U.N. News: Ground-breaking clean air protocol to guard human health and the planet, enters into force
“European and North American countries will take a major stride in cleaning up the atmosphere next Monday, 7 October, through the implementation of an amended legally binding treaty to limit the amount of emissions polluting the air. … The Gothenburg Protocol, established back in 1999, sets forth legally binding emissions reduction commitments for 2020 and beyond, for major air pollutants, and is rooted in the UNECE’s 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), originally intended to stop the occurrence of acid rain. Beyond targeting well-known air pollutants, the Protocol was updated in 2012 to include reduction of fine particulate matter, pollutants shown to cause devastating climate change effects over short periods of time. U.N. experts have deemed air pollution a human rights violation — a deadly, man-made problem responsible for some seven million premature deaths, every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)…” (10/4).