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Indicator Specification
The agriculture sector is responsible for over 90% of NH3 emissions across the EEA-32. NH3 contributes to acid deposition and eutrophication, which in turn, can lead to potential changes occurring in soil and water quality. The subsequent impacts of acid deposition can be significant, including adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems in rivers and lakes, and damage to forests, crops and other vegetation. Eutrophication can lead to severe reductions in water quality with subsequent impacts including decreased biodiversity, changes in species composition and dominance, and toxicity effects. In many cases, the deposition of acidifying and eutrophying substances still exceeds the critical loads of the ecosystems (see EEA indicator CSI 005 'Exposure of ecosystems to acidification, eutrophication and ozone'). Further details concerning emissions of acidifying pollutants are provided in the EEA Core Set Indicator CSI 001 'Emissions of acidifying substances'.
As a secondary particulate precursor, NH3 also contributes to the formation of particulate aerosols in the atmosphere. Particulate matter is an important air pollutant due to its adverse impact on human health and NH3 is therefore also indirectly linked to effects on human health (see EEA Core Set Indicator CSI 003 'Emissions of primary particles and secondary particulate precursors' for further details concerning emissions of particulate matter.
ktonnes (1000 tonnes)
A number of policies have been implemented within Europe that either directly or indirectly act to reduce emissions of NH3. These include:
Apart from the NECD and Gothenburg Protocol and the IPPC Directive, there is currently no other EU legislation proposed or in force specifically aimed at reducing ammonia emissions. However, several regulatory instruments have influenced EU emissions of ammonia from the agriculture sector since 1990, such as:
These measures have had the indirect effect of changing agricultural practices across the EU, and have, for instance, led to a reduced use of nitrogenous fertilisers and to an overall decrease in cattle numbers, both of which affect the levels of ammonia emissions. The reforms of CAP, and specifically the removal of the link between farm production and payments, has also resulted in reduced livestock numbers across the EU-15 and hence also will have indirectly contributed to the decrease in ammonia emissions observed.
Emissions of NH3 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 NH3 ceilings under the NEC Directive and the Gothenburg Protocol (kt)
Country |
2010 NECD |
2010 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
2020 CLRTAP Gothenburg Protocol ceilings |
Austria | 66 | 66 | 62 |
Belgium | 74 | 74 | 70 |
Bulgaria | 108 | 108 | 56 |
Cyprus | 9 | N/A | 5 |
Czech Republic | 80 | 101 | 64 |
Denmark | 69 | 69 | 63 |
Estonia | 29 | N/A | 10 |
Finland | 31 | 31 | 31 |
France | 780 | 780 | 634 |
Germany | 550 | 550 | 545 |
Greece | 73 | 73 | 63 |
Hungary | 90 | 90 | 72 |
Iceland* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Ireland | 116 | 116 | 108 |
Italy | 419 | 419 | 395 |
Latvia | 44 | 44 | 15 |
Liechtenstein | N/A | 0.15 | N/A |
Lithuania | 84 | 84 | 35 |
Luxembourg | 7 | 7 | 5 |
Malta | 3 | N/A | 2 |
Netherlands | 128 | 128 | 122 |
Norway | N/A | 23 | 21 |
Poland | 468 | 468 | 267 |
Portugal | 90 | 108 | 47 |
Romania | 210 | 210 | 173 |
Slovakia | 39 | 39 | 24 |
Slovenia | 20 | 20 | 17 |
Spain | 353 | 353 | 357 |
Switzerland | N/A | 63 | 59 |
Sweden | 57 | 57 | 47 |
Turkey* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United Kingdom | 297 | 297 | 283 |
* 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 EEA and UNECE/EMEP (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/Cooperative 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 the 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, is 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 are not yet complete and are 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).
NH3 emission estimates in Europe are more uncertain than those for NOX, SO2 and NMVOCs due largely to the diverse nature of major agricultural sources. It is estimated that they are around ±30% (EMEP, 2009). 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 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.
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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea-32-ammonia-nh3-emissions-1 or scan the QR code.
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