EU Air Quality Law: Past Paradoxes and Future Prospects

Abstract

In a collection reviewing 50 years of EU environmental law in 2025, this chapter examines the past lessons and future prospects of EU air quality law. Since the 1970s, EC/EU air quality regulation developed as an increasingly coherent and robust system of governance. Despite this, the chapter identifies five contradictory aspects of its development: its simultaneous success and failure; its technocratic yet deeply socialised and polycentric character; its alignment and tension with climate change policies; its historical shaping by regulation and more recent judicial attention; and the local versus global framing of its governance. The chapter then considers future EU air quality law and policy in light of the Ambient Air Quality Directive 2024, which directly takes on several of the apparent paradoxes of the past. Whilst retaining its technocratic roots, the 2024 Directive is more focused on the development of effective national air quality policy, on policy coordination across sectors (including climate change), on ensuring that the public and underrepresented groups are fairly represented in air quality governance, and on bolstering transboundary air quality governance. Whilst the 2024 Directive sets a different tone of ambition and sophistication, implementation will require an orchestra of different players to work together effectively.

Keywords: Air Quality, Environmental Law, Air Quality Law, EU Environmental Law