Historical overview and main features
Emissions from point sources
EU discussed the adoption of legislation to limit the presence of pollutants in the air. Two options were available to the law-maker: on the one hand, legislation could limit or prohibit altogether the emission of a pollutant from products or installations (point sources). As, however the burning of fuel (petrol or coal), for example, in vehicles or industrial installations, cannot be stopped altogether and causes air pollution, at best, a limitation of the emission of such pollutants could be agreed.
However, it is obvious that reducing emissions from point sources is not sufficient to stop air pollution: even when, for example, all cars and trucks respect the legal limits for the emission of pollutants, the total overall quantity of these emissions may be such that the presence of pollutants in the air reaches concentrations that are dangerous to human health or to the environment. Therefore the strategy which EU decided to pursue was twofold: on the one hand, it adopted - and regularly updated - legislation to limit the emissions of certain pollutants from point sources (vehicles, motorcycles, machinery, industrial installations). These emission limit values were not to be exceeded at any point.