2023 Action Scorecards

Action Scorecards 2023

Question: Do the NO2 levels in a significant proportion of neighbourhoods within the council’s area exceed the safe World Health Organisation (WHO) air pollution guidelines?

Question code
2.12a
Section
Transport
Topic
nan
Source
National Data
Question weight
Low

Criteria

Negatively Scored Question
A council will be negatively scored if they have 25% or more LSOAs (Lower-layer Super Output Areas) above the World Health Organisations (WHO) NO2 guidelines.

A council will be further negatively scored if they have 75% or more LSOAs (Lower-layer Super Output Areas) above the World Health Organisations (WHO) NO2 guidelines.

Clarifications

NO2 - Nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, is a gaseous air pollutant composed of nitrogen and oxygen and is one of a group of related gases called nitrogen oxides, or NOx. NO2 forms when fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gas or diesel are burned at high temperatures. NO2 in the UK is mostly a result of fossil fuel cars. Data for NO2 in the UK is strong due to a good network of national sensors therefore we have used a stronger criteria.

LSOAs (Lower-layer Super Output Areas) are small areas designed to be of a similar population size, with an average of approximately 1,500 residents or 650 households. They are used to form the basis of the census.

WHO NO2 guidelines: Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations of 10 µg/m3 annual average.

Question performance

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