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Indicator Assessment
In the EEA-32 region, emissions of PAHs have fallen by 63% between 1990 and 2007 (Figure 1). A combination of targeted legislation (for details see Indicator specification - policy context) coupled with improved controls and abatement techniques has led in general to significant progress being made in most countries to reduce PAH emissions (Figure 2).
While the majority of individual countries report PAH emissions have decreased since 1990, there are eight countries (Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, Italy, Iceland and Sweden) in which increased emissions have occurred. Of these countries, the largest increase in emissions is reported by Denmark. One cause of the increased emissions in Denmark has been due to the introduction of policy measures that have encouraged the burning of renewable materials (e.g. wood) by Danish households. Wood-burning also produces PAHs, and hence in this instance policies that have been implemented to address one environmental issue (climate change) have had unintended consequences in terms of air pollution. In absolute terms however, emissions of PAHs from Denmark are relatively low compared to other countries. Of the EEA-32 group of countries, the largest PAH emissions are reported by The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, where emissions are more than 10 times greater than in Denmark.
Change in PAH emissions for each sector between 1990 and 2007 (EEA member countries)
Contribution to total change in PAH emissions for each sector between 1990 and 2007 (EEA member countries)
Important emission sources of PAH typically include residential combustion processes (open fires, coal and wood burning for heating purposes etc), industrial metal production processes, and the road transport sector (Figure 3).
Emissions from each of these sources have declined since 1990 as a result of decreased residential use of coal, improvements in abatement technologies for metal refining and smelting, and stricter regulations on emissions from the road transport sector (Figure 4). In particular, the majority of the PAH emission reduction observed in
Tons (metric tonnes)
Coupled with improved control and abatement techniques, targeted international and EU legislation (directives and regulations) has led to good progress in most EEA-32 countries in reducing air emissions of PAHs (and a number of other POPs in general). Such legislation includes:
There are also a number of specific EU environmental quality standards and emission standards for heavy metals and POPs for these substances in coastal and inland waters, drinking waters etc. These have only indirect relevance to air emissions as they do not directly specify emission or precipitation quality requirements, but rather specify the required quality of receiving waters. Such measures include for example, the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC).
As noted above, the POPs protocol to the UNECE LRTAP Convention obliges Parties to reduce their emissions of dioxins, furans, PAHs and HCB below their levels in 1990 (or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995 inclusive).
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.
Not quantified.
Uncertainties in the emission estimates of PAHs reported by countries are considered to be higher than for other more 'traditional' air pollutants such as NOx and SO2 due to the relatively higher uncertainties that exist in both activity data and emission factors for this group of pollutants.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea32-persistent-organic-pollutant-pop-emissions/eea32-persistent-organic-pollutant-pop or scan the QR code.
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