Air Pollution Policy in Israel

Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has been oriented towards economic development and industrialization, with a transportation sector increasingly focused on private cars. In 1961, initial awareness of environmental risks led to the adoption of the Abatement of Nuisances Law, which served as the platform for air pollution policy for several decades, even as population growth and growth of the industrial sector, including fossil fuel power plants, led to a continuous increase in air pollution. In the early 2000s, the environmental movement in Israel criticized local air pollution policy as being out of date and started to promote a new Clean Air Law. The law, which was adopted in 2008 and came into force in 2011, was a watershed in air pollution policy in Israel. It includes ambient air quality values for 28 contaminants, emission permits for the industrial sector based on best available techniques (BAT), an enforcement system, and a unified and transparent monitoring system. This paper reviews the history of air pollution policy in Israel from 1948, through the 1961 and 2008 landmark legislations and their strengths and weaknesses, to the present. The paper ends with recommendations for future air pollution policy in Israel.

Alkaline air: changing perspectives on nitrogen and air pollution in an ammonia-rich world

Ammonia and ammonium have received less attention than other forms of air pollution, with limited progress in controlling emissions at UK, European and global scales. By contrast, these compounds have been of significant past interest to science and society, the recollection of which can inform future strategies. Sal ammoniac ( nūshādir , nao sha ) is found to have been extremely valuable in long-distance trade ( ca AD 600–1150) from Egypt and China, where 6–8 kg N could purchase a human life, while air pollution associated with nūshādir collection was attributed to this nitrogen form. Ammonia was one of the keys to alchemy—seen as an early experimental mesocosm to understand the world—and later became of interest as ‘alkaline air’ within the eighteenth century development of pneumatic chemistry. The same economic, chemical and environmental properties are found to make ammonia and ammonium of huge relevance today. Successful control of acidifying SO 2 and NO x emissions leaves atmospheric NH 3 in excess in many areas, contributing to particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) formation, while leading to a new significance of alkaline air, with adverse impacts on natural ecosystems. Investigations of epiphytic lichens and bog ecosystems show how the alkalinity effect of NH 3 may explain its having three to five times the adverse effect of ammonium and nitrate, respectively. It is concluded that future air pollution policy should no longer neglect ammonia. Progress is likely to be mobilized by emphasizing the lost economic value of global N emissions ($200 billion yr −1 ), as part of developing the circular economy for sustainable nitrogen management. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Air quality, past present and future’.

How are Anti-Air Pollution Policies Implemented? A Network Analysis of Campaign-Style Enforcement in China

Haze pollution has become one of the most important environment problems in China, raising increasing serious public health concerns. When carried out through campaign-style enforcement drives, the nation’s anti-air pollution policy and its implementation require all-levels of government to take measures to improve the air quality in a certain period. In this study, Xi’an, a city in northwest China, where serious haze occurs frequently, was chosen as the research sample. Based on a social network analysis of the Anti-pollution and Anti-haze Work Scheme of Xi’an for 2014 and 2015 as well as in-depth interviews with enforcement officials, we studied the attributes of the enforcement network, including the actors’ respective tasks, the network’s structure, and the ‘centrality’ of the network. Compared to 2014, the goals of the 2015 scheme were clearer and more challenging, with a larger number of specific tasks and tighter time limits. The structure of the enforcement network became flatter, with a ‘horizontal’ management arrangement that involved fewer actors. The core actors were shifted to the more authoritative departments, reflecting the reality that the campaign-style enforcement network structure had been adjusted toward the regulatory hierarchy system and routing administration. The results reveal that the implementation gap was narrowed by clearer and more specific roles and tasks, a simplified, flatter organizational network structure, greater decentralization of authority and responsibility to local departments, and more harmonious coordination among those departments with the most powerful leading actors. This study provides managers with an insight into the external and organizational factors involved in enhancing the effectiveness of anti-air pollution policy implementation.