Published: 01 Jun 2011
The EU-27 and its Member States must meet
legally binding limits for four air pollutants
set by the National Emission Ceilings Directive
(NEC Directive) to protect human health
and the environment. The annual status report
released today by the European Environment
Agency (EEA) shows that while EU-27 emissions
for three air pollutants are projected to
meet the ceilings, nitrogen oxides (NOx)
emissions for the
EU-27 as a whole will exceed its ceiling
by 17 %. Ten Member States expect to miss
their respective NOx ceilings.
Themes Air pollution
Transport
The NEC Directive status
report 2010 documents the most recent emissions
(2009) and projection information (2010)
for the four pollutants covered by the directive:
sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx),
non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs)
and ammonia (NH3). The pollutants covered
by the report harm both human health and
the environment by contributing to the formation
of ground-level ozone and particulate matter
and leading to acidification and eutrophication.
The NOx challenge
The road transport sector bears most of
the blame for the anticipated exceedances,
contributing to more than 40 % of total
EU-27 NOx emissions in 2009. Furthermore,
although emissions from the sector have
decreased since 11000, the reduction over
the past 2 decades has not been as large
as originally anticipated. This is partly
because the sector has grown more than expected
and partly because vehicle emission standards
have not always delivered the anticipated
level of NOx reductions.
Even taking into account NOx control measures
already in place within the Member States,
the NOx emissions for the EU-27 are still
projected to be 6 % above the aggregated
Member States limits (known as the Annex
I ceilings) and 17 % above the stricter
ceiling for the European Union as a whole
(the Annex II ceiling) set for 2010.
Some Member States, such as the Netherlands
and Slovenia, expect to exceed their respective
NOx ceilings by only small margins (less
than 5 %). In contrast, Germany and France
expect to exceed their ceilings by 328 kilotonnes
and 275 kilotonnes respectively - equivalent
to exceedances of 31 % and 34 %. Austria,
while expecting lower surpluses in absolute
terms, anticipates exceeding its ceilings
by an even larger margin (40 %).
Other pollutants mostly on track
For the other three pollutants (SO2 – primarily
from fuel combustion for electricity generation
and by industry, NMVOCs – from the use of
solvents and from the road transport sector,
NH3 – mainly from agriculture) the EU-27
projections are all below the emissions
ceilings defined by the directive. Most
Member States also anticipate meeting their
emission ceilings for these pollutants as
displayed in the following table.
What next?
The European Commission has recently launched
a comprehensive review of its air policy,
building on the 2005 Thematic Strategy on
Air Pollution (TSAP) and Clean Air for Europe
(CAFE) initiatives. This follows discussions
and agreement within the Commission that
further actions to improve air quality are
a pressing need. The Commission plans to
focus on a number of immediate measures
and a more comprehensive review of EU's
air policy by 2013 at the latest.
This revision of policy, including the NEC
Directive, is expected to propose stricter
emission ceilings for 2020 in order to protect
health and the environment further. It could
also, for the first time, introduce a ceiling
for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In
the absence of new legislation, however,
the NEC Directive remains in force and requires
that future emissions stay below national
ceilings also after 2010.
Separately, discussions over setting new
2020 national emission ceilings for European
countries have started within the UNECE’s
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air
Pollution.
NEC data viewer
The EEA publishes the data from the NEC
Directive status report 2010 in an air pollutant
emissions data viewer, a searchable web-based
interface that simplifies access and analysis.
The data viewer allows users to compare
emissions from different countries and their
proximity to the emission ceilings.
