This city in Europe has the best air quality
In the summer season walkers go around a lake in Lower Saxony. In this state, Germany is the front runner when it comes to air quality
Source: DPA / Sven Gatekeeper
Their air quality was tested in more than 320 cities in Europe. Breathtaking is the best in Scandinavian places, with 73 performing poorly or very poorly. Berlin is at the bottom of the list in Germany with 219th place. But where is our front runner?
FTake a deep breath in Finland and Sweden, hold your breath in Poland: In the EU Environment Agency EEA, you can now see how tall the air quality is in hundreds of Europe’s biggest cities. front runner More than 320 cities tested for clean air include Ume in Sweden, Tampere in Finland and the Portuguese island of Madeira and Funchal in Estonia’s capital Tallinn.
tail lights On the other hand are mainly found in Poland and northern Italy. This stems from a new air quality ranking that the Copenhagen-based Environment Agency published on Thursday.
For the overview, updated annually from now on, the EEA measured dust pollution in 323 cities in 26 EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. 127 cities have been certified as having good air quality. Weight in 123 is considered moderate, in remaining 73 it is considered poor or very bad.
This classification pertains to the average air pollution with fine dust (PM2.5) in the years 2019 and 2020. Less than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended value is given “good”: the WHO recommends that prolonged exposure to ten micrograms of fine dust (PM2.5) per cubic meter of air, which is the EU value is more rigid. Anyone who breaks the annual EU limit of 25 micrograms – this applies to five cities in Poland, Croatia and Italy – gets “very bad”.
According to the analysis, 61 percent of cities exceed the WHO benchmark, said EEA chief of air pollution, environment and health, Katherine Ganzleben. According to this, only two percent are above the annual EU limit.
Göttingen has the cleanest air in Germany
about the cleanest air 52 listed German cities Göttingen is: the university city of Lower Saxony ranked 29th, followed by Freiburg (45), Darmstadt (46), Lübeck (50) and Hanover (56). They and 25 other cities in the Federal Republic of Germany have good air quality, with another 22 classified as moderate, with Berlin at the bottom of the list in Germany at 219.
None of the German cities fell into the “poor” or “very poor” categories. However, many major German cities such as Cologne – as well as others in other countries – were not classified. According to the EEA, this may be due to the fact that the measuring station or some data is missing.
As already revealed by an EEA report in late 2020, air quality in Europe has improved significantly over the past decade, partly due to reductions in emissions from transport and energy supply. As a result, about 60,000 fewer people died prematurely each year from particulate matter exposure compared to 2009 and 2018.
Nevertheless, almost all Europeans, especially cities, suffer from air pollution from fine dust, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. According to EEA estimates, more than 400,000 people died prematurely in 2018 in 41 European countries, including thousands in Germany, due to exposure to these pollutants.
“Air pollution is very high in many European cities”
Once again, the EEA pointed out that air pollution is still a serious problem and a real health risk in many European cities. Expert Ganzleben said fine dust is the number one air pollutant that causes the greatest impact on premature deaths and diseases.
EEA Executive Director Hans Bruininks summarized: “Although air quality has improved significantly over the years, air pollution remains very high in many cities in Europe.” The overview now allows citizens to easily compare where their city is located on air pollution landings. .
According to the new list, things are looking particularly good in Stockholm among megacities: the Swedish capital comes in ninth place and thus better than any other city with over a million residents. Helsinki (11) are far behind, while Bucharest (263), Barcelona (264), Warsaw (269) and Milan (303) are second in the table.
