UK in bid to delay EU laws on air pollution amid failure to comply

March 4th, 2013

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

A view of the City of London (AFP Photo)

UK faces a crucial battle in the Supreme Court next week over who controls British environmental legislation on air pollution – the national government or the EU, with Britain lagging far behind the Brussels regulations.

The case has been little publicized but will attempt to end a
decade’s long scandal of air pollution, which kills tens of
thousands of people in the UK annually.

Three years ago the London mayor, Boris Johnson, published
research showing that air pollution caused 4,300 deaths in London
alone, while the nationwide mortality figure was 29,000, according
to the official government air pollution watchdog.

More than 20 UK towns and cities were found to be emitting air
pollutants at two times World Health Organization (WHO)
limits.

Of particular concern are dusts, sulphates and nitrates from
road traffic and other sources. Air pollution is linked to 200,000
premature deaths in the UK and according to data from 2008 the
Independent Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants,
found that completely removing particle pollution would
have added six months to the life expectancy of very new birth in
the UK.

Air pollution in Britain has long been regulated on a
continental basis from Brussels, but successive UK governments have
failed to implement EU directives and now ministers in Westminster
are intent on watering down the latest EU environmental
legislation.

And one air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, has come in for
particular attack from the UK Prime Minster David
Cameron.

Under EU directives, all member states are obliged to bring
nitrogen dioxide pollution down to levels determined by medical
grounds. Britain has fared particularly badly with only three out
of 43 areas in the country being within prescribed limits, while
London is considered the most polluted capital in Europe, in terms
of nitrogen dioxide levels.

Brussels has allowed national governments to apply for 5-year
extensions for particularly difficult areas where air pollution is
hard to tackle.

Yet Britain is insisting that 16 areas including semi-rural
counties like Berkshire and Surrey will not be cleaned up until
2020 and London won’t be able to enforce the restrictions until
2025.

By taking this stance ministers freely admit that they are in
effect daring the European Commission to take legal action against
them. The European Commission could take Britain to the European
Court and have it fined.

ClientEarth, a UK based green legal watchdog, has already tried
taking the government to the British High Court but in May last
year the Court of Appeal ruled that the matter should be enforced
at a European level.

And on Thursday the Supreme Court will have its say.

“This is one of the most important cases to come before
British courts in recent years. It would be disastrous if the
principle were upheld that, when there is a breach in EU law, it
should be solely left to the commission, rather than national
courts to deal with,” Professor Richard Macrory of University
College London, one of Britain’s top environmental lawyers told the
Sunday Telegraph.

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