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Indicator Specification
The agriculture sector is responsible for over 90% of NH3 emissions across the EEA-32. NH3 contributes to acid deposition and eutrophication which in turn can lead to potential changes occurring in soil and water quality. The subsequent impacts of acid deposition can be significant, including adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems in rivers and lakes and damage to forests, crops and other vegetation. Eutrophication can lead to severe reductions in water quality with subsequent impacts including decreased biodiversity, changes in species composition and dominance, and toxicity effects. In many cases, the deposition of acidifying and eutrophying substances still exceeds the critical loads of the ecosystems (see EEA indicator CSI 005 'Exposure of ecosystems to acidification, eutrophication and ozone'). Further details concerning emissions of acidifying pollutants are provided in EEA's Core Set Indicator CSI 001 'Emissions of acidifying substances'.
As a secondary particulate precursor, NH3 also contributes to the formation of particulate aerosols in the atmosphere. Particulate matter is an important air pollutant due to its adverse impact on human health, and NH3 is therefore also indirectly linked to effects on human health (see EEA's Core Set Indicator CSI 003 'Emissions of primary particles and secondary particulate precursors ' for further details concerning emissions of particulate matter.
ktonnes (1000 tonnes)
A number of policies have been implemented within Europe that either directly or indirectly act to reduce emissions of NH3. These include:
Apart from the NECD and Gothenburg Protocol and the IPPC Directive, there is currently no other EU legislation proposed or in force specifically aimed at reducing ammonia emissions. However, several regulatory instruments have influenced EU emissions of ammonia from the agriculture sector since 1990, such as:
These measures have had the indirect effect of changing agricultural practices across the EU, and have, for instance, led to a reduced use of nitrogenous fertilisers and to an overall decrease in cattle numbers, both of which affect the levels of ammonia emissions. The reforms of CAP, and specifically the removal of the link between farm production and payments, has also resulted in reduced livestock numbers across the EU-15 and hence also will have indirectly contributed to the decrease in ammonia emissions observed.
Emissions of NH3 are covered by the EU National Emission 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 emissions of NH3
| 1990 - 2010: NECD ceilings | 1990 - 2010: CLRTAP Gothenburg ceilings |
Austria | -7% | -7% |
Belgium | -40% | -40% |
Bulgaria | -25% | -25% |
Cyprus | 97% | - |
Czech Republic | -49% | -35% |
Denmark | -43% | -43% |
Estonia | 11% | - |
Finland | -27% | -27% |
France | -1% | -1% |
Germany | -23% | -23% |
Greece | -8% | -8% |
Hungary | -27% | -27% |
Iceland * | - | - |
Ireland | 6% | 6% |
Italy | -10% | -10% |
Latvia | -6% | -6% |
Liechtenstein | - | -27% |
Lithuania | 0% | 0% |
Luxembourg | 28% | 28% |
Malta | 56% | - |
Netherlands | -49% | -49% |
Norway | - | 13% |
Poland | -9% | -9% |
Portugal | 39% | 67% |
Romania | -30% | -30% |
Slovakia | -40% | -40% |
Slovenia | -17% | -17% |
Spain | 3% | 3% |
Sweden | 6% | 6% |
Switzerland | - | -9% |
Turkey | - | - |
United Kingdom | -18% | -18% |
# 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.
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).
This 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.
NH3 emission estimates in Europe are more uncertain than those for NOx, SO2 and NMVOCs due largely to the diverse nature of major agricultural sources. It is estimated that they are around +/- 30% (EMEP, 2009). 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)
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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea-32-ammonia-nh3-emissions or scan the QR code.
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