Cities and pollution reduction: a key role in Europe's environmental health
Cities play a key role in reducing pollution and improving quality of life in Europe, with a majority of European living in urban areas. Due to high population density, city dwellers are particularly affected by the negative impacts of pollution. Over the past decades, the situation has been steadily improving, though significant challenges remain.
This version of the dashboard highlights how the 27 capital cities are performing regarding air quality, noise pollution, bathing water and urban wastewater. Some of these capitals are signatories of the Green City Accord (GCA), an initiative established in 2020 by the European Commission to provide a framework for local governments to tackle key environmental challenges. It supports cities in managing and progressing in air quality, water management, nature and biodiversity, circular economy and waste, and noise reduction. The GCA cities can be regarded as European frontrunners, demonstrating effective environmental management strategies and leading by example. A recently published first data report, covering 2020-2022, outlines the significant progress achieved over the past three years by the signatory cities.
As the number of signatories to the Green City Accord initiative is excepted to grow, more data on five key environmental areas should become gradually available and integrated into future iterations of the dashboard, encompassing cities beyond the capitals.
Air quality: Half of the capital cities are already now meeting the future (as of 2030) EU air quality standard for fine particulate matter - with reported annual mean levels of PM2.5 at or below 10 micrograms per cubic meter. GCA signatories perform even better, with 80% of them recording annual mean PM2.5 levels below the future standard.
Noise: Over half of the capital cities where data is available meet EU noise reduction targets, with GCA signatories showing similar proportions.
Urban wastewater: A clear majority of capitals (18 out of 26 where data was available) already meet the requirements of EU legislation. The situation is even better among GCA signatories, with 5 out of 6 being compliant.
Bathing water: More progress is needed in this area, as currently only 8 out of 27 capitals are meeting the EU bathing water standards.
More information about the indicators and data source(s)
- Air Quality (data of 2022)
For PM2.5, the EU limit value is 25 µg/m3 averaged over a calendar year and the outlook 2030 is 10 µg/m3 averaged over a calendar year
Links and data source
EEA : European city air quality viewer
- Noise pollution (data of 2022)
EU target (not legally binding) is 0% of population exposed to noise above 55 db lden and Zero pollution target is to reduce by 30% by 2030. It was estimated that 44.8% of the EU urban population was exposed to Lden > 55dB in 2017
Links and data source
EEA : The NOISE Observation & Information Service for Europe
- Bathing water (data of 2022)
EU average is 85% of bathing sites meeting excellent quality.
EU Target (not legally binding) is 100% of excellent quality
Links and data source:
EEA : Percentage of bathing sites classified as excellent:
EEA: ETC/ICM Report 4/2022: Benefits of bathing waters in European cities
- Urban Wastewater (data of 2020)
EU target (not legally binding) is 100% of compliant on secondary treatment
Links and data source:
European Commission Percentage of level of compliance (100%-distance to target) in SWD(2020)145 - table 2.5