Saltsjöbaden V - Taking international air pollution policies into the future

Abstract

This report contains a compilation of the outcomes of an international workshop on future air pollution strategies held in Gothenburg 24-26 June 2013. It is the fifth in a row of a series of workshops that are organised under the heading of "Saltsjöbaden workshops" of which the first one was held in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden in 2000. The workshops have been organised with the aim to discuss international air pollution issues, in particular those of transboundary nature and they have formed a basis for further work within international organisations, in particular the UN ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and the European Commission (EC). The workshops have attracted policymakers, scientists and experts within the field and formed an informal platform at which new ideas and concepts are able to be discussed without formal procedures. This workshop was organised by the Swedish Environmental Protection agency and the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute in close colaboration with CLRTAP, EC, The Global Atmospheric Pollution Forum and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The workshop was attended by about 130 scientists, policymakers and experts within the field of air pollution, its effects and control. A Program Committee (Annex A) was established for the overall planning of the workshop program, in particular for the selection of topics and for the final preparations of the general conclusions and recommendations. This workshop, as the previous ones, was organised in a format with an introductory plenary session with presentations on the main topics of interest, followed by discussions in working groups leading to conclusions and recommendations. Finally the outcome was presented and discussed at a general plenary session, where a set of general conclusions and recommendations were agreed upon. This report contains general conclusions and recommendations as well as the reports from each of the seven working groups at the meeting. The plenary presentations can be found at the web page of the meeting; http://www.saltsjobaden5.ivl.se/. The key to the abbreviations is given in Annex D in this report. Further information about the workshop can be found at http://www.saltsjobaden5.ivl.se, where also reports from previous workshops can be found.