Further vehicle exhaust emission controls and their impact on NO2 air quality in Europe

Borken-Kleefeld, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5465-8559, Kiesewetter, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9369-9812, & Bertok, I. (2016). Further vehicle exhaust emission controls and their impact on NO2 air quality in Europe. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria

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Abstract

About 8% of the urban population in the European Union (EU28) is exposed to ambient NO2 concentrations in excess of the annual air quality limit value of 40 μg/m3 (Guerreiro et al. 2014, 56f.). In addition, eleven Member States have not met their 2010 NOx emissions cap under the EU Directive on Emission Ceilings, and six countries continue failing still in 2013 (EEA 2015b).

High on-road NOx emissions notably from diesel cars are made responsible for the persistent exceedance of the NO2 air quality limit value, in particular along urban roads (EEA 2015a). NOx emissions from all sectors are expected to decrease by more than 40% between 2015 and 2030 if legislation is implemented as planned in EU28. NOx emissions from diesel heavy duty and light duty vehicles are expected to decline by 80% and 60%, respectively, in the same period (Markus Amann et al. 2014). In consequence, exceedances of the NO2 ambient limit values are expected to decrease. However, there is particular uncertainty about the on-road emissions from future light duty diesel vehicles.

Therefore, how many stations will still remain in excess of the ambient air quality limit value does crucially depend on the real-world NOx emissions of Euro 6 light duty diesel vehicles (Borken-Kleefeld and Ntziachristos 2012) (Fig. 1). In case of high on-road NOx emissions from Euro 6 diesel cars and light commercial vehicles there might be a need for further emission controls.

This study explores how much an additional hypothetical emission control stage (called Euro 7/VII) for light- and heavy-duty diesel vehicles could help to reduce further or quicker the NO2 ambient concentrations.

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