Industrial pollutant releases to water in Europe

Between 2010 and 2023, industrial releases to Europe’s water bodies of pollutants damaging to human health and the environment declined overall. Releases of heavy metals declined until 2016 with a stagnating trend thereafter. Emissions of nitrogen, which cause eutrophication, declined to a lesser extent. The economic value of industry increased by almost 20%, in line with the EU policy objective of supporting industrial growth while decreasing industrial emissions. However, data gaps make it difficult to assess industry’s contribution to overall water pollution in Europe.

Figure 1. Industrial releases of pollutants to water and economic activity in the EU-27

Water is a valuable resource that is under pressure in the EU, with only 40% of surface water bodies in good ecological status and 35% in good chemical status. Industrial activity leads to the release of pollutants to water, including total organic carbon (TOC) and compounds that contain nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which cause eutrophication, and heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Hg and Ni, also having detrimental impacts on the environment and human health.

EU industrial policy strives to reduce pollutant emissions while supporting growth and competitiveness. Legislation, such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), aim to protect Europe’s water bodies from industrial emissions, thus supporting this goal. Monitoring changes in industrial emissions to water is key to tracking progress towards achieving industrial policy and zero pollution objectives.

Overall, industrial releases to water were lower in 2023 than in 2010: emissions of heavy metals (Cd, Hg, Pb and Ni) decreased significantly, largely as a result of decreasing releases of Pb. Emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus decreased to a much lesser extent. This partly reflects the positive influence of European policy and improved pollution abatement technology on industrial emissions to water, coupled with a shift in the mix of activities across the continent to less-polluting industrial activities.

These emissions reductions were achieved despite a 17% increase in the value that European industry generated for the economy. Measured as gross value added (GVA), indicating that, although European industry is generating more economic output, it is becoming less emissions intensive, in line with the objectives of the EU industrial strategy.

Industrial emissions to water are reported under the European Pollutant Transfer and Release Register (E-PRTR), recently rebranded as European Industrial Emission Portal by Regulation (EU) 2024/1244. Although this covers the 45 substances included in the WFD’s list of priority substances, the data quality and consistency of reporting across countries are sufficient to assess only a small selection of water pollutants. This does not include numerous organic pollutants, pesticides and emerging compounds such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics. Improving and widening the scope of reporting to the E-PRTR would allow a deeper analysis of the impacts of industrial emissions on Europe’s water bodies.

Figure 2. Water pollutant releases relative changes from 2010 to 2023 for the EU Member States

Industrial releases to water are complex, resulting in different underlying environment issues. Total organic carbon (TOC), nitrogen and phosphorus are three key parameters of overall pollution in water releases, with a focus on the impact these waters can have in the functioning of water ecosystems, particularly the abovementioned eutrophication phenomenon. Progress across countries in containing these releases is mixed, shown in Figure 2. While this reflects stonger monitoring of releases in certain instances, it confirms the ongoing need to enhance treatment of releases in line with the objectives of EU water policies.

Heavy metals have been included in the table to represent heavier industry releases of a more toxic nature. Wastewater treatment infrastructure is not designed to address these pollutants generally, therefore they indicate industrial emissions not sufficiently abated at source. Figure 2 indicates generally consistent progress across countries, with some exceptions. Additional efforts are needed to further contribute to improving the ecological and chemical status of European water bodies.

Supporting information

Definition

This indicator tracks trends of industrial emissions of selected water pollutants. The indicator includes releases of certain heavy metals (cadmium, nickel, mercury and lead), nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and a global parameter to indicate the load of organic matter (total organic carbon). These trends are overlaid to the trend in gross value added by industry, as an indicator of the economic contribution of the sector.

The aggregated EU-27 trends feature in Figure 1 while country specific trend changes are offered in Figure 2.

The geographical coverage comprises the 27 EU Member States (EU-27). Consisting of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

The temporal coverage is 2010-2022. Data were reported to the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR).

Methodology

Queries are applied to the Industrial Emissions Database (where the E-PRTR is included) to extract and aggregate emissions reported individually for each operator in Europe to produce Figures 1 and 2. Emissions are aggregated at country and European level, indexed to 2010 levels and a trend line is then constructed.

For Figure 1, the gross added value is indexed to 2010 levels and a trend line constructed.

Gap filling was performed to complete data missing for some countries in the last years of the timeline. Future versions will include more complete datasets as countries resolve these issues as time passes.

While the E-PRTR contains data since 2007, the earlier years are incomplete and of lesser quality. This has led to the indicator showing data starting from 2010.

Methodology for gap filling

Czechia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia did not report any data from 2023. In these cases data from 2022 have been used to populate the emissions trend.

Policy/environmental relevance

Anthropogenic emissions of heavy metals, nutrients and organic matter contribute to a wide range of detrimental effects for the environment and human health. While many human activities contribute to these emissions, industry and waste water treatment operations are significant sources.

The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) requires industry operators to submit, among other data, values for direct releases of pollutants into water across 91 pollutants. Additionally, large waste water treatment plants also report to the E-PRTR. These collect water from sewer systems that contain effluents both from industry, commercial, residential and other activities. While they are designed to reduce pollution, their efficiency is not complete and the E-PRTR captures the remaining pollution they release into water ecosystems.

Protection of water ecosystems from industrial emissions is regulated mainly via the water policy and the industrial emission policy. The former has two key pieces of EU law that are most relevant: 1) the mechanisms of priority substances and 2) the wastewater treatment plant Directive. This EU legislation imposes a case-by-case permit for large industrial operators, which contains emission limit values to water. If the industry operator releases water to the sewerage system, provisions as to how and which emission levels are acceptable are also foreseen.

This indicator is useful to capture how these mechanisms contribute to a progressive reduction in the final releases to water ecosystems in Europe. Due to the way the reporting mechanisms are designed and the fact that industry is often connected to a sewerage system, this indicator cannot distinguish releases that are fully generated in an industry context, from those that are mixed with other sources (e.g. commercial or residential).

Targets

No targets have been specified.

Accuracy and uncertaintiesData sources and providers

Metadata

DPSIRTopicsTagsTemporal coverageGeographic coverage

TypologyUN SDGsUnit of measureFrequency of dissemination

Industrial pollutant releases to water in Europe

Figure 1. Industrial releases of pollutants to water and economic activity in the EU-27

Figure 2. Water pollutant releases relative changes from 2010 to 2023 for the EU Member States

Supporting information

Methodology for gap filling

Targets

Methodology uncertainty

Data sets uncertainty

Rationale uncertainty

Metadata

References and footnotes