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It is possible to make a distinction between two types of air pollution: ‘outdoor pollution’, produced mainly by industrial pollutants and automobile emissions, and ‘indoor pollution’, which is caused by burning fuels in the home for heating and cooking. Traditionally, air pollution has been seen as a problem that afflicts mainly the industrialized countries as a result of mass production and large numbers of motorized vehicles. However, in recent years attention has been drawn to the dangers of ‘indoor pollution’ in the developing world, where many of the fuels used, such as wood and dung, are not as clean-burning as modern fuels such as kerosene and propane.

Until the middle of the twentieth century, air pollution in many countries was caused primarily by the widespread burning of coal, a fossil fuel which emits sulphur dioxide and thick black smoke into the atmosphere. In many Eastern European countries and in the developing world, the practice remains widespread today. In the UK coal was used extensively to heat homes and power industry, but in 1956 the Clean Air Act was passed to regulate smoke pollution and smog (a mixture of smoke and fog). Smokeless fuels, such as kerosene, propane and natural gas, were promoted as alternatives and are now more widely used. In 2019 the government updated the Act by announcing a new Clean Air Strategy, which included a pledge to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040 and to ban the most polluting forms of coal and wood used in open fires and stoves (Defra 2019a).

Since the 1960s the main source of air pollution has been the growing number of motor vehicles. In 2015, in the twenty-eight countries of the European Union, transport was responsible for almost one-quarter of greenhouse gases, and 72 per cent of these came from road transport (European Commission 2015a; see figure 5.2). Road transport emissions are particularly harmful because they enter the environment at a much lower level than emissions from tall industrial chimneys. As a result, cities have long been among the most polluted environments for pedestrians and workers. For instance, nitrogen oxides from diesel cars produce ozone and very fine particulate matter which impacts on human health. The UK government says that airborne nitrogen oxides lead to the premature deaths of some 23,500 citizens every year, and the European Environment Agency estimates that around 430,000 people across Europe died from the same causes in 2012 (Coghlan 2015).

Cars account for some 80 per cent of road journeys in Europe and make a major contribution to carbon emissions. A single occupancy car journey can produce more carbon per passenger, per kilometre travelled, than fully loaded short- or long-haul flights (Beggs 2009: 77–8). For this reason, attempts to reduce air pollution have focused on the use of low-emission travel alternatives such as passenger trains, high-occupancy buses and the sharing of car journeys. Since 2008, greenhouse gases from road vehicles in the EU and elsewhere have started to fall due to high oil prices and the increasing efficiency of private cars (European Commission 2015a). Yet stricter pollution targets do not, in themselves, guarantee reductions in real-world vehicle emissions, as a major scandal from 2015 demonstrates.

In the early twenty-first century, many car manufacturers invested heavily in less polluting, ‘clean diesel’ cars, claiming that their emission of nitrogen oxide pollutants and CO₂ were now low enough to pass the strictest emissions tests. The car-maker Volkswagen made a determined attempt to sell their new diesels into the American market, where they successfully passed the US government’s stringent tests. But in 2015 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (which had raised concerns in 2014) found that Volkswagen cars had higher emissions ‘on the road’ than in the company’s laboratory tests. Even worse, the EPA found factory-fitted software within the cars – a ‘defeat device’ – which recognized the signs of emissions testing – a stationary vehicle, static steering, air pressure level, and so on – and put the car into an alternative mode which temporarily lowered emissions. Out on the road, the EPA found that the new diesels emitted up to forty times more nitrogen oxide pollutants than US regulations allowed.

Figure 5.2 EU28 greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by mode of transport and sector, 2012

Source: European Commission (2015a).

Volkswagen admitted trying to cheat the testing regime and acknowledged that around 11 million cars were fitted with the device, 8 million of them in Europe. For the company, emissions testing was merely an obstacle to commercial success, not a means of ensuring better air quality for all. Diesel models from numerous other car-makers, including Nissan, Volvo, Renault, Citroen and Chrysler, were subsequently found to produce more than ten times more nitrous oxide emissions on the road than were claimed by the manufacturers. In 2018, Audi admitted marketing some of its cars with a similar, ‘impermissible software function’ (BBC News 2018e). Large fines were imposed on the companies concerned, and a more realistic testing regime was introduced. The scandal alerts us to the tension that exists between capitalist corporations’ constant pursuit of new markets and profits and environmental regulatory regimes seeking to reduce pollution and protect human health.

See chapter 22, `Crime and Deviance’, for a discussion of corporate criminality.