EU citizens can sue over health problems caused by missed emissions targets

According to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 300,000 people die each year from respiratory illness caused by poor air quality, with millions more falling ill. Now, European citizens might be able to claim compensation for health problems caused by failure to comply with pollution limits.

In Spain alone, more than 21,000 people were said to have died from similar causes last year (with “suspended particles” being called out as the specific culprit).

In an effort to trim those heavy losses, new legislation has been put into effect that sets new, more stringent emission limits. Those being: from 25 micrograms per cubic metre per year (µg/m3) to 10 µg/m3 for PM 2.5 particulate matter, and from 40 µg/m3 to 20 µg/m3 for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). The limit for sulphur dioxide (SO₂) is set at 20 µg/m3. Both PM 2.5 and NO₂ are two of the substances identified as being most harmful to health when it comes to city air.

These annual limits reportedly must be met by 2030, but they’re not the real innovation of this new policy. That is: if the EU member nation fails to meet these emissions goals, and its residents get sick, they’ll be able to claim damages and be compensated if their health is damaged by non-compliance.

In addition to that compensation, the EU has been given authority to impose multi-million euro fines on countries for not complying with this regulation.

This latest round of emissions regulations aim to achieve zero emissions by 2050. If met, the European Union (EU) believes it will significantly reduce the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occur each year due to pollution.

Via Fix the News

Roll out the PV: CSIRO opens flexible solar facility

Solar cells could be printed out like newspapers after Australia’s leading science organisation opened a $6.8 million facility dedicated to flexible solar technology.

The CSIRO launched its state-of-the-art Printed Photovoltaic Facility in south-east Melbourne on Wednesday, following more than 15 years of research into the renewable energy technology.

Researchers said printed, flexible photovoltaic cells could not only lower the cost of solar energy but could be used to deliver power in challenging areas such as space exploration, defence and disaster recovery.

The facility, located in the Victorian suburb of Clayton, would help researchers scale up the production of flexible solar cells and introduce the technology to more industries, CSIRO renewable energy systems group leader Anthony Chesman said.

“What this does is bridge the gap between the laboratory scale and larger scale manufacturing so we can see how we replicate the process … and produce it at larger volumes,” he told AAP.

“Straight out of the gate, we’re not looking at a printing process that’s like newspapers where it’s super fast … but we’re working towards developing higher speeds.”

The CSIRO’s flexible solar cells are created by printing a material called perovskite on to thin and flexible plastic film using a roll-to-roll technique.

The process could produce more solar cells at a cheaper cost and with a lighter weight than traditional solar panels.

They were not designed to replace current solar panels, Dr Chesman said, but to deliver solar technology in challenging areas such as natural disaster recovery, defence technology, greenhouses and space exploration.

“Space is one of the main applications that we see in the near term where the existing solar cells are very efficient but they are rigid so it’s difficult to curl them out the way we would like to, and they’re also incredibly expensive,” he said.

“We would like to see if we can provide an alternative to that.”