Ground-level ozone pollution caused an estimated 75,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2022 and €80 billion in economic damage, severely impacting Mediterranean countries and reducing agricultural yields. Despite these severe health and financial impacts, methane, a primary precursor to ozone, remains largely ignored in current European Union air quality regulations. Experts are calling for more integrated climate and air quality policies to address methane emissions as a critical political choice to protect public health, farming livelihoods, and environmental resilience simultaneously.
Date: February 16, 2026. Source: euobserver.com