Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council finally reached on Feb 20th a provisional agreement on new rules to tighten air quality standards across Europe. The headline figures are the proposed new limits on PMs and NO2: For PM2.5 , the annual limit value is to be more than halved from 25 µg/m³Continue reading “EUREKA! EU reaches provisional agreement on tighter air quality limits”
Category Archives: Traffic Pollution
Very high NO2 and Ozone levels in Athens these days
Ever wonder why some days you feel a heavy, hurting head, a general low energy and quite a bad mood with no reason? Well, if you could see it with your own eyes, you would see that very likely NO2, Ozone and other nasty pollution gases are over the top all around you. Today’s picContinue reading “Very high NO2 and Ozone levels in Athens these days”
‘A lifeline for dirty cars’: EU backs new air pollution limits, but not until 2035
“The EU has finally voted to clean its air by setting tough limits on pollutants in a move that experts say will save lives and money. The European parliament agreed on Wednesday 13/09/23 to limit the concentration of several dangerous substances to levels put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO). But after a fierceContinue reading “‘A lifeline for dirty cars’: EU backs new air pollution limits, but not until 2035”
Wood is not going to be our friend this winter, and here is why
This blog’s approach to the issue of Air Quality is basically from the bottom up, from the “on my own skin” experience of the quality of air that we all have to breathe in our cities/villages on a particular day. In practical terms, it is an ongoing enquiry that starts at the moment we wakeContinue reading “Wood is not going to be our friend this winter, and here is why”
Greece runs on 100% renewable energy for the very first time in history!
This is a very important landmark for Greece: last week it ran on 100% renewable energy for the very first time in history! This is really a great achievement, well ahead of what we were expecting, but yet, it’s not so easy to rejoice. In fact, we need to ask ourselves where is that renewableContinue reading “Greece runs on 100% renewable energy for the very first time in history!”
Athens and the C40 Network of cities aiming at sustainability & Clean Air
All people, no matter where they live, deserve to breathe clean air. Right? The C40 network puts together nearly 100 cities across the world with the aim of advancing solutions to address the climate crisis & protect #TheAirWeShare to guarantee a future where everyone can breathe clean air. C40 is a network of Mayors ofContinue reading “Athens and the C40 Network of cities aiming at sustainability & Clean Air”
International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies – September 7, 2022
Happy International Day of Clean Air for blue skies 2022! No one is probably aware of this event in Greece… This year’s theme is ‘The Air We Share’. It focuses on the transboundary nature of air pollution highlighting the need for collective accountability and collective action. Air pollution knows no national borders and is allContinue reading “International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies – September 7, 2022”
11th International Aerosol Conference in Athens, 4-9 Sept. 2022
Nobody in Greece probably knows this, but a conference called “11th International Aerosol Conference” is being held in Athens this week. Scientists from allover the world gathered to talk about Air Quality and aerosols, aka the invisible air particles that cause Air Pollution and that make us sick and kill us. To me the bigContinue reading “11th International Aerosol Conference in Athens, 4-9 Sept. 2022”
We all live downwind – Winter Air Quality in Greece
If you pay attention, in the image above you can see a village hidden within a thick layer of smoke. This is one of the many villages of the fertile Messenian plain north of Kalamata, home to hundreds of thousands of olive trees that produce one of the best olive oils of Greece, as wellContinue reading “We all live downwind – Winter Air Quality in Greece”
Athens Air Quality Journal
A journal whose aim is to picture the daily Air Quality (AQ) in Athens. This post aims at documenting how the atmosphere looks and feels like in terms of Air Pollution, day after day, in our capital. Photographs mostly taken from Filoppapou Hill show the visibility over the city, which is a way of visuallyContinue reading “Athens Air Quality Journal”
CleanAir in Greece 