Summary

Emissions of air pollutants in Europe in 1990

CORINAIR 90 produced an emission inventory for 30 EUROPEAN countries. The results for the 8 pollutants investigated are:

Major contributors

The EU-12 countries accounted for between 44% (SO_x) and 69% (NMVOC) of total EUROPEAN emissions, the PHARE-10 countries for between 16% (NMVOC) and 38% (SO_x) of total emissions and the EFTA-5 countries for between 2% (SO_x) and 11% (NMVOC).

In 1990 the countries making the largest contribution to the total emissions of each pollutant were

• Germany (former East) SO_x
• United Kingdom NO_x
• France NMVOC, NH₃, CO, N₂O
• Germany (former West) CO₂
• Poland CH4.

For all pollutants the differences in national emissions are due to differing population sizes and differences in per capita emissions. Natural emissions of NMVOC, NH₃, N₂O and CH₄ are also significant for some countries.

Emissions per capita

For EUROPE the following per capita emissions (in kg/capita) were estimated for the year 1990:

Emissions from natural sources (group 11) have been excluded from this per capita calculation since (most of) the natural source groups are not related to human activities.

In comparison with the average per capita emissions for EUROPE, per capita emissions of SO_x, NO_x, N₂O, CO₂ and NH₃ were lower in the EFTA-5 countries (between 72% for SO_x and 17% for NH₃). Per capita emissions of NMVOC were lowest in the PHARE-10 group of countries (31%), and the EU-12 countries had the lowest per capita emissions of CO (3% below the average for EUROPE).

In 1990 the countries with the largest and smallest per capita emissions for the different pollutants were

The smallest and largest per capita emissions differed between a factor of between 37 (SO_x) and 4 (NO_x). Special reports for each pollutant to be published later in 1995 will analyse these (large) differences and examine whether they are due to differences in emission factors or differences in activities. These reports will also explain differences in emission factors.

Emissions per km²

For EUROPE the following emissions (in kg per km²) were estimated for the year 1990:

In comparison to the average levels estimated for EUROPE emissions per km² of all pollutants were smallest in the EFTA-5 countries (between 93% for SO_x and 58% for NMVOC). Emissions per km² were largest in the EU-12 group of countries (between plus 42% for NO_x and 25% for CH₄) with the exception of SO_x, for which levels were highest for the PHARE-10 group of countries (69% above the EUROPEAN average).

In 1990 the countries with the largest and smallest emissions per km² for the pollutants investigated were

The smallest and the largest emissions per km² differed by a factor of between 243 (SO_x) and 20 (NMVOC). In general the differences between the emissions per km² are much larger than the differences in the emissions per capita. It is obvious that the predominant reason for the low emissions per km² in the Scandinavian countries is their low population density.

Special reports to be published later in 1995 will analyse these (large) differences in more detail.

Largest contributing source groups

Emissions are split into the following source groups in this report:

The following source groups made the largest contribution to total emissions in EUROPE in 1990:

For each pollutant the table also shows the percentage contribution of the source group to total emissions. The only pollutant where a single source group (agriculture) dominates emissions almost exclusively is NH₃. However, in the case of CO and SO_x, more than 50% of the total emissions can be attributed to one source group - road transport for CO, and public power, cogeneration and district heating for SO_x.

The next table shows the number of countries in which a source group was the largest contributor to emissions of a pollutant. The table also gives the range of the source groups contribution in all countries.

This overview shows that for all pollutants with the exception of NH₃ the individual source groups may contribute very differently to emissions in different countries.

However, it is evident already from this overview that (with the possible exception of NH₃), strategies for reducing emissions of pollutants in EUROPEAN countries need solutions which are specific to individual countries, as well as common elements.