Strategies for reducing particulate matter pollution (PAREST)

The aim of the new IZT research project was to determine the causes of limit value exceedances - for particulate matter PM10 and for particulate matter PM2.5. Furthermore, the scientists involved were to identify emission-reducing measures that could reduce particulate matter pollution. The project was commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency.

Despite the emission reduction measures introduced to date at national and international level, immission projections indicate that the limit values for particulate matter PM10, particularly the short-term limit value, will continue to be significantly exceeded in Germany in the future. It was therefore necessary to determine the causes of these exceedances and to examine the extent to which further measures at national level could effectively contribute to compliance with the limit values. Two related environmental policy directives, namely the so-called "NEC Directive" and the EU Framework Directive, provided the framework conditions for the development of air quality in Europe and thus also in Germany for the years up to 2020. According to the European Commission's proposal for a directive on air quality and clean air in Europe, the current PM10 limit value was retained, but a limit value for PM2.5 was added. A national PM2.5 emission limit was included in the planned revision of the NEC Directive. The implementation of the two directives required an assessment of the effects of possible and already planned measures on air quality, as the aim had to be to achieve and, if necessary, fall below both the emission limit values of the NEC Directive and the air quality limit values of the EU directives.

In order to derive an optimal national strategy, the effectiveness of the measures had to be assessed in terms of their impact on costs and emissions, whereby the planned introduction of a limit value for PM2.5 meant that PM2.5 also had to be increasingly considered in addition to PM10 in the future.

The aim of the project was to determine the causes for the limit value exceedances for particulate matter PM10 and for the planned limit value for particulate matter PM2.5 and to identify suitable emission-reducing measures to reduce particulate matter pollution. The individual measures already analysed in previous Federal Environment Agency research projects were to be combined into packages of measures (measure scenario). The reduction potential of the bundles of measures and the associated costs were to be determined. The effects of the bundles of measures on emissions were to be determined with the help of suitable dispersion calculations. The immission situation forecast on the basis of the individual packages of measures was compared with the targets of the 22nd Ordinance on the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act and the expected requirements of the amended European Air Quality Directive in order to determine the scope of emission reductions required to comply with the limit values.