Brussels, 08/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Environment Bureau (EEB), a federation of over 145 environmental NGOs, has welcomed the proposed directive on industrial emissions published by the Commission at the end of 2007. The new directive would further reduce these emissions and bring together seven existing directives in one single text (see EUROPE 9571). The EEB sees this overhaul of Community legislation as a targeted attempt to address gaps in the current directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (directive 96/61/EC, the IPPC directive).
The EEB is particularly pleased that, in the proposed text, authorities will be required to justify decisions that set permit conditions for emission limit values which do not reflect Best Available Techniques (i.e. the most effective techniques for achieving the highest level of environmental protection which taking account of costs and profits). “By limiting the parameters under which installations can apply less effective techniques and demanding public justifications for such applications, authorities will be able to crack down on installations emitting high levels of pollutants,” said Catherine Ganzleben of EEB. The NGO says the proposal will also help address the need to amend emission limits under the sectoral directives.
“Under the current scenario in which IPPC is not being properly implemented, the objectives of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution are not being met. The Commission has now recognised that reversing this trend requires strict, legally binding emission limit values, especially for large combustion plants,” commented Lesley James, Friends of the Earth acid rain campaigner.
The EEB welcomes the fact that the recast IPPC directive does not include a proposal for emissions trading of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, but warns that the issue is not completely dead. The EEB opposes “any scheme that would lead to trading of local pollutants that damage human health and the environment”, and so is concerned that the Commission has indicated its intention to work on EU rules for an emissions trading scheme for these two types of pollutants.
The European Commission proposal will replace the following texts: directive 78/176/EEC on waste from the titanium dioxide industry, directive 82/883/EEC on procedures for the surveillance and monitoring of environments concerned by waste from the titanium dioxide industry, directive 92/112/EEC on procedures for harmonizing the programmes for the reduction and eventual elimination of pollution caused by waste from the titanium dioxide industry, the IPPC directive, directive 1999/13/EC on the limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain activities and installations, directive 2000/76/EC on the incineration of waste, and directive 2001/80/EC on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants. (A.N.)