HC Deb 30 November 1988 vol 142 cc278-9W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what policy considerations underlie the United Kingdom's decision not to make a commitment to a 30 per cent. cut in nitrogen oxide emissions in 1988 at the international meeting on air pollution control held in Bulgaria on 1 November.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The proposition before the meeting of the executive body of the UN/ECE convention on long-range transboundary air pollution was a protocol on the control of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) or their transboundary fluxes. The protocol commits signatories to halt the hitherto inexorable rise in NOx emissions (bringing emissions back to 1987 levels by 1994), to apply suitable standards to stationary and mobile sources, and by 1996 to have adopted control policies based on the "critical loads" which the environment can tolerate.

The United Kingdom and 24 other countries signed the protocol. More indicated their hope to sign in the near future. This represents a major international commitment.

The United Kingdom is committed to taking action on the basis of scientific study of the problems caused by acid deposition and the implications of various possible solutions. The 1979 convention provides the right forum for advancing the international consensus which is essential if transboundary air pollution problems are to be successfully tackled.

Before the protocol was due to be signed the Government received an invitation to sign a draft declaration to the effect that they would by 1998 achieve reductions in NOx emissions of at least 30 per cent. measured from a baseline of any year between 1980 and 1985.

We did not think it right to commit ourselves both to an arbitrary percentage target for 1998 and to the quite different "critical loads" approach of the protocol for the earlier date of 1996.

At the last moment the draft declaration was reduced to a commitment to achieve reductions "in the order of 30 per cent." from a baseline of any year between 1980 and 1986. Twelve countries signed this version on 31 October. It is uncertain from the final wording what action they mean to take. The protocol is specific.