The Gothenburg Questions

The 'Urbino Questions' were a first attempt to establish a dialogue between the ACCENT scientific community and policy makers.  Given the wide appreciation for this exercise, ACCENT now wants to repeat it, in order to give an input to the upcoming revision of the Gothenburg Protocol (2009) and to the revision of the European Commissions Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, for which a scientific basis should be built until 2011-2012.

The selection of the questions started at the meeting “Air pollution and its relationship to climate change and sustainable development (Saltsjobaden 3)” organized by ASTA, NORDEN and ACCENT (Gothenburg, 12-14 March 2007). They were prioritized through the involvement of policy makers and scientists with a  final discussion at the ACCENT management committee meeting in January 2008.

The questions in their final form are presented at the blog that can be accessed through the ACCENT Public Information and Policy Support Portal:

http://alba.jrc.it/blog/accent/?cat=15

What do we ask you

You can use this blog to help in drafting answers to “the Gothenburg questions”, e.g. by

• giving references of relevant papers, yours or those of others
• formulating an answer
• give your view whether the question is important or not
• give your view whether the question can be answered given the available knowledge.

All contributions will be kept on the blog and visible to the outside world. They will form one input to the formulation of the final answers. Other input will come from the ACCENT scientific synthesis that is presently taking place and from selected experts in the field.

We are looking forward to your contribution!