Air quality in Belgium was particularly good this year figures from the Interregional Cell for the Environment (IRCEL) show. We owe the good figures to a downward trend in emissions that has been going on for several years, combined with weather conditions that were not too averse. Bad weather during several months gave the figures an unexpected extra boost.
The figures are based on measurements in the cities of Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels and Charleroi and since measurements began were never better.
"The concentrations of particulate matter and of nitrogen dioxide, (i.e. a typical traffic-related pollutant), were never lower than in 2023," Frans Fierens of IRCEL says. Nitrogen dioxide values were about half as low in these four cities as 15 years ago.
There are two causes: a decreasing trend of emissions causing air pollution - which has been going on for years - on the one hand, and specifically for this year, the very favourable air quality weather conditions.
"We had a wet spring, a poor summer and a wet autumn. Bad weather with rain and wind is good for air quality," Fierens explains.
However, Belgium remains far removed from the strictest standards.
Despite the good report for this year, work remains to be done, Fierens stresses. "The figures for this year, mean we are meeting the European standard for air quality, and almost also the stricter European standard for 2030, but they do not enable us to achieve the even stricter World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. We are still a long way from that."
In some measuring stations in Wallonia we do already meet the strict WHO standard, but these are mainly rural areas south of the rivers Sambre and Maas, not in Flanders with its denser road network, habitation and industry.
To close that gap, it certainly helps that we are driving more electric vehicles, but electrifying building heating can also help: heat pumps instead of wood or fossil fuels like gas. "Electrification is the key," Fierens notes.