More EU Member States to miss 2010 air pollutant limits

The NEC Directive requires all Member States to annually report information concerning emissions and projections for four main air pollutants: sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and ammonia (NH₃). These pollutants harm both human health and the environment by contributing to formation of ozone and particulate matter and leading to acidification and eutrophication.  The NEC Directive sets pollutant-specific and legally-binding emission ceilings (limits) for each country to be met by 2010.

As was noted last year, the emission ceiling for NO_x remains the most difficult for many MS to meet. Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom now indicate that they will not reach their NO_x ceilings by 2010 on the basis of policy measures they have put in place to date. This means that 13 out of 27 Member States anticipate missing their NO_x ceilings -unless they take further measures to reduce emissions.

Five Member States (Denmark, France, Portugal, Spain and now also Poland) indicate they will miss their respective NMVOC ceilings; two countries their NH₃ ceilings (Germany and Spain) and one, the Netherlands, its SO₂ ceiling.

Overall, 15 countries have now indicated they will miss at least one of the four emission ceilings. It is however noted that several Member States (Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands) reported data indicating that, by implementing additional measures, they could still reach their 2010 emissions ceilings. In addition, by 2010 a number of countries will have successfully reduced emissions of certain pollutants significantly beyond the levels required by the NEC Directive ceilings i.e. they will have over achieved compared to their original commitments for these pollutants.

The data reported in 2007 includes for the first time data for the two new Member States, Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. Both anticipate meeting their emission ceilings for all four pollutants.

Overview of WM projections as reported by the EU-27 Member States in 2007

(A ‘√’ indicates that the Member State anticipates meeting or exceeding its respective emission ceiling, while ‘x’ indicates that a ceiling will not be met without introduction of future measures to reduce emissions)

N.b:        Luxembourg has not provided NECD projections. As no projections data were submitted by Hungary in the 2007 reporting round, use was made of NEC Directive projections reported in earlier years.

Notes:

• An EEA technical report will be published later in 2008 following country-consultation and will contain a full assessment of the NEC Directive data reported by Member States in the 2007 reporting round. Last year’s report, which documents the data reported in 2006, is available here: ‘EEA Technical report No 15/2007: NEC Directive status report 2006’.
• Emission ceilings are compared against reported ‘with measures’ (WM) projections. WM projections take into account currently implemented and adopted policies and measures. Where countries have instead reported only 'business as usual' (BAU) projections, it is assumed for comparison against the ceilings that these are equivalent to a WM projection.
• The reported projections data used for this preliminary analysis are available here: NEC Status preliminary results 2008 data