Here, coal-fired heating is the main source of pollution. But Warsaw has embarked on a mission to replace these stoves, that the locals call 'smokers'. In fact, the city has banned them last October 1.

"There have been a lot of changes over the last few years. Even this 100-year-old house has been fitted with gas", said one Warsaw resident who mentioned the importance of European funding in this change.

In Warsaw, it is estimated that the number of smokers has been reduced from 17,000 to 4,000 in just a few years. But that's still too many, according to Piotr Siergiej, a spokesman for Polish Smog Alert, a citizens' movement that has played a decisive role in the fight against air pollution over the last decade.

"Eliminating 70% of smokers has really improved air quality. But it's not perfect," Jacek Kisiel revealed. "Because there are still a lot of cars, for example. And if you get rid of all the smokers in Warsaw and there are lots of smokers outside Warsaw, the polluted air will also go to Warsaw. So there's a lot to be done."

Poland is still a long way from achieving the Green Deal's ambition of zero pollution by 2050.

But things are changing and people are mobilising, which is also the case in Belgium. Brussels is one of Europe's most polluted cities in terms of nitrogen oxides. Road traffic accounts for two-thirds of emissions.

Here, unlike Warsaw, the city centre is the most polluted zone, according to several citizen science projects. Brussels has therefore created dozens of so-called 'school streets', where traffic is restricted or banned.

"We know that on average here, it was around 50 mg per M3, five times higher than the WHO recommendation," Pierre explained, adding that children are at particular risk.

His association brought together 20,000 volunteers to measure the air throughout Flanders and Brussels. The results made the front page of the Belgian press.

 

Copenhagen is the headquarters of the European Environment Agency. There, air quality expert Alberto González Ortiz agreed to show us the application launched by his agency, the European Air Quality Index, which compiles data from some 4,000 monitoring stations across the EU.