Is law failing to address air pollution? Reflections on international and EU developments

• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Author: Seita Romppanen,Yulia Yamineva
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12223
• Date: 01 November 2017

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Is law failing to address air pollution? Reflections on

international and EU developments

Yulia Yamineva

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Seita Romppanen

Correspondence

Email: yulia.yamineva@uef.fi

Funding information

H2020 European Research Council, Grant/

Award Number: 678889

Air pollution is a majo r global environment al problem, with vari ous adverse

effects on health and the environment. This introductory article provides an

overview of related g lobal and regional leg al instruments. The art icle evaluates

the legal landscape in terms of its coverage, geographic scope and effectiveness,

and concludes that th e legal measures curre ntly in place fall far sh ort of provid-

ing an adequate respons e to the problem of air pollut ion. Thus, there is a clear

need to strengthen global and regional cooperation to improve air quality. Such

cooperation is lik ely to take non-bindin g and flexible forms an d involve both

wider participati on among States and broa der engagement of vari ous stakehold-

ers. The informal cha racter of cooperatio n also makes it possible to experiment

with new governance ap proaches that are diff icult to implement with in the con-

text of traditional i nternational law.

1

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INTRODUCTION

The atmosphere needs protection in the face of air pollution, ozone

depletion and climate change. According to the World Health Organ-

ization (WHO), air pollution is ‘the biggest environmental risk to

health’and ‘a public health emergency’,

1

responsible for millions of

premature deaths annually. Tackling air pollution also has co-benefits

for the climate and development issues such as urban sustainable

development and energy access.

2

Several international and r egional agreements aim to reduc e

emissions of air pollutants. Howeve r, the problems associated

with air pollution are far fr om being solved. The current le gal

and regulatory approach es to air pollution seem inad equate if the

negative impacts already w itnessed and the risks at stake are

considered. Effective a ir pollution laws and policies req uire

prompt action and cooperati on at global, regional and nation al

levels, reaching across most e conomic sectors

3

and engag-

ing the public.

4

It is this apparent disconne ct between the state

of the complex problem and t he law –as well as the urgency of

the need to address it

5

–that motivated us to prepare this

RECIEL special issue.

The aims of this introductory article are threefold. First, the art-

icle seeks to provide an overview of existing global and regional legal

instruments for atmospheric protection, with a specific focus on air

pollution and ozone depletion.

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Second, it aims to assess the current

state of regulatory approaches to air pollution in terms of their

coverage, geographic scope and effectiveness. Third, the article

seeks to reflect on the future of global cooperation in this important

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any

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©2017 The Authors. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1

World Health Organization (WHO), ‘Ambient Air Pollution: A Global Assessment of Expos-

ure and Burden of Disease’(WHO 2016) 11.

2

ibid.

3

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The Economic Conse-

quences of Air Pollution (OECD 2016) 18–20.

4

European Environmental Agency (EEA), ‘Air Quality in Europe –2016 Report’, EEA Report

No 28/2016 (EEA 2016) 6.

5

See, for instance, the BreatheLife campaign, which is a global joint campaign led by the

WHO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air

Coalition (CCAC) to mobilize immediate action to tackle air pollution: <http://breathelife

2030.org/>.

6

For an overview of developments in this area, see MW Roberts, ‘Finishing the Job: The

Montreal Protocol Moves to Phase Down Hydrofluorocarbons’(2017) 26 Review of Euro-

pean, Comparative and International Environmental Law 220.

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12223

RECIEL. 2017;26:189–200. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

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