

CATCH

Clean Accessible Transport for Community Health

S U S T A I N A B L E   M O B I L I T Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

LIFE06 TCY/ROS/000269 KALAIR

Kaliningrad Air Pollution induced by traffic: modeling system design, installation and 
validation

PAGE

14

14

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000092

OPERA

An integrated assessment methodology to plan local cost-effective air quality poli-

14, 28, 30, 

cies harmonized with national and European actions.

LIFE00 ENV/F/000640

SMILE

Sustainable Mobility Initiative for Local Environment

LIFE99 ENV/F/000459

ADEME

European day 'In town, without my car?'

LIFE00 ENV/RO/001002

Vote for Bicycle

Vote for bicycle, vote for a cleaner city

38, 39

15, 46

15, 46

15, 44 

LIFE06 ENV/D/000477

PARFUM

Particulates, Freight and heavy duty vehicles in Urban Environments

15, 16, 18, 26

LIFE02 ENV/IT/000106

RAVE

The Green Ray of Novara

LIFE09 ENV/AT/000226

CEMOBIL

CO2-neutral E-Mobility for the reduction of air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5 und NO2) 

and noise in the European cities, for example Klagenfurt

LIFE09 ENV/ES/000507

CONNECT

Creation Of New Network for Electric Cars Technology

LIFE10 ENV/SE/000041

HYPER BUS 

Hyper Bus - Hybrid and plug-in extended range bus system

15

15

15

15

LIFE02 ENV/GR/000359

IMMACULATE

IMprovement  of  Urban  Environment  Quality  of  Air  and  Noise  Levels  by  an  Inte-

16, 44

grated, Cost Effective and MUlti-Level Application of Clean Vehicle Technologies

LIFE11 ENV/NL/000793

E-Mobility 3 Cities NL

Boosting Electromobility Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Utrecht

16, 45

LIFE07 ENV/IT/000434

MHyBus

Methane and Hydrogen blend for public city transport bus: technical demonstrative 

17

application and strategic policy measures

LIFE03 ENV/IT/000319

SIDDHARTA

Smart and Innovative Demonstration of Demand Handy Responsive Transport Ap-
plication to improve the quality of the urban environment.

17, 46

LIFE10 ENV/CZ/000651 MEDETOX

Innovative Methods of Monitoring of Diesel Engine Exhaust Toxicity in Real Urban Traffic

LIFE08 ENV/S/000269

CLEANTRUCK

CLEAN and energy efficient TRUCKs for urban goods distribution

LIFE05 ENV/IT/000870

CEDM

Centre for Eco-Friendly City Freight Distribution

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000111

ELBA

ELBA - Integrated Eco-friendly Mobility Services for People and Goods in Small Islands

17

17

18

18

LIFE05 ENV/E/000262

GESMOPOLI

Integral mobility management in industrial estates and areas (GESMOPOLI)

18, 46

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000063

I.MO.S.M.I.D

Integrated MOdel for Sustainable Management of Mobility in Industrial Districts

18, 38, 46

LIFE11 ENV/IT/000015

PERHT

PARKING GREEN SERVICES FOR BETTER ENVIRONMENT IN HISTORIC TOWNS

LIFE05 ENV/IT/000839

C-DISPATCH

Clean-Distribution of goods in Specimen Areas at the last mile of the intermodal 
Transport Chain

LIFE12 ENV/FR/001125

LIFE+ URBANNECY

Improvement of urban environment via an innovative and economically-viable lo-
gistic platform using green vehicles

LIFE03 ENV/S/000592

CLEANOWA

Cost-effective system for clean and noiseless waste collection

LIFE07 ENV/A/000003

CMA+

PM10 reduction by the application of liquid Calcium-Magnesium Acetate (CMA) in 
the Austrian and Italian cities Klagenfurt, Bruneck and Lienz

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000749

LIFE EQUINOX

Surface Treatment for Asphalt pavements to Nitrogen oxides removal in Urban En-
vironments

LIFE06 ENV/D/000479

WINTECC

Demonstration of an innovative wind propulsion technology for cargo vessels

LIFE03 ENV/NL/000474

LNG Tanker

LNG Tanker, Demonstrating the effective and safe use of liquid natural gas as fuel 
for ship engines for short-sea shipping and inland waterway transport.

LIFE02 ENV/IT/000064

PVTRAIN

The application of innovative photovoltaic technology to the railway trains

18

18

18

19

19

19

20

20

20

LIFE10 ENV/SE/000035

SLIDE IN

Life without oil : Slide in - energy efficient and fossil-free public transportation for 
a sustainable society

21-23

69

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyPROJECT REFERENCE  ACRONyM  

TITLE  

PAGE

M O N I T O R I N G   A N D   M O D E L L I N G

LIFE06 PREP/A/000006

EC4MACS

European Consortium for Modelling of Air Pollution and Climate Strategies

25, 36

LIFE05 ENV/RO/000106

AIR-AWARE

Air Pollution Impact Surveillance and Warning System for Urban Environment

26, 29, 30, 35

LIFE08 ENV/F/000485

ROMAIR

Implementation of an air quality modelling and forecast system in Romania

26, 37

LIFE04 ENV/AT/000006

KAPA GS

Klagenfurt's  Anti-PM  10  Action  Programme  in  co-operation  with  Graz  and  the 

26, 27, 37, 45

South-Tyrol

LIFE09 ENV/FI/000579

REDUST

Best winter maintenance practices ot reduce respirable street dust in urban areas - 
demonstration of best practices, strategy development and implementation

27, 28

LIFE06 ENV/A/000345

SPAS

Sound and Particle Absorbing System

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000327

MED-PARTICLES

Particles size and composition in Mediterranean countries: geographical variability 

LIFE02 ENV/E/000274

HADA

Automatic Tool for environmental diagnosis

LIFE04 ENV/ES/000216

SIMPYC

Environmental integration for ports and cities

and short-term health effects.

LIFE11 ENV/ES/000584

AIRUSE

Testing and Development of air quality mitigation measures in Southern Europe

LIFE00 ENV/RO/000987

AIRFORALL

Air Pollution Forecasting, Alert and Monitoring System on Short Time Scale, ...

27

27

27

27, 30

27, 36

27

LIFE00 ENV/P/000830

SINESBIOAR

Implementation of a multidisciplinary tool for the evaluation and management of 

28, 30

air quality, and the social impacts in the region of Sines.

LIFE12 ENV/IT/000614

MAPEC_LIFE

Monitoring air pollution effects on children for supporting Public Health Policy

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000082

EXPAH

Population Exposure to PAH.

LIFE10 ENV/FR/000208

FO3REST

Ozone and Climate Change Impacts on French and Italian Forests: Refinement of 

criteria and thresholds for forest protection

LIFE09 ENV/GR/000289

ACEPT-AIR

Development of A Cost Efficient Policy Tool for reduction of Particulate Matter in AIR

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000005

ARTEMIDE

High temporal resolution urban monitoring of benzene, 1,3-butadiene and ...

LIFE04 ENV/DE/000054

UFIPOLNET

Ultrafine particle size distributions in air pollution monitoring networks

LIFE05 ENV/GR/000214

SMAQ

SATELLITE-ASSISTED MANAGEMENT OF AIR QUALITY

28, 30

28, 30

28

28

29, 37

29, 30

29, 37, 38

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000391

DIAPASON

Desert-dust Impact on Air quality through model-Predictions and Advanced Sensors 

30

ObservatioNs

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000729

LIFE DIOXDETECTOR

Fast Direct Atmospheric Dioxin Detection

30, 31

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000280

LIFE MINOx-STREET

MonItoring  and  modelling  NOx  removal  efficiency  of  photocatalytic  materials:  A 

30

STRategy for urban air quality managEmEnT

LIFE09 ENV/BE/000409

ATMOSYS

Policy support system for atmospheric pollution hot spots

32-34

C A P A C I T Y   B U I L D I N G

LIFE09 ENV/CY/000252

PM3 CYPRUS

Particulates monitoring, modelling and management

LIFE00 ENV/H/000936

EHBN

Establishment and operation of a regional biomonitoring network for the assess-
ment of air quality - East Hungarian Biomonitoring Network

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000005

ARTEMIDE

High temporal resolution urban monitoring of benzene, 1,3-butadiene and ...

LIFE00 ENV/RO/000987

AIRFORALL

Air Pollution Forecasting, Alert and Monitoring System on Short Time Scale, at ...

LIFE04 ENV/AT/000006

KAPA GS

Klagenfurt's Anti-PM 10 Action Programme in co-operation with Graz and ...

LIFE05 ENV/GR/000214

SMAQ

SATELLITE-ASSISTED MANAGEMENT OF AIR QUALITY

LIFE05 ENV/RO/000106

AIR-AWARE

Air Pollution Impact Surveillance and Warning System for Urban Environment

LIFE08 ENV/F/000485

ROMAIR

Implementation of an air quality modelling and forecast system in Romania

LIFE09 ENV/BE/000409

ATMOSYS

Policy support system for atmospheric pollution hot spots

LIFE09 ENV/CY/000252

PM3 Cyprus

Particulates monitoring, modelling and management

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000389

INTEGREEN

Integration of Traffic and Environmental data for improving green policies in the ...

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000063

I.MO.S.M.I.D.

Integrated MOdel for Sustainable Management of Mobility in Industrial Districts

37

37

37

37

37

37

37

37

37

37

37

38

70

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyPROJECT REFERENCE  ACRONyM  

LIFE11 ENV/DE/000495

CA

TITLE  

CLEAN AIR

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000092

OPERA

An integrated assessment methodology to plan local cost-effective air quality ...

E N C O U R A G I N G   B E H A V I O U R A L   C H A N G E 

LIFE00 ENV/A/000240

GOAL

Graz: Noise and emission reduction through the promotion of alternative means of...

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000389

INTEGREEN

Integration of Traffic and Environmental data for improving green policies in the ...

PAGE

38, 39

40-42

45

45

LIFE10 ENV/ES/000471

Crops for better soil

Profitable organic farming techniques based on traditional crops: contrasting soil ...

46, 50

LIFE09 ENV/ES/000441

AgriClimateChange

Combating climate change through farming: application of a common evaluation ...

46, 50, 51

LIFE03 ENV/E/000085

SINERGIA

SYNERGY, Quality and respect for environment

46, 50

LIFE07 INF/F/000185

EWWR

European Week of Waste Reduction

LIFE00 ENV/A/000240

GOAL Graz

Graz: Noise and emission reduction through the promotion of alternative means ...

LIFE00 ENV/B/000285

SMASH-EVENTS

Sustainable mobility as part of an integrated sustainability approach for large ...

LIFE00 ENV/F/000640

SMILE

Sustainable Mobility Initiative for Local Environment

LIFE00 ENV/RO/001002

VOTE FOR BICYCLE

Vote for bicycle, vote for a cleaner city

LIFE02 ENV/GR/000359

IMMACULATE

IMprovement  of  Urban  Environment  Quality  of  Air  and  Noise  Levels  by  an  Inte-
grated, Cost Effective and MUlti-Level Application of Clean Vehicle Technologies

LIFE02 ENV/IT/000106

RAVE

The Green Ray of Novara

LIFE03 ENV/IT/000319

SIDDHARTA

Smart and Innovative Demonstration of Demand Handy Responsive Transport ...

LIFE05 ENV/E/000262

GESMOPOLI

Integral mobility management in industrial estates and areas (GESMOPOLI)

LIFE11 ENV/NL/000793

E-mobility 3 cities NL

Boosting Electromobility Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Utrecht

LIFE99 ENV/F/000459

ADEME

European day 'In town, without my car ?'

A G R I C U L T U R E

LIFE04 ENV/FR/000319

AGRI-PERON

Development and implementation of codes of good agricultural practices to reduce ...

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000019

Petrignano

Integrated management systems of the Petrignano area : new models against the 
nitrates pollution

LIFE03 ENV/E/000085

SINERGIA

Quality and respect for environment

LIFE04 ENV/FR/000337

ZNP

Zero Nuisance Piggeries

LIFE12 ENV/SE/000800

SOLMACC

Strategies  for  Organic-  and  Low-input-farming  to  Mitigate  and  Adapt  to  Climate 
Change

LIFE99 ENV/D/000442

Odour reduction

Reduction of the odour emission in the feed mill Oldenburg

LIFE10 INF/MT/000092

InfoNitrate

Information and communications campaign for the proper use and management ...

LIFE08 ENV/E/000129

LIFE+AGRICARBON

Sustainable agriculture in Carbon arithmetics

LIFE04 ENV/IT/000454

OptiMa-N

Optimisation of nitrogen management for groundwater quality improvement and ...

LIFE10 ENV/BE/000699

DEMETER

Duurzaam En geïntegreerd bodembeheer om MilieuEffecten TE Reduceren ...

LIFE03 ENV/UK/000617

SOWAP

Soil and Surface water protection using conservation tillage in northern and ...

LIFE04 ENV/HU/000372

ECOFILTER

Modern and environmental friendly composting methods of agricultural waste

LIFE98 ENV/F/000279

SMELOX

Nitrogen and odours destruction, and sterilisation of manure spreadings ...

LIFE12 ENV/IT/000671

LIFE-OPTIMAL 2012

OPTImised nutrients MAnagement from Livestock production in Alto Adige

LIFE10 ENV/ES/000442

UNIDIGES

Demonstrative plant for manure management of a medium size exploitation ...

LIFE09 ENV/ES/000459

ECOREGA

Green (environmentally friendly) management of cattle farm waste and its ...

47

47

47

47

47

47

47

47

47

47

47

50

50

50

50

50

50

50

51

52

52

52

53

53

54

54

54

LIFE06 ENV/E/000044

ES-WAMAR

Environmentally-friendly management of swine waste based on innovative ...

54, 55

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000647

Farms for the future

Farms for the future: Innovation for sustainable manure management from farm to soil

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000689 MIX FERTILIZER

Valorization of the digestate from pig manure as new fertilizers with an organic ...

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000347

UNIZEO

Urea-based nitrogenous fertilizers coated with zeolite: reducing drastically ...

LIFE12 ENV/IT/000356

RESAFE

Innovative fertilizer from urban waste, bio-char and farm residues as substitute of...

55

55

55

55

71

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyPROJECT REFERENCE  ACRONyM  

TITLE  

LIFE99 ENV/S/000625

Ammonia

Towards a sustainable milk production - reducing on-farm ammonia losses

LIFE04 ENV/ES/000184

ECORICE

Sustainable management of the rice straw

LIFE03 ENV/E/000114

BIOVID

Alternative to wine shoots'incineration

LIFE00 ENV/E/000555

BIOCOMPOST

Demonstration Plant for composting municipal sewage sludges and rice straw, and 
evaluation the agronomic quality of the produced compost

LIFE09 ENV/IT/000214

GAS-OFF

Integrated Strategies for GHG Mitigation in dairy farms

  I N D U S T R I A L   P R O C E S S E S ,   E N E R G Y   A N D   W A S T E

LIFE04 ENV/IT/000414

N.E.S.S.

New Eco Spray System

LIFE00 ENV/NL/000794

Zero Emission Lacquer

Zero Emission Lacquer

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000213

CLEAN DECO

Development of a clean coating technology pvd for decorative applications on metal 
components in place of the traditional (galvanic) coating technologies

LIFE00 ENV/NL/000797

DETECTIVE

Demonstration Textile CO2 Treatment Introduction Validation Effort

LIFE02 ENV/S/000344

Resolve

Reduction of solvents in the european newspaper printing industry

LIFE03 ENV/F/000268

BIO DEGREASING SYSTEM BIO DEGREASING SYSTEM

LIFE05 ENV/IT/000911

VOC-Free Decals

Volatile Organic Compouns Free Decals - Eliminating toxic, harmful and/or...

LIFE12 ENV/IT/000424

LIFE ZEF-tile

Zero Emission Firing strategies for ceramic tiles by oxy-fuel burners and CO2 ...

LIFE09 ENV/FR/000591

ECOTRANSFLUX

Transverse Flux Induction Strip Heating Demonstrator, a technology limiting ...

PAGE

56

56

56

56

57-58

60, 62

60, 63

60

60

60

60

60

60, 61

60, 61

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000012

RefinARS

Absorption  and  recovery  of  sulphur  from  flue  gas  of  the  Fluid  Catalytic  Cracking 
(FCC), by a special reusable buffer

61, 62, 63

LIFE03 ENV/UK/000615

Ref Project

Demonstration of a Recycling, Energy Efficient and Environmentally Friendly ...

LIFE00 ENV/E/000506

VOCFREE

Demonstrative project of an innovative system to prevent the voc emissions ...

LIFE05 ENV/L/000047

ECOSB

New and environmentally friendly OSB panels

LIFE11 ENV/IT/000109

SOREME

Low cost sorbent for reducing mercury emissions

LIFE02 ENV/D/000406

NT-Plasma

Improved application of catalytic supported low temperature plasma plants for ...

LIFE02 ENV/NL/000114

TANEFTREAT

Demonstration of effective and efficient TANnery EFfluent TREATment using an ...

61

61

61

61

61

62

LIFE03 ENV/S/000595

Tanwater

Reduction of the nitrogen discharge from the leather industry

62, 63

LIFE05 ENV/IT/000812

RIWAC

Project for recovery and reuse of industrial waters and trivalent chromium ...

LIFE11 ENV/IT/000075

BIOSUR

Rotating bioreactors for sustainable hydrogen sulphide removal

LIFE10 ENV/IT/000308

WW-SIP

From Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant to Self Sustainable Integrated Platform 
for Wastewater Refinement

LIFE00 ENV/IT/000184

GIADA

Integrated Environmental Management in the tannery district of Chiampo Valley

LIFE05 ENV/E/000328

PREVOC PLAN

Pilot Demonstration Plant for Reduction of VOC Air Emissions

LIFE03 ENV/P/000521

SONATURA

Vapour Phase Bioreactors for Agro-non-Food Industries

LIFE07 ENV/F/000179

HotOxyGlass

Validation of environment friendly flat glass production using an innovative hot ...

LIFE06 ENV/E/000054

BioSOFC

Design and demonstration of 3 CHP plants using two 5 kW solid oxide fuel ...

LIFE07 ENV/P/000625

BATinLoko

Environmental performance indicators and their relation with economic factors ...

LIFE05 ENV/D/000193

Sludge Redox

Transfer of the organic constituents of sewage sludge into a soluble form for ...

LIFE10 ENV/FI/000059

Odourless casting

Odour and hazardous emission abatement of foundries

LIFE09 ENV/ES/000457

GREENING BOOKS

Improving the environmental performance of publications from design to lecture!

LIFE04 ENV/FR/000331

FUEL CELL IN PARIS

Installation of A Fuel Cell in Paris

LIFE07 ENV/F/000178

GREEN PELLETS

Best sustainable life-cycle fittings for mixed herbaceous solid biofuels for heating 
to reduce GHG emissions

LIFE05 ENV/E/000319

MICROPHILOX

Energy recovery from landfill's biogas by the use of microturbines and biological ...

LIFE06 ENV/FIN/000201

VOCless pulping

Control of VOC emissions from mechanical pulping beyond BAT

LIFE09 ENV/FI/000568

VOCless waste water

Abatement of VOC load from waste water treatment in mechanical pulping

62

62

62

62

63

63

64

64

64

64

64

64

65

65

65

67-68

67-68

72

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyAvailable LIFE Environment publications

LIFE Environment brochures

Other publications

LIFE and Soil protection (2014, 68 pp. – ISBN 
978-92-79-38305-2 – ISSN 1725-5619)

Best LIFE Environment projects 2012 (2013, 48 pp. 
– 978-92-79-32961-6 – ISSN 1725-5619)

LIFE creating green jobs and skills (2013, 76 
pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-25091-0 – ISSN 1725-
5619)

Environment Policy & Governance Projects 
2012 compilation (2013, 157 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-29479-2) 

LIFE’s Blueprint for water resources (2012, 80 
pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-27206-6 – ISSN 1725-
5619)

Information & Communication Proj ects 2012 
compilation (2013, 14 pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-
29475-4)

LIFE and coastal management (2012, 96 pp. – 
ISBN 978-92-79-25091-0– ISSN 1725-5619)

Best LIFE Environment projects 2011 (2012, 24 pp. 
– ISBN 978-92-79-28217-1 – ISSN 1725-5619)

LIFE and Resource Efficiency: Decoupling 
Growth from Resource Use (2011, 72 pp. – ISBN 
978-92-79-19764-2 – ISSN 1725-5619)

Environment Policy & Governance Projects 
2011 compilation (2012, 122 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-25247-1) 

LIFE and local authorities: Helping regions and 
municipalities tackle environmental challenges  
(2010, 60 pp.– ISBN 978-92-79-18643-1 – ISSN 
1725-5619)

Water for life - LIFE for water: Protecting 
 Europe’s water resources (2010, 68 pp. – ISBN 
978-92-79-15238-2 – ISSN 1725-5619)

LIFE among the olives: Good practice in 
improving environmental performance in the 
olive oil sector (2010, 56 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-14154-6 – ISSN 1725-5619)

Getting more from less: LIFE and sustainable 
production in the EU (2009, 40 pp. – ISBN 978-
92-79-12231-6 – ISSN 1725-5619)

Breathing LIFE into greener businesses: Dem-
onstrating innovative approaches to improving 
the environmental performance of European 
businesses (2008, 60 pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-
10656-9 – ISSN 1725-5619) 

LIFE on the farm: Supporting environmentally 
sustainable agriculture in Europe (2008, 60 pp. 
– 978-92-79-08976-3 – ISSN 1725-5619) 

Information & Communication Proj ects 2011 
compilation (2012, 17 pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-
25248-8)

Best LIFE Environment projects 2010 (2011, 32 pp. 
– ISBN 978-92-79-21086-0 – ISSN 1725-5619)

Environment Policy & Governance Projects 
2010 compilation (2011, 113 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-20030-4) 

Information & Communication Proj ects 2010 
compilation (2011, 19 pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-
20027-4)

Best LIFE Environment projects 2009 (2010, 32 pp. 
– ISBN 978-92-79-16432-3 ISSN 1725-5619) 

Environment Policy & Governance Projects 
2009 compilation (2010, 125 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-13884-3)

Information & Communication Proj ects 2009 
compilation (2010, 14 pp. – ISBN 978-92-79-
16138-4)

Environment Policy & Governance Projects 
2008 compilation (2009, 107 pp. – ISBN 978-92-
79-13424-1)

A number of LIFE publica-
tions are available on the LIFE 
website: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/
life/publications/lifepublications/
index.htm

A number of printed copies of 
certain LIFE publications are 
available and can be ordered 
free-of-charge at: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/
life/publications/order.htm

73

LIFE ENVIRONMENT  | LIFE and aIr quaLItyK
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LIFE “L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement” / The financial instrument for the environment

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action

Period covered 2014-2020

EU funding available approximately €3.46 billion

Allocation  of  funds  Of  the  €3.46  billion  allocated  to  LIFE,  €2.59  billion  are  for  the  Environment  sub-
programme, and €0.86 billion are for the Climate Action sub-programme. At least €2.8 billion (81% of the total 
budget) are earmarked for LIFE projects financed through action grants or innovative financial instruments. 
About  €0.7  billion  will  go  to  integrated  projects.  At  least  55%  of  the  budgetary  resources  allocated  to 
projects supported through action grants under the sub-programme for Environment will be used for projects 
supporting the conservation of nature and biodiversity. A maximum of €0.62 billion will be used directly by DG 
Environment and DG Climate Action for policy development and operating grants.

Types of projects Action Grants for the Environment and Climate Action sub-programmes are available for 

the following:
> 

“Traditional” projects – these may be best-practice, demonstration, pilot or information, awareness and 
dissemination projects in any of the following priority areas: LIFE Nature & Biodiversity; LIFE Environment 
&  Resource  Efficiency;  LIFE  Environmental  Governance  &  Information;  LIFE  Climate  Change  Mitigation; 
LIFE Climate Change Adaptation; LIFE Climate Governance and Information.

>  Preparatory  projects  –  these  address  specific  needs  for  the  development  and  implementation  of  Union 

environmental or climate policy and legislation.

> 

Integrated  projects  –  these  implement  on  a  large  territorial  scale  environmental  or  climate  plans  or 
strategies required by specific Union environmental or climate legislation.

>  Technical assistance projects – these provide financial support to help applicants prepare integrated projects. 

>  Capacity building projects – these provide financial support to activities required to build the capacity of 
Member States, including LIFE national or regional contact points, with a view to enabling Member States 
to participate more effectively in the LIFE programme.

Further information More information on LIFE is available at http://ec.europa.eu/life.

How  to  apply  for  LIFE  funding  The  European  Commission  organises  annual  calls  for  proposals.  Full 

details are available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/funding/life.htm

Contact

European Commission – Directorate-General for the Environment – B-1049 Brussels (env-life@ec.europa.eu). 
European Commission – Directorate-General for Climate Action – B-1049 Brussels (clima-life@ec.europa.eu). 
European Commission – EASME – B-1049 Brussels (easme-life@ec.europa.eu).

Internet  http://ec.europa.eu/life,  www.facebook.com/LIFE.programme,  twitter.com/life_programme,  www.flickr.

com/life_programme/.

LIFE Publication / LIFE and Air quality 

Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union

2014 - 76p - 21 x 29.7 cm
ISBN 978-92-79-38304-5
ISSN 2314-9329
doi:10.2779/13976