The year has started remarkably chilly with sustained periods below freezing, not just at night – some days are also sub-zero. And as well as feeling the cold, many in Brussels have noticed the whiff of exhaust fumes is especially strong.
Not only have banks of fog swept across the country, the capital has also been wrapped in a blanket of smog, unable to evacuate the fumes that heaters are pumping out as they work to keep us warm. The unfortunate result is unusually high concentrations of fine particles, the kind that smell bad and aren't any good for your health.
It's not just that our heating systems (predominantly gas) are more active than usual, the cold outdoors means that pollution accumulates at street level rather than dispersing into the atmosphere. And whilst a turn in the weather will reduce this build-up of pollutants, the phenomenon raises the question of a more sustainable solution to improve air quality in the city.
An estimated 900 people in Brussels die every year as a result of air pollution, predominantly caused by heating and combustion engines. But efforts to limit these emissions have faltered: for mobility, stricter standards on fossil-fuelled cars that can circulate within the city were postponed as the majority of francophone parties decided it was too early to clamp down on drivers of older vehicles.
When it comes to heaters however, the challenge is even greater. Measures are in place to incentivise the uptake of heat pumps, which are powered by electricity so don't pollute their immediate environment (and not at all if they're running on green electricity).
But these appliances pose further questions about the overall quality of our building stock: to be efficient they work best in well-insulated properties. On this front a large proportion of Brussels buildings are lagging. The problem is compounded by the fact that much of the residential property in Brussels is rental, and landlords are less likely to spend on improving the properties they don't live in themselves.
And with demand for rental accommodation so high, landlords are even less likely to invest in their asset. To counter this, rents in the capital can no longer be indexed without an energy performance certificate, and only homes ranked A, B, or C can be fully indexed. But without a regional government to push property owners to renovate it will be a while before Brussels cleans its act up.
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