Urban Air Quality Policy

Principles

1. This policy applies to the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area.

2. The Greens NSW recognise that the distribution of air pollution often impacts inequitably in different cities and urban areas. Accordingly, we continue to campaign for the right to clean air as a social justice issue.

3. The Greens NSW Transport Policy also contains initiatives to reduce vehicle-caused air pollution.

4. Policy regarding air pollution should be consistent with that adopted with other types of pollution which aims at minimization at the source and is not dependent on dilution and dispersion techniques, recognising that this does nothing to reduce total pollutant load and can lead to the uncontrolled impact of pollutants far from their point of generation.

Detail

Compulsory Pollution Reduction Targets

Recognising that the setting of targets for air pollution is a useful way to encourage the introduction of new technology and transport and urban development practices, The Greens NSW will seek to:

• 4.1 Introduce a policy based on Maximum Achievable Control (MAC) for all potentially harmful emissions from industrial processes and activities requiring licensing;

• 4.2 Discard the present Regional Pollution Index and replace it with a reformed Clean Air Act requiring an enforceable 10% annual reduction in quantities  of each of the major air pollutants entering the atmosphere to the year 2010;

• 4.3 Immediately regulate for a world’s best practice limit on hourly average smog-produced ozone levels;

• 4.4 Implement, with urgency, a new compliance standard of 25 micrograms per cubic metre, measured over a 24 hour average for 'fine particles' known as PM 2.5;

• 4.5 Continue to support the standard of 50 micrograms per cubic metre measured over a 24 hour average for particles known as PM 10; and

• 4.6 Establish separate daily reports to the public of the levels of ozone, particulates and nitrogen oxides in each region.

5. Recognising that air pollution impacts result from the individual's total exposure to harmful pollutants, The Greens NSW will work towards the reduction of indoor and workplace air pollution, and especially that resulting from the use of un-flued gas heaters.

Tighter Emission Standards for Vehicles

The Greens NSW will work towards:

6. The adoption, with due regard to the life cycle costs of motor vehicle technology, of the world’s best emission standards for motor vehicles, with manufacturers' performance guarantees that the emission standards will not be exceeded over a period of 5 years or 160, 000 km;

7. The adoption of equal or better than the world’s best diesel emission control and the accelerated implementation of the world’s leading provisions for Smoky Vehicle, Emission testing and repair, Audited maintenance, Vehicle retrofit and Engine rebuild programs;

8. Supporting the transitional use in buses and trucks of suitable alternatives fuels such as natural gas where they less polluting especially in metropolitan areas;

9. The goal of zero-emission vehicles and encourage the development and adoption of new low emissions technologies; and

10. Tighter emission standards for all diesel rail engines, marine engines, stationary power plants, compressors and the like.

Vehicle Emission Control Equipment

Recognising that the NSW Government its dragging its feet on ensuring that emission equipment is working, The Greens NSW work to:

11. Introduce mandatory annual registration emissions testing for petrol powered vehicles over 4 years old and extend the testing of emittants to diesel powered vehicles more than 4 years old;

12. Ensure that the training of automobile mechanics encompasses the repair of emittant control devices and if necessary fund fill-in training for existing mechanics; and

13. Develop a socially equitable air pollution reduction program to purchase old, highly polluting, non-repairable cars. To avoid stimulating demand for new vehicles, the reduction program should be integrated into a strategy which emphasises increasing and improving public transport, city pedestrian zones, bicycle tracks in urban areas and urban renewal.

Vehicle Numbers and Air Pollution

The Greens NSW recognise that it was foreseen that advances in curtailing air pollution of ten years ago would be neutralised by increases in vehicle population and kilometres travelled, and are committed to:

14. Reducing the number and size of diesel trucks and heavy commercial vehicles in urban areas by promoting the use of rail for goods distribution;

15. Reducing the number of cars registered in urban areas by encouraging the use of public and other transportation;

16. Ending major expressway constructions;

17. Promoting schemes to facilitate car-pooling through central agencies which match people (for a small fee) through data-bases listing their addresses, workplaces and times they start and finish work;

18. Genuine public participation in decision-making and adequate environmental costing of new transport strategies and projects;

19. Allowing new industrial, commercial, residential, educational, health and other community developments in Sydney only if sufficient mass transit systems are in place;

20. A ban on new childcare centres and schools situated next to main roads;

• 21. Development of strategies to reduce the kilometres travelled per year by car by introducing schemes to increase and improve:

• 21.1 Facilities that increase the accessibility of bus and railway stations and the use of public transport;

• 21.2 The number of feeder buses running to train stations; and

• 21.3 Bicycle infrastructure, including safe and continuous bicycle paths throughout urban areas and rail trails; and

22. Reduced annual registration and compulsory third party insurance charges and raising the fuel levy to compensate (i.e. to make the scheme revenue neutral in the short term). Under such a scheme people would be charged for using their automobiles, not just for owning them. Compensation to be paid to those people in areas with little or no public transport.

Incineration

23. Incinerators are internationally identified as significant sources of airborne toxic contaminants such as dioxins, furans, and heavy metals. The Greens NSW will thus seek to phase out waste sludge and medical incinerators.

Urban Airports

The Greens NSW will seek:

24. To ensure that the pollution caused by the road traffic generated by urban airports is addressed as part of the airport's pollution by the adoption of the 'airport bubble' concept, developed in California, in which an airport and an area within a certain radius around it are regarded as a single source of pollution with several types of emitters. Specific programs are then implemented to reduce emissions from each class of emitter;

25. An investigation into the pollution savings that would be possible from the introduction of more stringent emission requirements for aeroplanes, and lobby the Federal Government to introduce appropriate legislation; and

26. To ensure that the impacts of the air pollution resulting from the growth of Kingsford Smith Airport would be studied as part of an environmental assessment, (see also the Transport Policy).

Sulphur Dioxide

Recognising that sulphur dioxide can be a serious pollutant in some urban areas, significantly reducing urban amenity and threatening human health and native plant and life, The Greens NSW will support:

27. The strict application of emission licensing provisions, supervision of emission limits and strong legal action against license breaches by existing facilities and the eventual introduction of maximum achievable control technologies for all potential emitters of sulphur dioxide.

Nitrogen Oxides, Ozone and Smog

28. Ozone is a gaseous substance generated by the interaction of pollutants and causes respiratory and eye irritations in humans, as well as vegetation damage. The contribution of both smog and nitrogen oxides to respiratory diseases, including asthma, is rarely contested. Sydney wind conditions tend to concentrate smog in Western Sydney.

29. The Greens NSW identify smog as a social justice issue unfairly afflicting Western Sydney, parts of Newcastle, Wollongong and other industrial areas, and will adopt such pollution controls (see above) and urban planning strategies as necessary to redress the balance.

Lead

30. Lead is a toxic metal when inhaled or ingested, and has been associated with adverse health impacts and learning difficulties in young children.

31. The Greens NSW will work towards the full implementation of the report of the NSW Parliamentary Select Committee upon Lead Pollution rather than settle simply for the removal of lead from petrol.

32. The Greens NSW will seek to establish a new standard of lead in ambient air of 0.5 micrograms per cubic metre by the year 2003, and 0.15 micrograms per cubic metre by 2005 including all areas in the vicinity of lead emitters such as mines, smelters or battery manufacturers.

33. The Greens NSW are conscious of the lead pollution in dust, soil, and paint that can result from the renovation or demolition of older buildings. The Greens NSW will work towards protecting tenants and homebuyers from exposure to lead-contaminated dwellings by requiring the owners of affected properties to notify prospective buyers or tenants of potential lead hazards and to take steps to eliminate such hazards.

34. The Greens NSW will lobby the State Government to bring pressure to bear on the Federal Government to use the $1 billion collected from the lead levy on petrol to provide interest free loans to property owners to eliminate lead hazards in affected buildings.

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons

35. Benzene, benzopyrene and other polyaromatic hydrocarbons can cause lung cancer, leukaemia, renal and epithelial tumours, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular disease.

36. The Greens NSW advocate following the United Kingdom Government's example of imposing an interim regulatory limit of 5 parts per billion on atmospheric benzene concentrations, with the objective of reducing this limit to 1 ppb as soon as practicable.

37. The Greens NSW recognise the need to address increasing emissions from underground motorway stacks in relation to this limit.

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

38. Noting that the NHMRC standards for air pollution are sometimes less strict than the World Health Organisation (WHO), The Greens NSW will seek to initiate the adoption of overseas standards where superior.

Urban Greenhouse Gas Contribution

39. The Greens NSW will seek to achieve appropriate decreases in greenhouse gas emissions in NSW as part of a national strategy to contribute to the fight against global warming.

40. The Greens NSW will work towards the recognition of carbon dioxide as a pollutant requiring control similar to that exercised over other pollutants and subject to maximum achievable control policies.