UK environment improving
There has been real progress in improving the UK’s environment, but pollution remains a problem.
That is the conclusion of a new report from the Environment Agency which highlights air quality and household waste as areas of particular improvement over the past five years.
But traffic pollution is still a cause for concern and industrial emissions of nitrogen oxide have actually increased, the study found.
The quality of the air in Britain is now rated as “much better”, while household waste fell for the first time in 2003-04 and recycling reached a record high of 17 per cent.
Climate change is still a key problem area, however, and the agency warned immediate steps were needed to reduce the impact it is likely to have.
Nitrogen oxide emissions have gone up by five per cent due to more electricity being generated through coal firing, while traffic pollution in many urban areas is still high.
The report predicts that Britain is likely to miss its internal target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010, although the Kyoto target of a 12.5 cut will be met.
Road traffic, which increased by seven per cent between 2000 and 2004, will be the main reason behind the failure to meet this target.
The report, A Better Place , follows a similar study five years ago and used 80 sets of data to form a complete guide to environmental trends.
