The Azores, due to their geographical location, have good air quality, confirmed by the global air quality index. However, there are omissions in certain stages of the evaluation process that could affect the quality of the assessment, according to a document prepared by the Azores Section of the Court of Auditors (TdC).
The judges who conducted the audit consider that, despite the air quality monitoring carried out in the region, “quantified goals are not clear,” nor are “evaluation parameters” or “allocated financial resources” that would allow for assessing the degree of compliance with objectives and targets.
“There is no evidence of compliance with obligations derived from European and regional legislation to ensure preliminary air quality assessment by agglomerations, to classify zones and agglomerations, and to verify evaluation criteria,” the document states.
In the Azores, air quality monitoring and evaluation are conducted through four stations installed in the municipalities of Horta, Ponta Delgada, Ribeira Grande, and Angra do Heroísmo. The collected information is later disseminated on the Air Quality Monitoring Portal and the Regional Government Portal.
The stations monitor pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and suspended particles. They are also equipped to measure precipitation, solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed.
“Since the stations began operating, no values exceeding the population alert threshold have been recorded for any of the monitored pollutants,” the TdC audit also notes, adding that “some occasional exceedances occurred,” but these were derived from natural events, such as dust from North African deserts, “without exceeding the legally established limit values.”
The judges also remind that in the Azores, the emissions profile is “quite distinct” from the mainland territory due to the existence of the agricultural sector, which has a greater expression in the archipelago. Conversely, there is “an almost absence of the industrial processes and product use sector.”
“These sectoral differences are expressed in the gas emissions profile, that is, the relative weight of methane and nitrous oxide is substantially higher than the national total, in contrast to carbon dioxide,” the audit concludes, also noting that the Energy sector contributes the most to pollutant emissions in the islands (48.8%).
The TdC recalls that between 2017 and 2023, over 1.1 million euros were spent on these islands for the monitoring network and air quality information platform (700,000 euros from the Regional Budget and about 440,000 from EU funds). It recommends that the Regional Secretariat for Environment and Climate Action conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the measures and actions carried out in this area.