Copenhagen: Most European Union governments are on course to honour their pledges on the pollutants that foul the continent’s air, but a stubborn cluster of farming emissions keeps a handful of them short of the mark.

The European Environment Agency published its latest check-up in July, drawing on 2024 figures reported under the bloc’s National Emission reduction Commitments Directive. The law binds each capital to cut five pollutants that damage lungs, crops and waterways.

Twenty-one members met their commitments for every one of the five in 2024, the agency found. Six fell short on at least one pollutant, a reminder that headline progress can hide pockets where old habits refuse to shift.

The five targets cover ammonia, non-methane volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter and sulphur dioxide. Between them they drive the smog, acid deposition and fine dust that the agency links to hundreds of thousands of early deaths across Europe each year.

Ammonia remains the hardest nut to crack. The gas rises mainly from livestock manure and fertiliser spread on fields, and four members still need deeper cuts to reach their targets for the current decade. Because farming enjoys political protection in many capitals, tighter limits on slurry and feed have moved slowly.

The brighter story sits with sulphur dioxide, the pollutant that once turned rain acidic across industrial Europe. Cleaner fuels and scrubbers on power plants have driven emissions so low that twenty-five members have already cleared the stricter goals set for 2030, years ahead of the deadline.

Analysts caution that meeting a legal commitment is not the same as breathing clean air. Concentrations at street level depend on weather, traffic and local geography, and much of the population still lives with pollution above the health thresholds recommended by the World Health Organization. The directive caps national totals, not the peaks felt on a busy road.

The findings feed a wider argument in the capitals over how hard to push agriculture during a cost-of-living squeeze. Environment ministries point to the health bill and the crop damage from excess nitrogen, while farm lobbies warn that abrupt rules would raise food prices and hollow out rural incomes. The ammonia gap sits squarely on that fault line.

The agency frames its report as an early-warning tool rather than a verdict, giving governments time to close gaps before the formal reckoning. For the six members still off track, the path is plain enough even if it is uncomfortable: rein in the emissions that farms and engines keep pouring into a shared sky.