EU-wide BAT—an expensive suit that doesn’t fit everybody!

The ‘Clean Air For Europe’ (CAFE) programme, carried out over the past three years by the EU Commission’s DG Environment, has resulted in the recent publication of the ‘Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution’ (TSAP) which provides a ‘road map’ for the review of existing Directives and the drafting of any new legislation.

CAFE addressed multi-pollutant, multi-effects issues with the declared goal to identify cost-effective solutions. A major building block of the programme has therefore been the use of Integrated Assessment Modelling (IIASA’s RAINS model) to inform and shape the resulting policy initiatives. RAINS employs an ‘effect driven’ optimisation strategy aimed at delivering given environmental improvements in the most cost-effective manner.