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Indicator Assessment
Emission trends of sulphur 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 1990 emission levels and the 2010 emission ceiling 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 2010.
Significant progress in reducing SOX emissions has been made by many countries; EEA-32 emissions of SOX have decreased by 76% between 1990 and 2009. Within the EEA-32 group of countries, all have reported lower emissions in 2009 compared to 1990 except Luxembourg (almost 20 times greater), Hungary (around eight times greater) and Iceland (four times greater). The large apparent magnitudes of these increases in Luxembourg, and Hungary are mainly due to the inclusion in 2009 reports of emissions from sectors which were not reported in 1990; for example, only ‘Industrial processes’ emissions are reported in CRF data from Hungary in 1990, and Luxembourg in 1990-2005, whilst in 2009 LRTAP submissions emissions are reported in the majority of sectors in both countries.
The large increase in SOX emissions in Iceland, from 20 kt in 1990 to 80 kt in 2009, is due chiefly to the reported emissions from the ‘Energy production and distribution’ sector rising by 52 kt since 1990. This sector alone now contributes 20% of Iceland’s total emissions in 2009. More specifically, these emissions are mostly comprised of emissions from activities related to fugitive emissions from geothermal energy production, peat and other energy extraction. All of the EU-27 Member States have already reduced their national SOX emissions below the level of the emission ceilings set in the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NECD).
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. All three countries have reported emissions in 2009 that were lower than their respective 2010 Gothenburg Protocol ceilings.
The NECD and Gothenburg protocol are currently being reviewed. The revision of the NECD is part of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, and a proposal for a revised directive is expected by 2013. A proposal for a revised Gothenburg protocol is presently under international negotiation. The revised protocol is expected to include emission ceilings to be met by 2020 for the four already regulated substances (NOX, NMVOCs, SOX and NH3) and in addition for primary emissions of PM2.5.
Substantial SOX emission reductions have been made across a number of sectors including: ‘Road transport’ (a 98% reduction between 1990 and 2009), ‘Energy use in industry' (80%), 'Commercial, institutional and households ' (76%) and 'Waste' (72).
The ‘Energy production and distribution ' sector (encompassing activities such as power and heat generation) is responsible for the largest reduction in absolute terms of emissions, contributing more than 53% of the total reduction in SOX emissions reported by countries. Nevertheless, despite this significant reduction, this single sector remains the most significant source of SOX in the EEA-32 region, contributing 70% of total SOX emissions. Across Europe there is also an increasing awareness of the contribution made to SOX pollutant emissions by national and international ship traffic, and especially the health effects of such emissions whilst at berth (a more detailed discussion of this issue is contained in the TERM indicator fact sheet TERM03 - Transport emissions of air pollutants). From 1st January 2010 all ships using fuel at berth in EU ports for significant periods were required to use exclusively low-sulphur fuel (0.1%), and from 1st July 2010, within SECAs (Sulphur Emission Control Areas) defined in the North Sea, English Channel and Baltic Sea, all ships were required to use fuel with sulphur content not exceeding 1.0%. A reduction in reported SOX emissions may therefore be expected for years from 2010, and further reductions in later years as additional legislation comes into force.
A combination of measures has led to the reductions in SOX emissions. This includes fuel-switching from high-sulphur solid (e.g. coal) and liquid (e.g. heavy fuel oil) fuels to low sulphur fuels (such as natural gas) for power and heat production purposes within the energy, industry and domestic sectors, improvements in energy efficiency, and the installation of flue gas desulphurisation equipment in new and existing industrial facilities. The implementation of several directives within the EU limiting the sulphur content of fuel quality has also contributed to the decrease.
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 significantly to high levels of sulphur emissions (e.g. heavy industry) and the closure of older inefficient power plants.
ktonnes (1000 tonnes)
A number of policies have been implemented within Europe that either directly or indirectly act to reduce emissions of SO2. These include:
Emissions of SO2 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 Member States 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 SO2 ceilings under the NEC Directive and the Gothenburg Protocol (kt)
Country |
2010 NECD |
2010 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
2020 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
Austria | 39 | 39 | 62 |
Belgium | 99 | 106 | 70 |
Bulgaria | 836 | 856 | 58 |
Cyprus | 39 | N/A | 5 |
Czech Republic | 265 | 283 | 76 |
Denmark | 55 | 55 | 63 |
Estonia | 100 | N/A | 10 |
Finland | 110 | 116 | 31 |
France | 375 | 400 | 635 |
Germany | 520 | 550 | 544 |
Greece | 523 | 546 | 63 |
Hungary | 500 | 550 | 72 |
Iceland* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Ireland | 42 | 42 | 108 |
Italy | 475 | 500 | 395 |
Latvia | 101 | 107 | 16 |
Liechtenstein | N/A | 0.11 | N/A |
Lithuania | 145 | 145 | 35 |
Luxembourg | 4 | 4 | 5 |
Malta | 9 | N/A | 2 |
Netherlands | 50 | 50 | 123 |
Norway | N/A | 22 | 21 |
Poland | 1397 | 1397 | 267 |
Portugal | 160 | 170 | 47 |
Romania | 918 | 918 | 173 |
Slovakia | 110 | 110 | 25 |
Slovenia | 27 | 27 | 18 |
Spain | 746 | 774 | 354 |
Switzerland | N/A | 26 | 59 |
Sweden | 67 | 67 | 47 |
Turkey* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United Kingdom | 585 | 625 | 282 |
* Iceland and Turkey do not have a ceiling under either the NEC Directive or the Gothenburg protocol.
This indicator is based on officially reported national total and sectoral emissions to the EEA and 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 is 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).
The use of gap-filling when countries have not reported emissions for one or 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.
SO2 emission estimates in Europe are thought to have an uncertainty of about ±10% as the sulphur comes from the fuel burnt and therefore can be accurately estimated. However, because of the need for interpolation to account for missing data, the complete dataset used will have higher uncertainty. EMEP has compared modelled and measured concentrations throughout Europe (EMEP 2010). From these studies, differences in the annual averages have been estimated to be ±30%, which is consistent with an inventory uncertainty of ±10% (there are also uncertainties in the measurements and especially the modelling). The trend is likely to be much more accurate than individual absolute values
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 data sets are therefore of importance. Any uncertainties involved in the calculation and in the data sets 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-sulphur-dioxide-so2-emissions-1/assessment-1 or scan the QR code.
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