The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has today published on its website the 2022 Air Quality Assessment Report for Spain in which it presents the results that will be reported to the European Commission before 30 September, detailing the situation in each of the air quality zones with respect to the legislated values. It aims to give an overview of air quality, as well as describing how air quality is assessed and managed. The report incorporates a climatological summary of the year with data produced by the State Meteorological Agency, including episodes of Saharan dust intrusions.
Overall, the results show improvement compared the number of times the values were exceeded in 2021, as, although the annual limit value for nitrogen dioxide and the daily limit value for PM10 have both been exceeded in one zone, there has been an improvement in terms of the annual limit value for PM10 and also for the target value for the protection of health and vegetation for ozone.
This 2022 edition has kept the chapter assessing the air quality situation with respect to the new World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline values. These guidelines include new guideline values and intermediate air quality values for the protection of human health. The conclusions of the analysis carried out show that the WHO guideline value for carbon monoxide is not exceeded in any air quality zone, sulphur dioxide is exceeded in only 2 zones covering 0.3 % of the area of Spain, while annual and daily nitrogen dioxide is exceeded in 84 and 95 zones respectively, covering 51.3 and 72.3 % of the area respectively. The annual PM10 value is exceeded in more than 118 areas, representing more than 88 % of the areas, while the daily PM10 is exceeded in 116 areas (86 % of the total number of areas), in both cases, representing about 92 % of the area of Spain. For PM2.5 the value established by the WHO is exceeded in 93 % of the Spanish territory (121 zones). All particle data have been calculated before discounting Saharan dust intrusions. Ozone guideline values are exceeded in virtually all zones.
As in previous editions, there is a specific chapter on the impact of air quality on health, which covers the health effects of different pollutants. In addition, the report contains a summary of the exceptional air quality situation in 2022 due to Saharan dust super-calima.
In addition, a short section on regional background air quality of the EMEP/VAG/CAMP network is included in the report focusing on the analysis of the ozone situation at remote rural background stations.
The 2022 assessment was carried out for the following pollutants: sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), lead, benzene, carbon monoxide, ozone, arsenic, cadmium, nickel and benzoapyrene.
Main conclusions
As far as sulphur dioxide is concerned, the legislated values have not been exceeded and the good results achieved in previous years are maintained.
With regard to nitrogen dioxide, the improvement experienced in 2020 is maintained in relation to the hourly limit value, which ceased to be exceeded in the zone ES1301 - Madrid, which was the only zone in which it did so in 2019 and which had been exceeded repeatedly since 2004. As for the annual limit value, it has been exceeded in one out of a total of 130 zones, but this time it corresponds to zone ES0901 - Barcelona Area, which has not breached this limit since 2019. Madrid (ES1301), which had continuously exceeded the annual limit value from 2001 until 2021, ceases to do so in 2022.
In relation to the concentration of particles smaller than 10 microns (PM10), the final situation after discounting the contributions of non-anthropogenic origin is similar to that of 2021, as the exceedance of the daily limit value in the area of Avilés, already recorded in that year, is maintained. That is, it is exceeded in only 1 zone out of 134 defined for this pollutant.
For particulate matter below 2.5 microns (PM2.5) the limit value is not exceeded.
The PM2.5 Mean Exposure Indicator (MEI) is a three-year average that assesses the extent to which the population is exposed to PM2.5 particles. As set out in Royal Decree 102/2011, the national reduction target for Spain, to be met by 2020, is 15% compared to the 2011 MEI; the 2011 MEI value was 14.1 µg/m3, and as the 2020 MEI (calculated as the three-year average of the annual indicators for 2018, 2019 and 2020) was 11.3 µg/m3, this represents a reduction of 19.86% compared to the baseline 2011 MEI, and achievement of the target with margin.
The value obtained in 2022 as a result of the average concentration measured at the stations that make up the population-weighted MEI network in the period 2020, 2021 and 2022 was 11.1 µg/m3, compared to 10.9 μg/m3 the previous year, which translates into a reduction compared to the 2011 MEI of 21.28 %, slightly reducing the improvement achieved in 2021, when a reduction of 22.70 % was achieved.
Tropospheric ozone continues to show high levels in 2022 largely due to high insolation and precursor emission levels, but the number of areas exceeding both the target value for health protection (from 18 in 2021 to 10 in 2022, out of 129 areas in both years) and the target value for vegetation protection (from 37 episodes in 2021 to 33 in 2022, out of 104 and 103 areas, respectively) continues to decrease, following the downward trend of the previous two years. For lead, benzene and carbon monoxide the situation remains below the limit values.
The improvement since 2016 for arsenic, cadmium and nickel is also maintained as in 2022 there is still no repetition of the levels being exceeded, as recorded in 2012 and 2014 or 2015. In the case of benzoapyrene, the improvement experienced since 2016 is maintained, and the levels were not exceeded as they had been in 2013.
Non official translation
Panoramic view of the city of Barcelona