European Union (EU) directives on ambient air quality apply to Gibraltar and require monitoring and reporting of air quality to the European Commission on an annual basis. Historically this has been performed according to:

• The Air Quality Framework Directive (1996/62/EC)
• The four Daughter Directives 1999/30/EC, 2000/69/EC, 2002/3/EC and 2004/107/EC.

From June 2008, a new directive has been in force: the Council Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (2008/50/EC), which is known as the ‘Air Quality Directive’ (AQD). This directive consolidates the first three Daughter Directives, and has been transposed into Regulations in Gibraltar. The 4th Daughter Directive (AQDD4), 2004/107/EC, remains in force. Directives 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC were transposed into Gibraltar law by the Environment (Air Quality Standards) Regulations 2010.

As a result of exceedances of limit values specified in these Directives for PM₁₀ and NO₂, which are widely exceeded across EU Member States, Gibraltar formally applied in 2010 for time extensions to these limit values. The detail of these applications is provided on the Government of Gibraltar website. The Air Quality Plan accompanying these time extension applications, covering both PM₁₀ and NO₂ is available here.

Latest up-to-date hourly measurements of air pollution are reported to the general public using an easy to understand 1-10 air pollution index system. The categories range from LOW to VERY HIGH air pollution with associated advice on health affects and what precautions may be taken to protect health.

Details of the air pollution index can be found here.

A diverse range of sources contribute to the particulate matter concentrations measured by Gibraltar’s air quality monitoring network. Efforts are ongoing to better identify, quantify and understand the impact of these sources on ambient air quality in Gibraltar.

European legislation recognises that Member States cannot control contributions to particulate matter from natural sources such as African dust and sea salt. The legislation makes provision to account for these contributions when assessing compliance where they can be quantified appropriately.

Annual assessments are made by AEA on behalf of the Gibraltar Environmental Agency to quantify the contributions of natural sources (African dust and sea salt) to measured PM₁₀ concentrations. From 2006 to 2009, this assessment covered African dust only but new evidence is being gathered in the hope of quantifying sea salt in the future. The methodology and results of these assessments are presented in the reports section below.

During the evolution of the Gibraltar Air Quality Programme, a body of evidence has been established to characterise and explain the pollution climate of Gibraltar in the context of both European legislation and local and regional concentrations. This information has supported the applications to the Commission for time extensions for PM₁₀ and NO₂ limit values.

A selection of reports prepared for the Gibraltar Environmental Agency covering natural contributions to PM₁₀ and the current composition and shape of the Gibraltar Air Quality Monitoring Network (Article 5 Assessment) are available below. Additional reports produced in support of the formal time extension applications are available from the Government of Gibraltar website.

• Article 5 Assessment: 2010 update report
• 2006 African dust quantification report
• 2007 African dust quantification report
• 2008 African dust quantification report
• 2009 African dust quantification report
• 2010 natural correction report