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Indicator Specification
A strong, growing and low-carbon industry based on circular material flows is part of the EU Industrial Policy Strategy. The goal, therefore, is to create a growing industrial sector that draws less and less on natural resources, reduces pollutant emissions to air, water and land, and generates decreasing amounts of waste over time. This indicator is a means to track progress towards these overarching aims based on the best available data. The indicator was selected on the basis of best data available for this overarching purpose.
Industry here refers to the production of goods within an economy. Activities included are the energy industry, metal production, cement and lime production, mining and quarrying, the chemical industry, manufacturing, the waste industry (including water and sewage management) and the distribution of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning. The energy used for transport related to these industrial activities and associated emissions is not included.
Economic statistics (gross value added) available from Eurostat are used to track the economic contribution of industry to Europe’s society.
Data reported by large industrial facilities to the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), on the other hand, are used to track trends in industrial air and water pollution, as well as off-site transfers of waste. The scope of the E-PRTR is limited to certain industrial activities and larger releases of specific air and water pollutants. The Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism Reporting (MMR) inventory contains a more complete account of industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and was, therefore, used instead of the E-PRTR data for this substance.
European countries, as parties to the Convention for Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), also compile pollutant emission inventories that cover key substances, the main human activities and certain natural sources. This indicator uses these data to quantify how relevant industrial emissions to air are in the context of the overall anthropogenic emissions.
Data on the contribution of industrial activities to soil contamination are available from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. These data are not complete but nonetheless help to illustrate the relative contribution of industry to this environmental and health issue.
Waste is defined as 'any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard' in the Waste Directive. Data concerning industrial waste are grouped into two sectors: hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste.
Hazardous waste can pose a risk to health or the environment if not managed and disposed of correctly. The properties of waste that render it hazardous are defined in Annex III of the Waste Directive and include, inter alia, explosive, flammable, toxic and carcinogenic properties.
In addition to the data on off-site transfers of waste from the E-PRTR, this indicator also refers to waste generation statistics made available by Eurostat. Similar to the CLRTAP data on air emissions, these statistics allow for an assessment of the significance of the industrial sector relative to the overall generation of waste.
This indicator provides an overview of industrial pollution in Europe. This includes the contribution of industry to air and water emissions, soil contamination and waste generation. Trends in industrial pollutant releases to air and water, and industrial transfers of waste are also highlighted.
The units used in this indicator are tonnes of waste transferred per year. The use of indices and percentages means that no other units were used for the indicator.
The EU Industrial Policy Strategy was mentioned above already. It covers a plethora of topics ranging from cyber security to sustainable finance but, importantly, also includes goals for a low-carbon and circular economy.
Accordingly, the aim of the EU policy is to reduce emissions to air, water and land, including measures related to waste, in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole.
The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) (EC, 2010) is a key regulatory instrument with which the EU is achieving emission reductions in the industrial sector. It superseded the Industrial Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPCD) by harmonising it with a number of other related regulations and directives such as the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD).
The IED:
According to the IED around 50 000 industrial installations are required to operate under a permit (which itself is granted by authorities at the Member State level). Importantly in the context of this indicator, permit conditions including emission limit values must be based on BATs. BAT refers to the most effective, and economically and technically viable methods of operation that reduce emissions and the impact on the environment.
To define BAT, the European Commission organises an exchange of information between Member State experts, industry and environmental organisations. This process results in the production of BAT reference documents (BREFs). Each BREF contains information on the techniques and processes used in a specific industrial sector in the EU, current emission and fuel consumption trends, and techniques to consider for the determination of BATs, as well as emerging techniques. The conclusions on BAT, for each BREF, are subsequently adopted as a legal act so that they are legally binding for the granting of permits.
An up-to-date list of BREFs and associated binding BAT conclusions containing the emission limit values for a host of different industrial activities can be found on the website of the Joint Research Centre.
Next to the IED, which is very much a regulation attempting to control pollution at source, there are a number of additional pieces of environmental legislation at the European level that address industrial activities including those setting overall emission limits, those requiring reporting of emissions and waste generated, and those stipulating better environmental quality:
No target specified.
Available data sources were already covered in the indicator justification above. Data on air pollutants are taken from the CLRTAP for an assessment of the significance of industry and from the E-PRTR to provide an assessment of trends in industrial releases of these pollutants over time.
Key air pollutants to be included in the indicator were chosen based on the following criteria:
Policy criteria:
and
Pressures/Impacts criteria:
or
or
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are not included because of the poor quality of data reported in the E-PRTR. The following table summarises the air pollutants that are included in the indicator:
Pollutant |
Abbreviation |
Group |
Pressures/Impacts criteria met |
Nitrous oxides |
NOx |
Air pollutant |
P/I2, P/I3 |
Non-methane volatile organic compounds |
NMVOCs |
Air pollutant |
P/I2, P/I3 |
Particulate matter |
PM10 |
Air pollutant |
P/I1 |
Sulphur dioxide |
SO2 |
Air pollutant |
P/I1, P/I3 |
Cadmium |
Cd |
Heavy Metal |
P/I2 |
Lead |
Pb |
Heavy metal |
P/I2 |
Mercury |
Hg |
Heavy metal |
P/I1 |
Greenhouse gas data were deemed most reliable and complete in the MMR inventory. Key greenhouse gases were chosen based on the following criteria:
Policy criteria:
and
Pressures/Impacts criteria:
and
F-gases are not included because of the reduced number of countries that report complete time series of emissions. The following table summarises the greenhouse gases that are included in the indicator.
GHG |
Abbreviation |
Group |
Pressures/Impacts criteria met |
Carbon dioxide |
CO2 |
Greenhouse gas |
P/I1, P/I2 |
Data on water pollutant emissions or releases from industry are only available in the E-PRTR and not for any non-industrial sectors. An assessment of the significance of industry is therefore not possible for water pollution. Key water pollutants were chosen based on the following criteria:
Policy criteria:
and
Pressures/Impacts criteria:
or
or
The WFD’s list of priority substances covers 33 substances or groups of substances, of which 13 are priority hazardous substances ([7]). More recently, the European Commission’s proposal for a directive amending the WFD suggests further pollutants for consideration as priority substances ([8]). Although the E-PRTR covers these and other substances, the data quality and consistency of reporting across countries is sufficient for only a small selection of water pollutants. Pollutants outside this selection, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and dioxins and furans are not included because of the poor quality of the data reported in the E-PRTR. The table below summarises the water pollutants that are included. It must be emphasised that this list of pollutants does not cover numerous organic pollutants, pesticides and emerging compounds, such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics.
Pollutant |
Abbreviation |
Group |
Pressures/Impacts criteria met |
Total nitrogen |
Tot-N |
Inorganic substances |
P/1, P/I2 |
Total phosphorus |
Tot-P |
Inorganic substances |
P/1, P/I2 |
Total organic carbon |
TOC |
Organic substances |
P/1, P/I3 |
Nickel |
Ni |
Heavy metal |
P1, P/I1 |
Cadmium |
Cd |
Heavy Metal |
P1, P/I1 |
Lead |
Pb |
Heavy metal |
P1, P/I1 |
Mercury |
Hg |
Heavy metal |
P1, P/I1 |
Data on industrial releases to land are incomplete in the E-PRTR and the above mentioned data on soil contamination from the JRC were chosen instead to illustrate the role of industrial activities in this respect. Due to the limited nature of data available, this indicator simply reuses what the JRC produced.
Statistics on waste originating from industry and other sources are available from Eurostat’s waste generation statistics. These statistics are used to assess the significance of industry in this context for both hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation. Eurostat’s statistics are, however, only available in a relatively aggregated format in the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) code system. The assessment of trends for the various industrial sub-sectors is, therefore, based on the data on waste transfers reported to E-PRTR.
The different sources of data and statistics mentioned above rely on a variety of code systems to define industry and other economic sectors and activities:
The relations between the different code systems used here to assess the industrial sector and its sub-sectors are discussed in detail in the EEA's methodology report on Industrial Pollution Profiles, available here.
([1]) EC, 2010, Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:334:0017:0119:en:PDF) accessed 25 May 2017.
([2]) EEA, 2014, Costs of air pollution from European industrial facilities 2008–2012. EEA Technical report No 20/2014, European Environment Agency (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/costs-of-air-pollution-2008–2012) accessed 25 May 2017.
([3]) EC, 2003, Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32003L0087) accessed 25 May 2017.
([4]) EC, 2013, Regulation No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32013R0525) accessed 25 May 2017.
([6]) EC, 2000, Directive 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32000L0060) accessed 25 May 2017.
([8]) EC, 2011, Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives 2000/60/EC and 2008/105/EC as regards priority substances in the field of water policy (COM/2011/0876 final - 2011/0429 (COD)) (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52011PC0876) accessed 25 May 2017.
No gap filling was conducted.
No methodology references available.
There are a number of uncertainties regarding the methodology used for this indicator. Some of them relate to data sources themselves (mentioned below), others to the link between them.
The link between the different data sources relies on a 'mapping' of industrial activities across them. The methodology for this process is described above. It contains uncertainties because it links different definitions of what industry is to each other. Uncertainties mostly arise in cases were data are only available at an aggregate level. A specific economic activity or sub-sector code, that is here considered to be related to industry, therefore, might contain non-industrial activities or sub-sectors.
The E-PRTR data set inherently contains uncertainties because it is reported. This means that facility operators report the data to competent authorities at varying levels of government in Member States. These data are, in some cases, measured, in some cases estimated and in others calculated. Each of these methods has its own associated uncertainties. The data are then passed on to various regional and national authorities before being reported to the EEA and the European Commission. It should further be noted that the E-PRTR only covers the industrial activities in its annex, and releases and transfers above specified thresholds. In addition, there are no data for Croatia for 2007-2013 in E-PRTR and the data set has not been gap-filled.
The methodologies for conceiving national data reported to the GHG MMR and to the CLRTAP inventories also contain uncertainties usually associated with the modelling of emissions. Uncertainties associated with the GHG MMR data set are covered in detail in the specifications of the EEA Total greenhouse gas emission trends and projections indicator. Uncertainties of the CLRTAP data set, on the other hand, are described in the specifications of the EEA Emissions of the main air pollutants in Europe indicator.
The data underlying the assessment on soil contamination are taken directly from the JRC without any changes. Uncertainties associated with these data can be found in the specifications of the associated indicator on Progress in management of contaminated sites.
Eurostat statistics are the result of collecting national statistics via questionnaires. This process and the underlying process of gathering data at Member State level are prone to uncertainties. Uncertainties associated with Eurostat’s statistics on waste and annual national accounts can be found in the associated metadata here and here.
No uncertainty has been specified.
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/industrial-pollution-in-europe or scan the QR code.
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