Fifty years of air quality conservation

Looking back over 50 years, it is clear why attention to air quality and its relationship with emissions has been, and still is, one of the leading activities carried out by CONCAWE for its members. The concerns of the 1960s, addressed by enormous efforts over the following 50 years, are centre stage again in the 2013 ‘Year of Air’ which re-focuses on urban air quality as it is affected by emissions from domestic, small industry, commercial and transport sources.

The main difference is that now we deal in reducing residual risk as we move towards a policy target of ‘zero’ impact to human health and the environment, whereas 50 years ago the need was to address visible impacts.