Ambient Air Quality Directive

The Ambient Air Quality Directive (EU) 2024/2881 (recast) is the central legal framework governing the assessment and management of ambient air quality in the EU. It establishes a framework for progressively improving air quality to levels no longer considered harmful to human health or ecosystems and contributes to the EU’s zero-pollution objective for 2050. The directive introduces legally binding, stricter limit values for key air pollutants to be achieved by 2030, based on updated scientific evidence on their health impacts.

These objectives are operationalised through revised limit and target values for major pollutants, including an annual average limit of 10 μg/m³ for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), 20 μg/m³ for particulate matter (PM10), and 20 μg/m³ for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), as well as a daily limit value for sulphur dioxide (SO₂) of 50 μg/m³, not to be exceeded more than 18 times per year. The directive also maintains regulatory provisions for benzene, carbon monoxide, lead, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, and benzo(a)pyrene, and strengthens monitoring requirements through the establishment of urban and rural background supersites to track pollutants of emerging concern, including black carbon and ultrafine particles.