Transboundary pollution

The ecosystem acidification and critical load calculation processes are only partly scientific exercises, being connected closely with economic development of all countries. So, in different projects the hazards of concern include ecosystem damage due to acidification and eutrophication processes (e.g., decreased productivity and biodiversity, soil erosion, drinking water quality, reproduction losses, etc.), firstly, in local scale and, secondly, in regional scale that may lead to transboundary pollution. For more details see Figure 2. 

Ilyin, I., Travnikov, O. (2003). Heavy Metals Transboundary Pollution of the Environment. MSC-E Technical Report 5/2003, June 2003. 

Air quality management covers both national as well as international obligations. From the position of a single Member State, transboundary pollution can be seen as an external reason . Transboundary pollution is tackled e.g. by the NEC Directive [2] and the UNECE protocols. However, the implementation of these obligations is also a national task. 

A revised NEC Directive, which includes emission ceilings for PM2.5, is of utmost importance in order to prepare the path for emission reductions up to 2020 and to achieve various environmental objectives. It will also contribute to attaining the PM10 and N02 limit values. It will furthermore be an important input for the foreseen revision of the Gothenburg Protocol, designed to also reduce transboundary pollution from countries outside the EU. Therefore a proposal for a revised NEC Directive should be published as soon as possible. The emission ceilings included therein should be ambitious so as to facilitate the attainment of air quality limit values. 

Besides high background concentrations - partly originating from transboundary pollution - a number of different sources exist for PM10 which require specific action. Nevertheless, traffic is a dominant local source in most areas. For N02 traffic is the only predominant source. N02 levels have often remained on a high level in recent years, which points to the non-delivery of Euro standards for diesel vehicles and increasing primary N02 emissions. 

International Convention on Long Range Transboundary Pollution... 

Any Member State(s) experiencing the results of the transboundary pollution would be responsible for preparing the risk characterisation section of the Annex XV dossier (unless located outside the EU). 

Air quality modelling at met.no consists of three different systems, all coupled offline to our numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. These are (1) a nuclear emergency system, (2) an urban air quality (AQ) forecasting system and (3) a longterm air quality chemical transport model routinely used in Europe to determine transboundary pollution fluxes. 

Characterize the role of China in transboundary pollution in East Asia. Describe the CL and Ex maps on the area of China. Indicate the reasons of differentiated sensitivity of Chinese ecosystems to acid deposition. 

Wettestad, J., 2002 Clearing the Air Europe Tackles Transboundary Pollution, The Environment 44 2, p 32-40. 

What are the reasons of transboundary pollution in Eurasian continent Present your own speculations and explanations. 

Since the half-lives ofS02 and SO3 in the atmosphere are of the order of several days, acid precipitation can he expected over whatever distance is traveled by an air mass from the pollntion sonrce dnring this period. Assuming a wind speed of as little as 20 km h, snch an air mass will travel nearly 3500 km over the course of a week. For example, sulfur acid-forming compounds can travel from Europe to Asia or from Asia to North America (see Chapter 1). Acid deposition is thus the transboundary pollution issue. 

SO2 and NO, emissions, which are often dispersed by prevailing winds from the United States to Canada, create a contentious transboundary pollution problem between the two countries. In Chapter 9, Acid Rain Politics... 

There was also growing appreciation that pollution could be a matter of international scale and scope although acid rain was not yet a widely accepted idea and scientific understanding of transboundary pollution issues was still in its infancy. As an indication of the level of awareness of this environmental matter, there was no entry for acid rain in the 1968 Encyclopedia Britannica. The main entry dealing with pollution, Pollution, Environmental , does mention that polluted air or water does not respect city, state or provincial, national, or even continental boundaries but only makes reference to the Ruhr River regional pollution abatement plan, as a specific example of a transboundary pollution issue.There is no mention of acid rain in this entry either. 

The overall goals of this interdisciplinary conference were to summarize scientific and policy lessons learned from the attempt to mitigate acid deposition, and to discuss the future of transboundary pollutants and market-based emission control systems. Anthony Janetos, Vice President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment gave the keynote address providing the conferees with an historical perspective on lessons learned from the acid deposition research experience. In the evening address, Paul Portney, the former President and Senior Fellow of Resources for the Future discussed economical benefits and costs of air pollution... 

Although an attempt is made to address some of these issues, it is not possible for them to be considered fully in this document. The techniques and levels presented in Chapter 5 will therefore not necessarily be appropriate for all installations. On the other hand, the obligation to ensure a high level of environmental protection, including the minimisation of long-distance or transboundary pollution, implies that permit conditions cannot be set on the basis of purely local considerations. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the information contained in this document is fully taken into account by permitting authorities. 

Quah, E. (2002). Transboundary pollution in Southeast Asia the Indonesian fires. World Development, 30(3) 429-441. 

---