{"id":70241,"date":"2020-02-12T15:54:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/experts-call-for-an-improvement-in-the-regulation-of-biomass-for-domestic-use-to-improve-urban-air-quality\/"},"modified":"2020-02-12T15:54:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:54:03","slug":"experts-call-for-an-improvement-in-the-regulation-of-biomass-for-domestic-use-to-improve-urban-air-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/experts-call-for-an-improvement-in-the-regulation-of-biomass-for-domestic-use-to-improve-urban-air-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts call for an improvement in the regulation of biomass for domestic use to improve urban air quality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The domestic use of biomass, mainly for heating, reduces sulphur dioxide emissions, but contributes to an increase in other pollutants that cause a deterioration of air quality in urban environments. This was one of the main messages that emerged today at the "Changing the energy model to improve air quality" conference, organised in Seville by the Naturgy Foundation in collaboration with the Spanish Chapter of the Club of Rome.<\/p>\n

Jes\u00fas de la Rosa, professor at the University of Huelva<\/b>, stated that \u201cthe downside of biomass is the effects it has on the environment and air quality; it improves CO2<\/sub> emissions but worsens air quality.\u201d \u201cIn general, although the trend is towards improvement, there are extreme cases related to traffic sources, biomass and industrial combustion mainly, which affect both large cities and small municipalities,\u201d explained de la Rosa, who recalled that Andalusia is currently working on various Environmental Quality Plans in order to improve the air quality of its citizens.<\/p>\n

For his part, the president of INERCO, Vicente Cort\u00e9s<\/b>, also said in his speech that, while renewable electricity production has a clear beneficial effect on pollutant emissions in the EU, domestic use of biomass has a negative influence on emissions of respirable particles.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectricity generation from renewable sources accounted for approximately 32% of electricity generation in the EU in 2018, however, the use of biomass in domestic and residential use reduces SO2<\/sub> emissions in the EU by 3%, but leads to increases in the remaining primary pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides and particles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the use of biomass for electricity generation, which is subject to very strict emission limits, use in small, inefficient facilities without gas treatment systems explains these figures, according to Cort\u00e9s. In this regard, he stated that a contribution to the reduction of CO2<\/sub> emissions on a global scale may result in a worsening of air quality on a local scale.<\/p>\n

Air quality improvement plans<\/b><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Managing Director of the Andalusian Energy Agency, Jorge Jim\u00e9nez<\/b>, who spoke at the opening of the seminar, explained that "at the Andalusian Energy Agency, we are working towards the development of a more sustainable energy system, where renewable energies play a very important role and where we have been implementing incentives to support energy efficiency and sustainable transport for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a municipal level, the\u00a0Director General of Sustainable Development, Financing and External Action at Seville City Council, Esperanza Caro,\u00a0<\/b>who also participated in the opening of the conference, stated that "a change in the energy model is necessary to improve the quality of the air in cities; at Seville City Council we are committed to this through a series of lines of action such as more sustainable mobility, the rehabilitation of homes to make them more efficient and the treatment of waste,\u201d said Caro.<\/p>\n

In turn, the\u00a0Director of Financing, Development and Strategic Projects at the Andalusian Energy Agency, Crist\u00f3bal S\u00e1nchez Morales<\/b>, gave a brief summary of the energy and environmental approach to energy policy, as well as the strategic framework for ecological transition and the principle of energy efficiency first, as a strategic way of mitigating the environmental impact of energy uses. In this regard, he reviewed the main energy improvement measures in cities from the perspective of their impact on improving air quality, including the efficient use of renewable energies and, particularly, biomass energy.<\/p>\n

Also speaking at the seminar was Jaime Briales, Head of the Innovation, Energy and New Technologies Service at Malaga City Council<\/b>, who explained, among other issues, the challenges of mobility in this city, which include not only the reduction of CO2<\/sub> emissions, but also the reduction of noise and air pollution, the recovery of spaces for citizens, the reduction of unsustainable modes of transport and the reduction of travel times. To achieve all this, Malaga City Council is committed to taking advantage of the opportunities offered by electric vehicles, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles and personal mobility vehicles.<\/p>\n

Juan Azc\u00e1rate, Deputy Director General of Energy and Climate Change at Madrid City Council<\/b>, explained the air quality plans being implemented in the Spanish capital. Among other issues, he highlighted the importance of having an emissions inventory to support the design, implementation and monitoring of environmental policies. Azc\u00e1rate also spoke of the need to move towards a change in the energy model, with mobility, building and waste as the main levers of action<\/p>\n

Urban pollution and human health<\/b><\/p>\n

At the opening of the conference, the Director General of the Naturgy Foundation, Mar\u00eda Eugenia Coronado<\/b>, explained that \u201cthe World Health Organization has long warned us of the effects of local pollution on human health: 91% of the world\u2019s population breathes polluted air, causing 7 million deaths a year, of which 3.8 million are caused by the air we breathe inside buildings and 4.2 million by the air outside,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe influence of energy on air quality is decisive,\u201d said Coronado, who added that \u201cif we focus on outdoor air and air quality in cities, the main agents emitting this pollution and derived from human activity are transport, industry, buildings, and especially, air conditioning with biomass, construction and some agricultural activities.\u201d Coronado also recalled that it is important to highlight the effects of the contribution of natural sources, \u201csuch as the intrusions of African air masses that significantly reach this land where we are today\u201d.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Vice President of the Spanish Chapter of the Club of Rome, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Mor\u00e1n<\/b>, was responsible for closing the day, along with Coronado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Representatives from the Administration, companies and the academic world share the opinion that there is a need to continue implementing measures to reduce the pollution rates in cities, during a conference held in Seville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":70191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[700],"tags":[871,944,711],"content-type":[],"acf":[],"post_class":["post-70241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-and-the-environment","tag-air-quality","tag-energy-and-the-environment","tag-seminars-en","wordpress-sticky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70241"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=70241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}