title: 2001-2012 trends on air quality in Spain.
abstract: This study aims at interpreting the 2001-2012 trends of major air pollutants in Spain, with a major focus on evaluating their relationship with those of the national emission inventories (NEI) and policy actions. Marked downward concentration trends were evidenced for PM10, PM2.5 and CO. Concentrations of NO2 and NOx also declined but in a lesser proportion at rural and traffic sites. At rural sites O3 has been kept constant, whereas it clearly increased at urban and industrial sites. Comparison of the air quality trends and major inflection points with those from NEIs, the National Energy Consumption and the calendar of the implementation of major policy actions allowed us to clearly identify major benefits of European directives on power generation and industrial sources (such as the Large Combustion Plants and the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directives). This, together with a sharp 2007-2008 decrease of coal consumption has probably caused the marked parallel decline of SO2, NOx and for PM2.5 concentrations. Also the effect of the EURO 4 and 5 vehicle emission standards on decreasing emissions of PM and CO from vehicles is noticeable. The smooth decline in NO2-NOx levels is mostly attributed to the low efficiency of EURO 4 and 5 standards in reducing real life urban driving NO2 emissions. The low NOx decrease together with the complexity of the reactions of O3 formation is responsible for the constant O3 concentrations, or even the urban increase. The financial crisis has also contributed to the decrease of the ambient concentration of pollutants; however this caused a major reduction of the primary energy consumption from 2008 to 2009, and not from 2007 to 2008 when ambient air PM and SO2 sharply decreased. The meteorological influence was characterized by a 2008-2012 period favorable to the dispersion of pollutants when compared to the 2001-2007.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: xavier.querol@idaea.csic.es.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Querol
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alastuey
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pandolfi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reche
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Minguillón
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, C/Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.affiliation: Centro Universitario de la Defensa de Zaragoza, Academia General Militar, Ctra. Huesca s/n, 50090 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escudero
authors.affiliation: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, G.D. Environmental Quality and Evaluation, Pl. San Juan de la Cruz s/n, 28071 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Orio
authors.affiliation: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, G.D. Environmental Quality and Evaluation, Pl. San Juan de la Cruz s/n, 28071 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pallarés
authors.affiliation: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, G.D. Environmental Quality and Evaluation, Pl. San Juan de la Cruz s/n, 28071 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reina
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants
keywords: Air quality policy; CO; NO(2); NO(x); O(3); PM10; PM2.5; Time trends