EU unlikely to meet noise target by 2030
About 18 million people suffer long-term annoyance from transport noise in the European Union (EU). The European Commission’s zero pollution action plan aims to reduce the number of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30% by 2030, compared to 2017 levels. According to the European Environment Agency’s assessment, published today, reaching this target is unlikely due to the difficulty in reducing the large number of people exposed to noise from road traffic.
The EEA briefing ‘Outlook to 2030 – can the number of people affected by transport noise be cut by 30%?’ assesses the feasibility of achieving the zero pollution action plan’s noise reduction target through two scenarios: one optimistic and one less ambitious.
According to the EEA briefing, even if the noise reduction measures currently available to local authorities are implemented to a high level, this would only reduce the number of people highly annoyed by transport noise by about 19% by 2030. Some examples of measures included in this optimistic scenario include reduction of speed limits on urban roads, a 50% electrification of road vehicle fleet, maintenance and rail grinding, quieter aircrafts and aircraft night curfews. The scenarios do not consider legislative or regulatory changes at EU level as such changes would require considerable amount of time to develop and implement.
