The Commission has proposed an end to the ban on member states charging lorry operators for the external costs of road use, but it has put a limit on the charges that may be imposed.

Delegates to a recent IMO working group meeting were unable to make progress toward an agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from international shipping.

A directive that is intended to encourage carbon capture and storage is making its way through the EU approval process. There are clear problems with this technology however.

The European Commission has written to 23 member states to request information on what action they are taking to comply with the EU

The EU

Switzerland is the only European country where road user charges that internalize external costs of transport are applied. The scheme involves a per km charge for all heavy-duty vehicles on all Swiss roads.

When presenting its thematic strategy on air pollution three years ago, the European Commission failed to come up with proposals for specific action to reduce air pollutant emissions.

Daybreak in the city. The brief quiet of the night gives way to the low rumble of cars, trucks and industry, but one sound is notable by its absence.

Emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) from electric power generation sources within the US Acid Rain Programme fell sharply in 2006, with reductions of 830,000 tonnes from 2005 levels and an overall reduction of 40 per cent from 1990 levels, reports the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA). March 2008

Heavy metals in the atmosphere may travel over large distances before being re-deposited on land. One effective way of monitoring how deposition changes with time is to measure concentrations in moss. A bio-monitoring network coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) provides data on the concentration of 10 heavy metals in mosses from about 7,000 sites across Europe. March 2008