With history's largest climate change summit underway in Copenhagen, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to recommend new tougher air quality emissions standards this month.

The new standards are used to control the air quality in cities throughout the United States.

The Austin and Round Rock area have a plan in place to try and comply with the changes, but have already experienced trouble keeping within the current air quality standards in place.

Travis County Air Quality Project Manager Adele Noel said new tougher standards could be difficult to comply with.

"It makes me a little nervous, because this year we were able to just skirt under the 75 parts per billion standard, and if the monitors monitor more than what the standard is, then that's considered to be an ozone exceedance day," Noel said.

Ozone exceedance days can come with consequences. Failure to meet the federal EPA standards could lead to delayed highway and transportation funding. In the past, that has resulted in costly mandates on vehicle inspections for drivers.

A statewide air quality action plan must be submitted for the EPA's consideration by Dec. 2013.

"And what we've found out is that the average cost of getting your vehicle repaired is almost $600 per vehicle, and if we had not been near non-attainment that never would have happened," Noel said.

The changes could also affect future job growth in Austin. Toyota opted to locate its auto plant in San Antonio rather than Dallas, citing emissions standards and related costs.

"Toyota would have had to put in more resources, more emission control equipment to be built in Dallas, which was more expensive," Noel said. "And that's a huge deal. That means jobs."

Larger cities surrounding Austin, as well as Mexico, contribute to a huge share of Austin's air pollution. Though that might not seem fair, local government officials say stricter standards are likely, and there are still ways to try and meet them.