Air Pollution has a direct effect on the quality of life on earth. Its first manifestations were recognised officially in Roman times with regulations curbing the activities of certain trades. Now, with the increases in population and in agricultural and industrial activities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is all pervasive showing itself in

"  the global decrease in stratospheric ozone and the attendant increase in surface ultraviolet radiation, emphasised by the ozone hole appearing over the Antarctic;

"  the occurrence of summer smog over most cities in the world, including the developing countries, and the increased ozone background in the northern troposphere;

"  the increase in greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere and associated climate change;

"  acid rain and the eutrophication of surface waters and other natural ecosystems by atmospheric deposition;

"  enhanced aerosol and photo-oxidant levels due to biomass burning and other agricultural activity;

"  the increase in fine particles in regions of industrial development and population growth with an attendant reduction in visibility and an increase in human health effects;

"  the long range transport of air pollution to regions far from the industrial activity and

"  the appearance of semi-volatile persistent organic compounds and heavy metals in hitherto pristine regions far from their sources.

Many of these changes in atmospheric composition have adverse effects on human and ecosystem health, on water supply and quality, and on crop growth. A variety of abatement measures have been introduced or considered to reduce the effects. However, continued growth in human activities, to expand economies and to alleviate poverty, will ensure that these effects continue to be of concern for the foreseeable future.

Air pollution involves not only the aerial transport of pollutants between the emission source and the sites of deposition but also the chemical transformation of the pollutants in the atmosphere. Not only are pollutants and trace substances chemically removed by atmospheric processes, they can also be transformed into secondary pollutants; an example here is surface ozone which results from the reaction of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons in the presence of sunlight. Thus, air pollution combines the complexity of meteorology with that of atmospheric chemistry and, while we have a reasonable overall picture of situation, the details, on which forecasting and analysis depend, are far from clear.

The aim of ACCENT T&TP is the bring together the European community of researchers concerned with atmospheric chemistry in order to pinpoint the current problems of understanding and to foster research work aimed at resolving the principal difficulties so that the models used for analysis and forecasting on global, regional and local scales are more precise and reliable.

T&TP will fulfil the aim with a series of scoping workshops which will take place during the initial period of the program to prioritise key issues (with the aid of policy makers), define an integrated strategy for research on this topic and to plan coordinated activities to tackle nominated research topics. The goal will be to develop a series of scientific sub-foci for this activity, work on which will be pursued in the later stages.

An underlying aim will be to coordinate European research efforts in this area and so provide lasting structures for information exchange between research communities, and between the research community and those responsible for environmental policy development.

In order to fulfil the prime objective of this structuring activity there will be a range of workshops/ symposia on:

·        prioritisation of key issues for development of an integrated strategy;

·        planning future research activities in this area (e.g. export of European pollutants to the global atmosphere);

·        development of structuring foci (such as mercury and POPs, long-range transport, atmospheric variability, chemical complexity);

·        chemistry & climate  impact of pollution on climate;

·        the wider context of T&TP  a multidisciplinary approach, ecosystems, health and climate; and

·        how do we couple the different scales of the problem of T&TP?

The workshops will be of a variety of styles from focused small group interactive workshops to larger community undertakings. The ultimate aim of the workshop series being to arrive at lasting structures for communication and information exchange between the communities and for a set of specific recommendations for research strategies optimized to produce results to be formulated. Special attention will be paid to the role of young researchers and scientists from accession countries in such activities.

Coupled to the scoping activities, a concurrent data collection activity will be undertaken to gather meta-data on the activities of the EU member/accession countries in this science area. This activity is required in order to understand the scope of the co-ordination/exploitation required. Building structures for communication underlines the need for the actual information that is to be exchanged. Researchers in any particular country are often unaware of work being done in another country under the auspices of a national program. In order to overcome this problem, a compilation of national programmes related to T&TP that are of interest to all of the communities will be created. The T&TP national programme information service (NPIS) should act as a focus for exchange of scientific ideas and programmatic.

Paul Monks; T&TP Coordinator

Peter Borrell, Deputy