EMISSIONS CEILINGS FOR CERTAIN ATMOSPHERIC
POLLUTANTS
(20359)
10232/99
COM(99)125
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Draft Council Directive on national emission ceilings for atmospheric pollutants; and
Draft Council Directive relating to ozone in ambient air.
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| Legal base: |
Article 175(1) EC; co-decision; qualified majority voting
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| Document originated:
| 9 June 1999 |
| Forwarded to the Council:
| 14 July 1999 |
| Deposited in Parliament:
| 30 July 1999 |
| Department: |
Environment, Transport and the Regions
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| Basis of consideration:
| EM of 30 September 1999
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| Previous Committee Report:
| None |
| To be discussed in Council:
| No date set |
| Committee's assessment:
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision:
| Not cleared; further information needed
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Background
5.1 As a result of atmospheric pollution,
the Community faces three main, and inter-related, environmental
problems. These are:
- acidification, which
can have adverse effects on fish populations, forests, drinking
water supplies, and buildings, both close to the source of pollution
and more widely (including across national borders);
- eutrophication, where
the deposition of nitrogen compounds from the atmosphere leads
to changes in land ecosystems, to the detriment of the significant
number of plants species which prefer nitrogen-poor soils;
- increases in tropospheric ozone (produced
and trapped in air near the Earth's surface), arising from secondary
pollution caused by the reaction of pollutant precursors in the
presence of sunlight: this can affect human health, produce a
range of effects on individual crop and tree species, and add
to the greenhouse warming potential of other gases.
5.2 The main sources of these problems are
sulphur dioxide (SO2),
which arises predominantly from coal and oil combustion, and especially
from power plants; nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are also related
to the combustion of fossil fuels, but with transport as the major
source; volatile organic compounds (VOC), which derive from fuel
combustion in transport, gas evaporation during loading/unloading
of petrol, industrial processes, and the use of products containing
organic solvents; and ammonia (NH3),
which arises almost exclusively from agricultural activity, particularly
animal husbandry.
5.3 The Community has sought to address
these problems by a range of measures. At a strategic level, the
Fifth Environmental Action Programme sets the general and long-term
objectives that there should be no exceedance of critical loads[28]
(for acidification) and critical levels[29]
(for ozone), and that everyone should be effectively protected
against recognised health risks, with World Health Organisation
(WHO) values becoming mandatory at Community level. Subsequently,
the Commission's acidification strategy envisaged:
- the setting of national emission ceilings;
- ratification by the Community of the 1994 Protocol
on sulphur emissions under the UNECE[30]
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP);
- limiting the sulphur content of certain liquid
fuels (including setting a maximum limit in heavy fuel oil);
- revising the existing legislation on large combustion
plants; and
- designating the North Sea and Baltic Sea as sulphur
dioxide emission control areas under the Convention for the Prevention
of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).
5.4 Up to now, similar strategies have not
been developed for either ozone or eutrophication. However, the
Commission points out that, in the former case, measures have
already been taken in other contexts to drive down precursor emissions
over the next decade, whilst it has also been possible both to
demonstrate the benefits for soil eutrophication of reducing acidification
and tropospheric ozone, and to make important progress on this
latter issue.
5.5 Nevertheless, despite the steps which
have been taken, and the improvements in air quality and environmental
protection which these are expected to produce by 2010, the Commission
says that the Community will continue to be exposed to the problems
of acidification, tropospheric ozone and eutrophication, and will
not achieve the goals set out in the Fifth Environmental Action
Programme. It therefore concludes that further measures are needed,
and these are set out in the current document. This would involve
an integrated strategy for setting emission ceilings for the various
atmospheric pollutants mentioned in paragraph 5.2, and, as a separate
but related measure, the setting of environmental quality standards
for the concentration of ozone in ambient air.
— The integrated strategy
5.6 The Commission says that an integrated
strategy is needed because the problems which arise are inter-related,
and because such an approach would exploit "the potential
synergies in tackling multiple objectives simultaneously in a
co-ordinated, balanced and cost-effective manner". It has
therefore carried out a combined analysis which aimed to optimise
the results of its earlier studies (which had looked at separate
approaches related only to acidification or to combatting tropospheric
ozone). The Commission adds that eutrophication objectives were
not introduced, but that it was possible to demonstrate the consequential
benefits in that area of reducing acidification and tropospheric
ozone levels.
5.7 So far as acidification is concerned,
the Commission says that critical loads vary greatly according
to such factors as soil and bedrock differences and alkaline depositions,
whilst for eutrophication they reflect the level of nitrogen deposition
at which vegetation changes take place. The proposed emission
ceilings are then derived from a series of complex computer models
which integrate the available data, including the potential cost
of abatement measures in each Member State. In the case of critical
levels for ozone, the Commission has relied on WHO guidelines.
That for human health sets a mean level of 120mg/m3
over an 8 hour period (though the Commission points out that this
is not strictly a critical level, since it does not include a
margin of safety, and is based upon acceptance of a certain —
albeit small — amount of risk to the general population).
In the case of vegetation, the WHO has adopted a number of critical
levels which represent the accumulation above a threshold of 40ppb
(80mg/m3),
calculated by adding together the excess concentrations of every
single 1 hour ozone value above that threshold during daylight
hours and over a certain period. These critical values are known
as Accumulation Over Threshold of 40 ppb (AOT40), and vary according
to vegetation type.
5.8 The Commission goes on to say that its
analyses have in common (i) the use of estimated 1990 emissions
as the baseline for subsequent reductions; (ii) emission projections
on a "business as usual" scenario, incorporating all
existing Community legislation (or that proposed to the end of
1998)[31];
(iii) a scenario for 2010, under which all available or proven
technical measures to reduce emissions are assumed to be taken;
and (iv) intermediate scenarios for 2010, which explore cost-effective
allocations of emission reductions across the Member States in
order to meet various environmental quality objectives.
5.9 It points out that the reference scenario
would have an "important influence" in driving down
emissions, so that between 1990 and 2010, those for SO2
are expected to fall by 71%, those for NOx by 48%, those for VOC
by 49%, and those for NH3
by 12%. However, it says that these measures will still not be
enough to meet the "no adverse effects" aim over the
next decade. It also makes the important point that, if the environmental
benefits at a Community level are to be maximised for a given
level of costs, there must be a differentiation of Member State
emission levels, consistent with the polluter-pays principle,
since the alternative of obliging all Member States to apply an
equally high level of effort would in many cases have little environmental
benefit. On this basis, the Commission concludes that acidification
objectives dominate at the German/Dutch border, in eastern Germany,
in Ireland, and to a limited extent in Spain; that health-related
ozone objectives dominate in the UK, France, the Benelux countries,
Portugal, and some parts of Germany; and that ozone objectives
related to vegetation protection pose the greatest challenge in
the Mediterranean countries.
5.10 In translating these aims into Community
action, the Commission says that the general long-term objective
of no exceedances of critical loads and levels, though accepted
by Member States in principle, is in practice unattainable in
the medium term. It therefore envisages a number of interim objectives,
which it suggests are "clearly needed if quantified and time
limited commitments are to be adopted for acidification and ozone".
It has accordingly proposed national emission ceilings (in thousand
tonnes), aimed at reducing by 2010 the area unprotected from acidification
by at least 50% as compared with 1990. Those proposed are shown
below, along with the Commission's associated cost estimates (in
million euro):
| |
SO2
| NOx |
VOC | NH3
| Costs |
| Austria | 40
| 91 |
129 | 67
| 119 |
| Belgium | 76
| 127 |
102 | 57
| 1053 |
| Denmark | 77
| 127 |
85 | 71
| 5 |
| Finland | 116
| 152 |
110 | 31
| 0 |
| France | 218
| 679 |
932 | 718
| 916 |
| Germany | 463
| 1051 |
924 | 413
| 2146 |
| Greece | 546
| 264 |
173 | 74
| 338 |
| Ireland | 28
| 59 |
55 | 123
| 44 |
| Italy | 566
| 869 |
962 | 430
| 403 |
| Luxembourg | 3
| 8 |
6 | 7
| 5 |
| Netherlands | 50
| 238 |
156 | 104
| 971 |
| Portugal | 141
| 144 |
102 | 67
| 57 |
| Spain | 746
| 781 |
662 | 353
| 22 |
| Sweden | 67
| 152 |
219 | 48
| 87 |
| UK | 497
| 1181 |
964 | 264
| 1348 |
| EC15 | 3634
| 5923 |
5581 | 2827
| 7514 |
The UK would thus account for 13.6% of the Community-wide
reduction in SO2
emissions, whilst the corresponding figures for NOx, VOC and NH3
would be 20%, 17% and 9% respectively. Its share of the cost would
be 18%, second only to that of Germany. However, the Commission
points out that, for all Member States, the calculations do not
consider possible changes in energy supply or other structural
measures, and thus probably present an upper estimate.
5.11 According to the Government, the proposed
UK ceilings for 2010 would compare with its 1990 baseline, and
the "business as usual" scenario for 2010, as follows
(in kilotonnes):
| | 1990 baseline
| 2010 (projected) | 2010 (proposed)
|
| SO2 | 3805 |
980 | 497
|
| NOx | 2839 |
1186 | 1181
|
| VOC | 2667 |
1351 | 964
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| NH3 | 329 |
297 | 264
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This suggests that the main focus of attention in
the UK would need to be emissions of SO2
and VOC.
5.12 Member States would be required to
draw up programmes for the progressive reduction of their annual
limits, and to provide by the end of 2002 information which will
enable the Commission to assess progress. If necessary, the programmes
would be revised in 2006. The Commission in turn would have to
report at four yearly intervals to the Council and European Parliament.
5.13 It says that compliance with the proposal
would produce the following overall improvements for the Community:
- a reduction in the total load of acidifying deposition
in excess of critical loads from about 24,000 million acid equivalents
in 1990 to about 600 million in 2010, with a corresponding reduction
in the ecosystem area exposed to further acidification from 37
million hectares to 4.3 million hectares;
- a reduction in the number of days with ozone
concentrations above the WHO's health guidelines from more than
60 days in the worst affected areas in 1990 to about 20 days in
2010;
- a reduction of more than 50% in the exposure
of vegetation to damaging ozone levels;
- a reduction of about 30% in the Community ecosystem
area exposed to further eutrophication; and
- a reduction for the Community as a whole of 78%
for SO2 emissions,
55% for NOx, 60% for VOC, and 21% for NH3.
— Ozone in ambient air
5.14 The Commission says that, in its efforts
to develop a Community strategy to combat tropospheric ozone,
it has taken into account such considerations as the predicted
evolution in precursor substances (NOx and VOC), the transboundary
nature of the problem, the potential impact of measures from outside
the Community, and the impact on acidification and eutrophication.
It says that it has concluded that, in addition to the national
emission ceilings for NOx and VOC needed to achieve the interim
objectives already mentioned, an effective strategy should include
a further "daughter" directive under Directive 96/62/EC
(which establishes a framework under which the Community will
agree air quality limit or target values[32]
designed to reduce the harmful effects of specified pollutants).
5.15 The Commission also says that such
a strategy should include interim and long-term objectives. For
human health, the latter would require that the 120mg/m3
limit, taken as an 8 hour mean, should not be exceeded within
a calendar year, whilst for vegetation the maximum AOT40 level
would be 6000mg/m3.h.
5.16 The interim objectives would move towards
these goals by defining as target levels improvements in ozone
levels everywhere in relation to the base year ("gap closure"),
and which improve the situation in areas with the largest pollution
load by establishing a uniform concentration level (the "absolute"
target), taking into account feasibility and cost. In the case
of human health, the aim is that the 120mg/m3
limit would by 2010 be exceeded on no more than 20 days a year,
implying a minimum gap closure of between 60% and 70% in relation
to the current WHO guideline. For vegetation, the permitted AOT40
by 2010 would be 17000mg/m3.h
averaged over 5 years, representing a gap closure of 30-35%. Member
States would need to identify the regions or zones where target
values were not being met, draw up plans demonstrating how they
intended to achieve these values within the required time period,
and inform the Commission accordingly. In addition to target values,
the proposal would set alert and information thresholds of 240mg/m3
and 180mg/m3
respectively.
The Government's view
5.17 In the first part of his Explanatory
Memorandum of 30 September 1999, the Minister for the Environment
(Mr Meacher) deals with the proposed national emission ceilings.
He says that the Government was concerned that the very high cost
of the emission ceilings in the acidification strategy would imply
an unacceptable economic burden for some Member States, but considers
that improvements to the underlying data have now reduced this
without significantly compromising the environmental gains. Nevertheless,
he suggests that the targets remain "challenging" for
some pollutants.
5.18 He goes on to say that the Government
is refining its views on appropriate ceilings for the UK, and
will take into consideration the views of interested parties.
He points out that it would be for Member States to decide how
to make the emission reductions to which they were committed,
and that the precise measures necessary will be clearer when the
ceilings are finalised. Subject to that, he believes that the
most cost-effective reductions which the UK might make include
for sulphur dioxide either fuel switching (from coal to
gas, or from high to low sulphur fuel oil); for VOCs, measures
over and above the Solvents Directive and the Auto Oil programme,
might include vapour controls and recovery, and extending the
use of low-solvent or water-borne paints; and for ammonia,
a new range of measures affecting animal husbandry and the handling
of animal waste (though he adds that the efficacy of such steps
has yet to be proven, and that the proposed ceiling might be unachievable).
In the case of nitrogen oxides, the Minister considers
that, because of the substantial reductions in emissions already
in prospect under existing agreements such as the Auto Oil programme
and the Integrated Pollution Control régime, the proposed
ceiling should not involve significant further reductions.
5.19 The Minister also refers to the negotiations
which have recently been completed on a parallel proposal under
the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution
(CLRTAP), which he says covers the same four pollutants and addresses
broadly the same environmental effects as this one. The main differences
are that the UNECE region covers not just the Community, but east
European countries (including Russia) and North America, and that
the model used to generate its proposed ceilings explicitly included
eutrophication.
5.20 As regards the Commission's estimates
of the annual cost of attaining the proposed ceilings, the Minister
points out that the overall figure for the UK of 1348 million
euro (£944 million) in paragraph 5.10 can be broken down
between the different pollutants, with 299 million euro attributable
to SO2, 1026
million euro to NOx and VOC, and 23 million euro to NH3.
He adds that a detailed assessment of these costs will be presented
in a Regulatory Impact Assessment. However, he also makes the
point that, while the Commission analysis shows that the benefits
would exceed the costs for the Community as a whole, many of the
environmental benefits are not assigned a monetary value, whilst
the majority of benefits were attributed to human health, where
the valuation methods used were contrary to those accepted by
the UK.
5.21 The second part of the Minister's Explanatory
Memorandum deals with the proposed directive on ozone. He says
that the Government expects the national emission ceilings Directive
to be the principal means by which the targets in the proposed
ozone Directive will be achieved, and that the latter measure
will not therefore impose any direct requirements on industry.
However, he adds that it will entail additional monitoring, and
may require further local implementation and enforcement measures,
which will be considered as part of a Regulatory and Environmental
Impact Assessment. In the meantime, he points out that the UK
National Air Quality Strategy currently sets a considerably more
stringent objective for ozone than the target value in the proposed
directive, but that the opposite would be the case in the longer
term.
Conclusion
5.22 This is clearly a substantial proposal,
which we will wish to consider further when we have received the
Regulatory Impact Assessments promised by the Minister, but which
we think it sensible to outline to the House at this stage. In
the meantime, there are two questions on which we would welcome
the Minister's advice when he provides his Supplementary Explanatory
Memorandum. First, we would like to know not only whether the
costs of the measure outweigh the expected benefits, but also
whether the share of the overall Community cost which the UK would
be required to bear is, in the Government's view, reasonable,
having regard to the problems which have been identified and the
solutions proposed. Secondly, the national emission ceilings in
this proposal appear to be substantially lower than those envisaged
under the UNECE. Since these have ostensibly been set using the
same mathematical model, we would be interested to know to know
whether this difference has arisen for any reasons other than
those noted in paragraph 5.19 above; whether the differences,
in terms of environmental impact and cost of compliance, are significant;
and, to the extent they are, which of the two approaches is to
be preferred.
28 "Critical load" means a quantitative
estimate of an exposure to one or more pollutants below which
significant harmful effects on specified elements of the environment
do not occur, according to present knowledge. Back
29
"Critical level" means the concentration of pollutants
in the atmosphere above which direct adverse effects on receptors,
such as human beings, plants, ecosystems or materials, may occur,
according to present knowledge. Back
30 United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Back
31 In
addition to the steps set out in paragraph 5.3 above, these measures
include Directive 70/220/EEC on emissions from passenger cars
and light commercial vehicles (as last amended by Directive 98/69/EC),
Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention
and control, Directive 98/20/EC on the quality of petrol and diesel
fuels, and Directive 99/13/EC on the limitation of emissions
of volatile organic compounds. Back
32 These
are defined as air quality objectives to be attained as far as
possible within a given period. Back
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