The Joint Research Centre (JRC) coordinated and contributed to two of the ten chapters of the 2016 Scientific Assessment Report of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which was officially launched in Brussels at the end of May. The main findings of the report show that air quality in Europe have improved significantly over the past 30 years thanks mainly to policy-driven reductions in air pollution. Nonetheless, air pollution is still the main environmental cause of premature deaths in Europe (due mainly to high concentrations of fine particles and ground-level ozone), and ecosystem biodiversity is threatened due to nitrogen deposition. The aim of this assessment is to serve as a basis for considering new directions for policy development and for identifying policy-relevant research questions.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/