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Indicator Assessment
[1] Emissions data reported by EU member states under NECD is used for comparison with NECD ceilings, and data reported under CLRTAP is used for all other calculations unless otherwise stated.
Emission trends of nitrogen oxides (EEA member countries, EU-27 Member States)
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 2010 emission levels and 2020 Gothenburg emission ceilings 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 2020.
EEA-32 NOX emissions have decreased by 42% between 1990 and 2010. The majority of EEA-32 countries have reported lower emissions of NOX in 2010 compared to 1990. The exceptions to this are Hungary (whose emissions were 20 times higher in 2010 than 1990), Turkey (69% higher), Luxembourg (19%), Malta (7%) and Cyprus (7%).
The national total reported by Hungary has increased greatly from 1990 to 2010 due to the inclusion of sectors for which emissions were not reported in 1990; 'Industrial processes' emissions reported in CRF data represent over 99% of NOX in Hungary in 1990, whilst in 2009 LRTAP submissions they represent just 1%, showing that the 1990 national total for Hungary is significantly underestimated and thus falsifying the trend.
The recession, and subsequent economic slow-down, that commenced mid-2008 played a key role in the reduction of NOX emissions between 2007 and 2010, primarily by reducing the level of industrial and transport activities across Europe. Total emissions were reduced by 16% between these years, compared to a 6% reduction between 2004 and 2007.
In general, the newer Member States of the European Union have made better progress towards meeting their respective 2010 NOX ceilings than the older EU-15 Member States. Eleven of the twelve post-2004 Member States have reduced emissions beyond what is required under the NECD, and the remaining one reported NOX emissions less than 2% above the NECD target in 2010. In contrast, only four EU-15 Member States had 2010 emissions within their respective national ceilings. As can be seen in Fig 2, although Finland reported emissions under CLRTAP which were lower than their NECD ceiling, emissions reported in 2010 under NECD were above their ceiling.
Despite this difference both EU-15 and New EU-12 groups have achieved broadly similar reductions in NOX emissions since 1990, of 47% and 44% respectively. However NECD ceilings for the groups are markedly different, representing reductions from 1990 emissions of 52% and 28% respectively. This difference is not reflected in the revised Gothenburg Protocol, under which both groups are expected to achieve reductions of approximately 60% from 2005 levels of emissions.
As noted above, emissions have actually increased in five EEA-32 countries during the period 1990 to 2010, despite all countries having obligations to reduce emissions under the NECD and Gothenburg Protocol. Since 2005 however emissions have fallen in all but one of these countries, indicating that by 2010 some progress had been made in moving towards their NECD ceiling directive limits.
Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey are not members of the European Union and hence have no emission ceilings set under the NECD. However, Norway and Switzerland have ratified the UNECE LRTAP Convention's Gothenburg Protocol, requiring them to reduce their emissions to the agreed ceiling specified in the protocol by 2010. Liechtenstein has also signed, but not ratified the protocol. Whilst Switzerland has reported emissions in 2010 that were lower than their ceiling, neither Liechtenstein nor Norway has yet met their national ceilings, and thus must still make significant reductions if they are to ensure compliance.
The NECD protocol is currently being reviewed, as part of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, but a proposal for a revised directive is presently on hold until 2013. A revision of the Gothenburg protocol was published in June 2012, and proposed percentage emission reductions from 2005 levels to be met by 2020 for the four already regulated substances (NOX, NMVOC, SO2 and NH3) and in addition for primary emissions of PM2.5. Existing emission ceilings for 2010 have been extended to 2020 such that all countries have additional obligations to maintain emission levels below their 2010 ceilings, or to further reduce emissions if they have not yet met these ceilings.
Emissions reported for 2010 indicate that the majority of Member States are on track towards meeting their proposed 2020 emission reduction targets under the revised Gothenburg protocol. Nine countries reported 2010 emissions higher than the linear path to their 2020 targets, however for six of these the difference was less than 10% of 2005 emissions.
Reductions of NOX have occurred in all economic sectors apart from the 'Waste' sector, where emissions have increased by 32% during this period, however in absolute terms this sector makes an insignificant contribution to the total NOX emissions. The sectors responsible for the vast majority of the decline in NOX emissions are 'Road transport' (contributing 41% of the total reduction in NOX emissions reported by countries) and 'Energy production and distribution' (contributing 21%).
Significant reductions have occurred in the 'Road transport' sector since the early 1990s, with an overall 43% decline in reported emissions between 1990 and 2010. This has been achieved despite the general increase in transport activity within this sector over the period. The emission reductions have primarily been achieved as a result of fitting catalysts to vehicles (driven by the legislative 'Euro' standards). However, across Europe there is also an increasing awareness of the contribution made to NOX pollutant emissions by national and international ship traffic (a more detailed discussion of this issue is contained in the TERM indicator fact sheet TERM03 - Transport emissions of air pollutants).
Emissions of NOX have also declined in the 'Energy production and distribution' sector (by 40% between 1990 and 2010). This has been achieved through the implementation of measures such as combustion modification, introduction of flue-gas abatement techniques and a fuel-switching from coal to gas. One of the most common forms of combustion modification is to use low NOX burners, which typically can reduce NOX emissions by up to 40%. Flue gas treatment techniques (such as NOX scrubbers, selective catalytic or non-catalytic reduction techniques, i.e. SCR and SNCR) can also be used to remove NOX from the flue gases. Emissions of NOX are higher from coal-fired power plants than from gas-fired plants as the coal contains significant amounts of nitrogen (unlike gas) and is burnt in less efficient combustion processes.
The newer Member States of the European Union have in a number of cases also undergone significant economic structural changes since the early 1990s which has led to a general decline in certain activities which previously contributed to high levels of NOX emissions e.g. heavy industry and the closure of older inefficient power plants, replacement of old vehicle fleet with new vehicles that meet Euro standards.
kilotonnes (1000 tonnes)
Emissions of NOX 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. The 2012 revision to the Gothenburg protocol proposed emission reduction targets for 2020 relative to 2005 reported emissions for all EU-27 Member States and some EEA-32 non-EU member states.
Table: 2010 NOX ceilings under the NEC Directive and the Gothenburg Protocol (kt)
Country |
2010 NECD |
2010 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
2020 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
Austria | 103 | 107 | 149 |
Belgium | 176 | 181 | 172 |
Bulgaria | 247 | 266 | 91 |
Cyprus | 23 | N/A | 12 |
Czech Republic | 286 | 286 | 181 |
Denmark | 127 | 127 | 80 |
Estonia | 60 | N/A | 30 |
Finland | 170 | 170 | 110 |
France | 810 | 860 | 715 |
Germany | 1051 | 1081 | 963 |
Greece | 344 | 344 | 289 |
Hungary | 198 | 198 | 134 |
Iceland* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Ireland | 65 | 65 | 65 |
Italy | 990 | 1000 | 727 |
Latvia | 61 | 84 | 25 |
Liechtenstein | N/A | 0.37 | N/A |
Lithuania | 110 | 110 | 29 |
Luxembourg | 11 | 11 | 35 |
Malta | 8 | N/A | 5 |
Netherlands | 260 | 266 | 190 |
Norway | N/A | 156 | 154 |
Poland | 879 | 879 | 606 |
Portugal | 250 | 260 | 167 |
Romania | 437 | 437 | 170 |
Slovakia | 130 | 130 | 65 |
Slovenia | 45 | 45 | 28 |
Spain | 847 | 847 | 827 |
Switzerland | N/A | 79 | 55 |
Sweden | 148 | 148 | 111 |
Turkey* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United Kingdom | 1167 | 1181 | 711 |
* Iceland and Turkey do not have a ceiling under the NEC Directive or the Gothenburg protocol.
This indicator is based on officially reported national total and sectoral emissions to the EEA and the 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 2011. For the EU-27 Member States, the data used is consistent with the emissions data reported by the EU in its annual submission to the LRTAP Convention.
Recommended methodologies for emission inventory estimation are compiled in the EMEP/EEA Air Pollutant Emission Inventory Guidebook, (EMEP/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 European Topic Centre/EEA using simple interpolation techniques (see below). The final gap-filled data used in this indicator are available from the EEA Data Service (http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/PivotApp/pivot.aspx?pivotid=478)
Base data, reported in the UNECE/EMEP Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR) sector format are aggregated into the following EEA sector codes to obtain a consistent reporting format across all countries and pollutants:
The following table shows the conversion of Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR) sector codes used for reporting by countries into EEA sector codes:
EEA classification |
Non-GHGs (NFR) |
|
National totals |
National total |
|
Energy production and distribution |
1A1, 1A3e, 1B |
|
Energy use in industry |
1A2 |
|
Road Transport |
1A3b |
|
Non-road transport (non-road mobile machinery) |
1A3 (excl. 1A3b) |
|
Industrial processes |
2 |
|
Solvent and product use |
3 |
|
Agriculture |
4 |
|
Waste |
6 |
|
Commercial, institutional and households |
1A4ai, 1A4aii, 1A4bi, 1A4bii, 1A4ci, 1A4cii, 1A5a, 1A5b |
|
Other |
7 |
|
An improved gap-filling methodology was implemented in 2010 that enables a complete time series trend for the main air pollutants (eg NOX, SOX, NMVOC, NH3 and CO) to be compiled. In cases where countries did not report emissions for any year, it meant that gap-filling could not be applied. For these pollutants, therefore, the aggregated data is not yet complete and is likely to underestimate true emissions. Further methodological details of the gap-filling procedure are provided in section 1.4.2 'Data gaps and gap-filling' of the European Union emission inventory report 1990–2009 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP).
No methodology references available.
The use of gap-filling when countries have not reported emissions for one of more years 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.
NOX emissions estimates in Europe are thought to have an uncertainty of about ±20% (EMEP, 2010), as the NOX emitted comes from both the fuel burnt and the combustion air and so cannot be estimated accurately from fuel nitrogen alone. However, because of the need for interpolation to account for missing data, the complete dataset used will have higher uncertainty. 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)
This indicator is regularly updated by the EEA and is used in state of the environment assessments. The uncertainties related to methodology and datasets are therefore of importance. Any uncertainties involved in the calculation and in the datasets need to be accurately communicated in the assessment to prevent erroneous messages influencing policy actions or processes.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea-32-nitrogen-oxides-nox-emissions-1/assessment.2010-08-19.0140149032-2 or scan the QR code.
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