EU Green Deal going local & regional:  Zero Pollution

October 2022

By 2050, the EU wants to reduce air, water and soil pollution to levels no longer harmful to health and natural ecosystems, that respect the boundaries within which our planet can cope, and thereby creates a toxic-free environment. This ambitious objective has been laid down in the ‘Zero Pollution Action Plan’, which is one of the pillars of the European Green Deal.

Achieving this grand objective requires actions to be taken across all (policy) sectors and levels of governances. While EU and national levels may set standards and address industries, many concrete actions need to be taken at local and regional level.

The main objective is to address pollution at the source. Cutting pollution requires among others clean choices for regional and local mobility, energy, buildings, infrastructure, and spatial planning in general. In short, rural and urban municipalities and regions are important for achieving the zero-pollution objectives through concrete actions on the ground.

To help this process, the European Committee of the Regions has recently published a handbook for local and regional governments on how to implement the European Green Deal. It focuses on the need for the Green Deal to go local and regional in many policy domains. One of which is zero pollution. The handbook includes, among others, hints on key elements to be considered for the development of local or regional actions and action plans to move towards zero pollution.

It starts with the mapping and analysis of pollutants affecting the area and their impacts quality of life, natural habitats, biodiversity, economic activities etc. While this may sound easy, it is not. Identifying the source of pollution is certainly easier in the case of point source pollution, coming from a single place such as a smokestack, a discharge pipe or a drainage ditch. It is far more challenging in cases where pollution is caused by multiple activities with no common point of discharge. Often the sources of pollution are diffuse or even unknown as they result from a wide range of possibly intertwined sources that are more or less embedded in the local or regional contexts. Furthermore, sometimes their consequences become only visible on the long run.

Once a rough picture on the pollutants to be addressed to move towards a zero pollution objective has been drawn up, the next step is to identify the players and decision making processes to cut pollution. Who needs to be involved, and what are the government and governance challenges and institution bottlenecks to cut pollution levels? This is linked to the necessary actions to be taken to cut pollution. Overall, local and regional authorities dispose over a wide range of potential measures to address pollution. They can for example persuade more households to separate waste, expand district heating, lower speed limits, introduce congestion charges and low emissions transport zones, ban pesticides from public areas and set up strategies for the rehabilitation of brownfield areas. Still, it is often not an easy task to do so. In some cases, the actions that would need to be taken are beyond the mandates and competences of local and regional authorities. However, even in these cases local and regional authorities can play an active role.

Looking into relevant processes, the handbook identifies three different strands, based on the source of the pollution and the players which need to be involved to cut pollution level (see graphic):

• Renewal of local/regional public governance. This concerns cases, where the pollution stems for activities controlled or regulated by local or regional authorities. Depending on the national context, examples could be sewage water processing or road transport. In these cases, pollution is directly controlled or regulated by the local or regional authorities, which also can reform their policies and mainstream the zero pollution objective. Still, to be successful, they need to involve various players from relevant local or regional services and their service providers.

• Multi-stakeholder dialogue processes. Such processes are needed when pollution results from activities of private actors embedded in the municipality or region. Examples for this are farming, tourism, mining, manufacturing or industrial sites. In these cases, local or regional authorities can initiate and facilitate processes to cut pollution levels or impose new standards. Such processes will need to involve all relevant players incl. private enterprises, chambers of commerce, local and regional NGOs, associations and possibly even citizen assemblies.

• Multi-level governance. In most cases, cutting pollution relies on highly complex decision-making processes involving players from various sectors and levels of governance. This is in particular the case when pollution stems from activities of national or international private players or is controlled or regulated by national or European bodies. In these cases, local and regional authorities can often merely raise awareness and defend local and regional interests at higher institutional levels. In some cases, this may also take the form of whistle blowing. The players to be addressed are relevant national ministries, state representatives, national and international NGOs or corporations.

All in all, local and regional authorities can take decisive actions to contribute to achieving the zero pollution objective. The handbook contains many more details and questions to be asked to identify what exactly they can do. The full handbook for local and regional governments on how to implement the European Green Deal will is available here (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

by Kai Böhme, Erik Gløersen, Arndt Münch and Helene Gorny