Review of inventories submitted under the National Emission Ceilings Directive

The Challenge

“Air pollution is causing damage to human health and ecosystems. Large parts of the population do not live in a healthy environment, according to current standards. To get on to a sustainable path, Europe will have to be ambitious and go beyond current legislation” (Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director).

Whilst there are many different air pollutants, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone are recognised as the pollutants that currently have the most significant impacts on human health and ecosystems. Air pollution can be transported across large distances, meaning that the effects can range from local to European and even up to the hemispheric scale. As a result, tackling air pollution issues requires joined-up approaches across countries.

Within the EU there are several approaches being taken to control emissions of air pollutants. Long-term objectives are in place to reduce the exposure to air pollution and improve air quality. The EU’s NEC Directive establishes emission reduction commitments for each Member State. To demonstrate progress towards their commitments they are required to report their historical emissions and adopt National Air Pollution Control Plans (NAPCPs). To ensure that their emission estimates are accurate, they are subject to a detailed technical review each year.

The Solution

The annual reviews of the emissions data submitted by Member States involve technical experts checking the quality of the estimates and in particular the accuracy. The reviews are designed to be constructive and to support Member States in making improvements to their emission estimates. The outcome of the reviews is primarily to provide recommendations to Member State technical experts on how priority improvements can be undertaken. Any more serious quality issues found result in improvements being undertaken during the course of the review.

Aether staff have been involved in reviewing national emission inventories for more than 20 years, and we regularly provide several staff for key roles in the NEC Directive reviews. As well as providing technical experts, Aether plays a leading role in  the process of the review. This includes project planning and management, the development of review processes and tools, carrying out technical checks on the inventory data, leading on quality checking, and creating the review reports for Member States.

In recent years, the annual reviews have been of fundamental importance in driving improvements in the quality of the national emission estimates and ensuring that all Member States are working towards a submission that meets defined quality standards.

The Result

Emission inventories are a fundamentally important tool for policy formation. They indicate the current priorities in terms of pollutant emissions and are the basis for making estimates of how emissions will change in future years. They are also used by Member States to formally demonstrate compliance with their commitments under the NEC Directive. It is important that the quality of the emission estimates is understood, and that the estimates are demonstrated to be of sufficient quality. Aether will be involved with the reviews for 2020 to 2023, helping to improve the quality of Member State submissions.

It is only with sufficiently reliable emission inventories that Member States and the European Commission can undertake the formation of new air quality policies and review the progress of existing policies.

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