The 2013 Clean Air Policy Package

On December 18, 2013, the European Commission adopted a Clean Air Policy Package with the aim to further reduce the impacts of harmful emissions from industry, traffic, energy plants and agriculture on human health and the environment. The package includes a proposal for a revised National Emission Ceilings Directive, which has been developed based on quantitative model analyses with IIASA's GAINS model.

The package includes a new Clean Air Programme for Europe with measures to ensure that existing targets are met in the short term, and with new air quality objectives for the period up to 2030. The package also proposes a revised Directive on National Emission Ceilings with stricter national emission reductions for the six main pollutants, as well as a new Directive to reduce pollution from medium-sized combustion installations.

The proposal of the European Commission has been informed by quantitative modelling of baseline emissions and associated impacts, of the scope for further emission reduction options, and of cost-effective emission reduction strategies with the GAINS Integrated Assessment Modelling suite. 

Based on the review of an assessment of the impacts of existing EU legislation on future air quality that has been extensively consulted with stakeholders (TSAP reports #1-6), IIASA explored the range for cost-effective emission controls after 2020: 

In December 2013, the European Commission presented then their Clean Air Policy Package with a quantitative proposal for National Emission Ceilings that has been derived from GAINS model analyses:

All detailed data of the scenarios presented in the report can be retrieved from the GAINS-Europe online model in the scenarios found within the Scenario group: TSAP_Dec_2013.

Subsequent negotiations between the European Institutions reached a final agreement in 2016, supported by quantitative analyses with IIASA's GAINS model.


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Last edited: 14 June 2018

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