Air Quality Directive (AQD)

Following other international agreements, EU prohibited and restricted a number of persistent organic pollutants, because these could be transported across international boundaries and persist in the environment. EU legislation is regularly updated and contributes to the reduction of air pollution by these pollutants. For cadmium, mercury and nickel, EU adopted measures to restrict their use in products; for mercury, an almost total export ban was decided. These measures reduced the use of these metals in products and thus indirectly also their air emissions.

Furthermore, since 2005, Directive 2009/125/EC also influenced the design of energy consuming products, such as household appliances, computers, or lamps. The concept behind this approach is to reduce the energy consumption and, by this, also avoid the emission of air pollutants. The same result is achieved with the provisions of Directive 2010/31/EC on energy saving of buildings which endeavors to reduce the consumption of energy. More generally, different EU measures to increase energy efficiency and to save energy which have as the first objective the reduction of costs and the diminution of greenhouse gas emissions, also have as a side-effect the reduction of air pollution emissions. The same conclusion applies to the promotion of renewable sources of energy: while its main objective is to reduce the dependency on imports of energy and to fight against climate change, renewable sources of energy cause less emissions of pollutants into the air than oil, gas or coal and therefore result in reducing air pollution