The programme ended in december 2015.
The main objective of the programme was:
To provide scientific support for the assessment of climate change influences on environmental objectives affected by long-range transport of air pollution.
• Changing patterns of temperatures, wind and precipitation will change the chemistry of
air pollutants, their emission, transport, concentrations, deposition, air-surface exchange
and impacts on ecosystems. Warmer and more humid conditions will enhance the uptake
of ozone by vegetation resulting in increased risks for ozone effects on ecosystems.
• Particles, soot and ozone have a significant influence on climate. Changing
concentrations of these air pollutants will contribute to the variability of climate change.
• In regions where climate change leads to increased temperatures and increased
precipitation, increased leaching of carbon, nutrients, and base cations from agricultural
and forest soils is expected. This may afffect the acidification of forest soils and surface
waters, and eutrophication of surface waters. The mobility and transport of mercury will
also be affected. Rates of soil processes such as carbon mineralization, nitrogen turnover,
weathering and mercury methylation will also increase.
• Abatement strategies to reduce climate change and to reach environmental targets related to air pollution are in many cases synergetic (energy savings, reduction of fossil fuel use) but may also be antagonistic (less masking of temperature increase, increase leaching of nutrients and acidification caused by measures to increase forest growth and biomass extraction, particle emissions from biomass energy generation). Different combinations of abatement strategies for climate and air pollutants will also lead to differences in response time. The antagonistic effects can be overcome by careful assessment and adaptation of management options and their impacts on pollutant emissions and forest ecosystems.