Fine particle air pollution led to 238,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2020, the bloc’s environmental watchdog said Thursday, a slight rise from the previous year. At the same time, the overall rate for EU countries in 2020 was 45 percent lower than in 2005, the agency said, noting that “if this rate of decline is maintained, the EU will reach [its] zero pollution action plan target before 2030.”