Press release - Published:
09 Nov 2009 - The European Commission and
the European Environment Agency today launched
a comprehensive new European pollutant release
and transfer register – E-PRTR. The register
contains information about the quantity
and location of pollutants released to air,
water and land by industrial facilities
throughout Europe. It includes annual data
for 91 substances and covers more than 24
000 facilities in 65 economic activities.
It also provides additional information,
such as the amount and types of waste transferred
from facilities to waste handlers both inside
and outside each country.
Environment Commissioner
Stavros Dimas said: "Transparency is
a vital tool for improving our environment.
I welcome the opening of this register.
It demonstrates a genuine commitment by
the public authorities and industry to share
information with citizens and increase openness.
I thank them for their cooperation."
Professor Jacqueline
McGlade, Executive Director of the European
Environment Agency, said: "To achieve
the public participation objective set by
the Aarhus Convention, people first need
to know what is happening to their environment
and what is at stake. With this new register,
we take an important step in placing more
environmental information at their fingertips.
Anyone can now see how much pollution is
being released to air and water from facilities
in their neighbourhood or region."
What does the register
cover?
In order to improve public access to environmental
information, a new E-PRTR register has been
set up, containing data reported by individual
facilities.
It provides details
for 2007 of pollutants released from specific
facilities to air, water and land. Its scope
covers for instance 30 % of total NOx (nitrogen
oxides) emissions (i.e. most emissions from
sources other than transport), and 76 %
of total SOx (sulphur oxides) emissions
to air in the EU-27 countries and Norway.
The register also shows the amount of waste
and waste water transferred to other locations,
including transboundary transfers of hazardous
waste, and gives preliminary information
on pollutants from 'diffuse' sources released
to water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus
loss from agriculture.
The website has a powerful
search engine that allows visitors to search
using one or more criteria and a map tool.
For example, visitors can search the amount
of hazardous and non-hazardous waste transferred
from facilities in a country (waste search),
or releases from a specific industrial site
by name or location (facility search).
What kind of information
can be obtained?
E-PRTR reveals, for example, that:
Often a small number
of facilities make large overall contributions
to the total amount of pollutants released
in Europe. For instance, just five large
combustion plants were collectively responsible
for more than 20 % of all E-PRTR sulphur
oxide emissions to air in 2007. Sulphur
oxides contribute to both environmental
acidification and the formation of health-damaging
particulate matter.
More than 54 million tonnes of hazardous
waste were transferred from E-PRTR facilities.
Most hazardous waste is recovered or disposed
of within the country where it originates;
just a small fraction of it (approximately
6 %) is transported across borders.
Background
The United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information,
Public Participation in Decision-making
and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
(the 'Aarhus Convention') grants the public
rights to access environmental information.
In 2003, parties to
the Aarhus Convention adopted the Protocol
on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
(PRTR), which entered into force on 8 October
2009. The European Community is a signatory
to the Protocol and has passed a Regulation
(EC No 166/2006) to implement it. The Regulation
defines minimum levels of activity and pollution
above which information must be reported.
It also goes beyond the PRTR Protocol by
requiring Member States to report information
on an additional five pollutants and imposing
more stringent reporting thresholds for
another six.
From 2010 onwards, the
information in E-PRTR will be updated in
April each year. In addition to the 27 Member
States of the European Union, it also includes
data from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The website, including the information on
diffuse source releases, will gradually
be improved in coming months.
The former European
pollutant register EPER covered 50 pollutants
released to air and water from 56 industrial
activities in 12 000 facilities in 26 countries
(EU-25 and Norway). EPER required countries
to report only every third year and included
information from just two reporting years
— 2001 and 2004.
About the European Environment
Agency (EEA)
The EEA is based in
Copenhagen. The Agency helps achieve significant
and measurable improvement in Europe's environment
by providing timely, targeted, relevant
and reliable information to policy-makers
and the public.
Contact information
For media inquiries: Ms Gülçin
Karadeniz,
