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Indicator Assessment
Emission trends of non-methane volatile organic compounds (EEA member countries, EU-27 Member States)
Non-methane volative organic compounds (NMVOC) distance-to-target for EEA member countries
Note: The distance-to-target indicator shows how current emissions compare to a linear emission reduction 'target-path' between 1990 emission levels and the 2010 emission ceiling for each country. Negative percentage values indicate the current emissions in a country are below the linear target path; positive values show that current emission lie above a linear target path to 2010.
EEA-32 emissions of NMVOCs have decreased by 41% since 1990. Within the EEA-32 group of countries, all have reported lower emissions in 2005 compared to 1990 except Greece (+18%), Poland (+7%) and Turkey (+57%).
The EU-27 Member States have, in general, made good progress towards reducing emissions in line with their obligations under the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NECD). Sixteen Member States (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) have already reduced their national NMVOC emissions below the level of the emission ceilings set in the NECD. A number of other Member States (including Belgium and Ireland) reported NMVOC emissions for the year 2007 that were close to their respective ceilings under the NECD. These countries are considered broadly on track towards meeting their emission ceilings in 2010.
However, four Member States (France, Germany, Portugal and Spain) have emissions still significantly above their respective emission ceilings and thus must make significant reductions over the coming years if they are to comply with the NECD.
The EFTA-4 (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and CC-3 (Croatia, FYR of Macedonia and Turkey) countries are not members of the European Union and hence have no emission ceilings set under the NECD. However, Switzerland and Norway have ratified the Gothenburg Protocol, requiring them to reduce their emissions to the agreed ceiling specified in the protocol by 2010. Switzerland has already met its Gothenburg Protocol ceiling, whilst Norway, still needs to reduce emissions further in order to meet its respective ceiling.
Within the old EU-15 group of Member States the largest source of NMVOC emissions in 2007 was from the 'other (non energy)' sector, accounting for 43% of the total emissions. This sector includes emissions from activities such as paint application, degreasing, dry cleaning and the manufacture and processing of chemical products. The next largest sector was emissions from road transport, with 16% of total emissions. Between 1990 and 2007 the road transport sector experienced the largest percentage reduction (79%) and accounted for 58% of the overall reduction in emissions across the time series. The main reasons for this reduction were the increased use of three-way catalytic converters and the switching from petrol to diesel cars. The second largest contributor to the emissions decrease was the other (non-energy) sector, primarily as a result of the Solvent and Paint Directive.
The two largest sources of NMVOC emissions within the new EU-12 Member State group were also other (non energy) (41%) and road transport (18%). The other (energy) sector was also significant, accounting for 13% of total emissions in 2007. This sector includes emissions from energy use in the commercial, institutional and residential sector and other stationary sources. Between 1990 and 2007 reductions in emission from waste and other non-energy showed the highest % reduction (42% each). This period, 1990 to 2007, also saw a 41% reduction in emissions from the industry (energy) sector. However emissions from Agriculture increased by 201% due to increased activity.
Within the CC-3 country grouping (Croatia, FYR of Macedonia and Turkey), emissions from industry processes were the largest source of NMVOC, accounting for 56% of the total in 2007. Other transport was the next largest sector (20%) followed by other energy (13%) and other non-energy (5%). Emissions from the CC-3 increased by 98% between 1990 and 2007, with emissions increasing in all sectors except waste, other (energy) and road transport. Largest percentage increases were seen in the industry process sector (1129%), the industry energy (124%) and energy industries sectors (123%). The industry process sector was the largest contributor to the increase seen in emissions.
In the EFTA-4 countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) the 'other non-energy' sector accounted for 33% in 2007, followed by the fugitive emission sector (32%) and road transport (14%). Reductions in road transport and other (non energy) sources were the largest contributors to the overall 50% reduction in reported emissions, accounting for 75% and 50% respectively.
ktonnes (1000 tonnes)
A number of policies have been implemented within Europe that either directly or indirectly act to reduce emissions of NMVOCs. These include:
Emissions of NMVOC are covered by the EU National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD) (2001/81/EC) and the Gothenburg protocol under the United Nations Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP Convention) (UNECE 1999). The NECD generally involves slightly stricter emission reduction targets than the Gothenburg Protocol for EU-15 countries for the period 1990-2010. The Gothenburg Protocol entered into force on 17 May 2005, after ratification by 16 countries early in 2005. Table: Percentage reduction (#) required by 2010 from 1990 levels by country for NMVOCs 1990 - 2010: NECD targets (%) 1990 - 2010: CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol targets (%) Austria -42% -42% Belgium -55% -53% Bulgaria 49% 57% Cyprus 14% - Czech Republic -29% -29% Denmark -53% -53% Estonia -30% - Finland -42% -42% France -62% -60% Germany -74% -74% Greece -7% -7% Hungary -33% -33% Iceland - - Ireland -32% -32% Italy -40% -40% Latvia 52% 52% Liechtenstein - 37% Lithuania -17% -17% Luxembourg -36% -36% Malta 99% - Netherlands -60% -58% Norway - -35% Poland -4% -4% Portugal -41% -34% Romania 56% 56% Slovakia -1% -1% Slovenia -38% -38% Spain -40% -39% Sweden -32% -32% Switzerland - -49% - - United Kingdom -54% -54% # The actual 2010 emission ceilings specified in the NECD and Gothenburg Protocol are expressed as absolute emissions of SO2, NOx, NH3 and NMVOC (in ktonnes). For the purposes of this indicator 1990 is considered as a 'base year' and the percentage change to emissions to meet the ceilings is calculated. Reported emissions for past years may change reflecting e.g. updated and revised emission inventory guidance, and so the % reduction required to meet the CLRTAP and NECD targets as shown here may change slightly in the future. * Emissions data not available for Iceland.
Turkey
Indicator is based on officially reported national total and sectoral emissions to UNECE/EMEP (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/Co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in Europe) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP Convention), submission 2009. Recommended methodologies for emission inventory estimation are compiled in the EMEP/CORINAIR Atmospheric Emission Inventory guidebook, EEA Copenhagen (EEA, 2009). Base data are available from the EEA Data Service (http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=1096) and the EMEP web site (http://www.ceip.at/). Where necessary, gaps in reported data are filled by ETC/ACC using simple interpolation techniques (see below). The final gap-filled data used in this indicator is available from the EEA Data Service (http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=1058).
Base data, reported in SNAP, draft NFR or NFR are aggregated into the following EEA sector codes to obtain a common reporting format across all countries and pollutants:
The 'unallocated' sector corresponds to the difference between the reported national total and the sum of the reported sectors for a given pollutant / country / year combination. It can be either negative or positive. Inclusion of this additional sector means that the officially reported national totals do not require adjustment to ensure that they are consistent with the sum of the individual sectors reported by countries.
The following table shows the conversion of Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR) sector codes used for reporting by countries into EEA sector codes:
EEA classification | NFR Emission Source Category |
0 National totals | National total |
1 Energy Industries | 1A1 |
3 Industry (energy) | 1A2 |
2 Fugitive emissions | 1B |
7 Road transport | 1A3b |
8 Other transport (non-road mobile machinery) | 1A3 (exl 1A3b) |
9 Industry processes | 2 |
4 Agriculture | 4 + 5B |
5 Waste | 6 |
6 Other (energy) | 1A4a, 1A4b, 1A4b(i), 1A4c(i), 1A5a |
10 Other (non-energy) | 3 + 7 |
12 Energy industries (power and heat production) | 1A1a |
14 Unallocated | Difference between national total and sum of sectors (1 - 10) |
Methodology of data manipulation: EEA/ETC-ACC gap-filling methodology. To allow trend analysis where countries have not reported data for one or several years, data has been interpolated to derive annual emissions. If the reported data is missing either at the beginning or at the end of the time series period, the emission value has been considered to equal the first (or last) reported emission value. It is recognised that the use of gap-filling can potentially lead to artificial trends, but it is considered unavoidable if a comprehensive and comparable set of emissions data for European countries is required for policy analysis purposes.
No methodology references available.
NMVOC emission estimates in Europe are thought to have an uncertainty of about +/- 30% due in part to the difficulty in obtaining good emission estimates for some sectors and partly due to the absence of good activity data for some sources. The trend is likely to be more accurate than the individual absolute annual values - the annual values are not independent of each other.
Overall scoring: (1-3, 1=no major problems, 3=major reservations)
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea-32-non-methane-volatile/eea-32-non-methane-volatile or scan the QR code.
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