The European Parliament’s Environment committee has voted in favour of beginning to agree a new National Emissions Ceiling Directive (NECD). This will establish new national emission ceilings up to 2030 for the six main pollutants; sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds other than methane (NMVOC), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM2.5) and methane (CH4).

Responding to the news, Toby Peters, chief executive of Dearman, the clean cold and power technology company said: “This is positive news for everyone concerned with the unacceptably high levels of air pollution that we all confront in cities from Bucharest to Birmingham. It’s only the start of a process, but if the European Parliament is able to follow through and set genuinely challenging targets then it could save thousands of lives and billions of Euros.

He added: “This could also be just the catalyst that the European clean tech industry needs. Under regulation of many sectors, particularly transport refrigeration units, which can emit 29 times more particulate matter than a Euro 6 diesel truck, has acted as a disincentive to innovation.  Starting to address pollution could have a positive impact on the health of our citizens and of our clean tech industry.”