In the late 1960s, early warnings were issued that air pollution could go beyond the limits of urban areas and industrial facilities, potentially affecting the acidity of precipitations at the scale of the whole European Continent. After a pioneer monitoring network was set up under the auspices of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) a political consensus emerged for the need to elaborate a specific Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) that was signed in 1979 and entered into force in 1983. The present report synthetises the main features of the evolution over the 1990-2012 time period of the concentration and deposition of air pollutants relevant in the context of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution: (i) ozone, (ii) sulfur and nitrogen compounds and particulate matter, (iii) heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. It is based on observations gathered in State Parties to the Convention within the EMEP monitoring network of regional background stations, as well as relevant modelling initiatives.
The present report synthetises the main features of the evolution over the 1990-2012 time period of the concentration and deposition of air pollutants relevant in the context of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.