Chapter News

EU Commissioner Sinkevicius’ statement on Industrial emissions

Good afternoon to you all,

We have a vision of a better Europe in 2050, where pollution is brought down to levels no longer harmful to human health. We have defined it in the Zero Pollution Action Plan, which is part of the European Green Deal. When we adopted this action plan last year it was widely welcomed, but people wondered how it will work in practice. Today we’re showing what it means, with a significant strengthening of the rules that cover Industrial Emissions. The current framework is already a success. In just ten years, it’s lowered industrial emissions to air by between 40 and 85%, depending on the pollutant.

But the figures are still too high.

Large industrial plants and large livestock farms are responsible for more than half of total emissions of sulphur oxides and heavy metals, around 40% of greenhouse gases, and some 30% of nitrogen oxides and particulates. And the World Health Organisation is stressing that air pollution is a silent killer, causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the EU every year. So today, we’re revising the rules. We’ve modernised the Industrial Emissions Directive, substantially raising the level of ambition and its potential to accompany industry in the green transition. The new version takes account of advances inside industry, it has a wider scope, and it gives citizens more detailed information about these emissions.

A few words about each of those themes.

First of all, the modernisation. There are many things I could mention here, but I will single out just a few. When Member States revise permits, they’ll be obliged to use stricter limit values for pollutants. That way we will ensure the direction of travel. Under the previous rules, the requirements for depollution and decarbonisation were independent. The new rules bring them closer together, so that future investments take better account of greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency and water reuse, all at the same time. Large installations will need to draw up Transformation Plans, showing how they propose to adopt techniques for pollution and carbon management between 2030 and 2050. We’re adding a few more flexibilities to the rules, to make it easier for operators to test and deploy emerging technologies.\ And to deal with the pace of innovation inside industry, and make sure EU rules take account of cutting-edge developments, we’re setting up a new Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation & Emissions. That will ensure that news about the best advances really spreads throughout the industries in question.

Secondly, the scope. For the first time, large-scale cattle farming will be covered by these rules, together with more intensive pig and poultry farms. This means that around three-quarters of methane and ammonia emissions from livestock will now be included. As Frans mentioned already, new industries – like gigafactories for battery production, the mineral extraction industry and others – will be covered as well.

The third big change is reinforced rights for citizens. Member States and installation operators will have to make permit summaries publicly available on the internet, at no charge. A new Industrial Emissions Portal will make it easy to compare sites across sectors and Member States in the EU, to check on pollution and performance. And if operators fail to meet their obligations, citizens get better access to legal redress and compensation.

To conclude, these changes are indeed major, but we do this for good reason. The actions for livestock farms alone should bring benefits to human health in the region of €5.5 billion every year. Moreover, these changes will create more jobs, as the EU’s eco-innovation sector has shown in the past. And of course, these rules are designed to make our economy more efficient and more sustainable. That’s the spirit of the Green Deal, and that spirit is strong in the revised Directive.

Thank you.

Compliments of the European Commission.