{"id":104504,"date":"2021-06-17T19:14:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T17:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=104504"},"modified":"2021-06-23T20:29:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T18:29:26","slug":"green-deal-commission-needs-to-walk-the-zero-pollution-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/green-deal-commission-needs-to-walk-the-zero-pollution-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Green Deal Commission\u2019 needs to walk the \u2018zero pollution\u2019 talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air pollution prevention from chemical industries may enter into a deregulation mayhem under the EU Commission proposal for WGC BREF. Polluters-complacent countries would be rewarded with further relaxation regimes<\/b> for the chemical sector.<\/b><\/h4>\n

Today, a technical expert group composed of representatives from EU institutions, NGOs and industry, is discussing the European Commission’s proposal for the new Best Available Techniques (BAT) set for Common Management and Treatment Systems in the Chemical Sector (in short \u2018<\/span>WGC BREF\u2019<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are BREFs about?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u2018Best Available Techniques Reference Documents\u2019 (BREFs) are industry-specific documents which define the most effective techniques that industry can employ to minimise the impact of its activities \u2013 the so called \u2018Best Available Techniques\u2019, or BATs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe \u2018Best Available Techniques\u2019 conclusions<\/span>\u00a0included in the BREFs are used as a reference to set permit conditions, including the emission limits industrial installations must respect to comply with the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), the EU law that aims to prevent and control the industry environmental impact.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe drafting of BREFs is coordinated by the European Commission in consultation with representatives from member states, industry and environmental protection groups.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/pre>\n
\u00a0<\/span>A clash is likely to escalate between two blocks about setting possible \u2018<\/span>mass flow thresholds<\/span><\/b>\u2019 for certain pollutants, including pollutants called CMRs, below which no BAT emission levels (BAT-AELs) would apply, meaning that the member states permit writers would not have to set emission limits, with full support from the EU Commission.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>nterim<\/span>\u00a0proposal<\/span>\u00a0of the\u00a0European Commission<\/span>\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0not only<\/span>\u00a0a gift\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>chemical<\/span>\u00a0plants<\/span>\u00a0operators, but\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0<\/span>an assault to current\u00a0<\/span>per<\/span>mitting systems of national and regional authorities across Europe<\/span>. Exempting 80% and 93% of stacks <\/em>from the BAT requirements on respectively volatile organic compounds and particulate matter controls, <\/span>it would mean<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a major deregulati<\/span>on of the sector<\/span>\u201d<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>warns\u00a0<\/span>Aliki\u00a0<\/span>Kriekouki<\/span><\/strong>,<\/strong> lead on the WGC BREF discussions for the EEB.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The concept of \u2018mass flow threshold\u2019 for\u00a0<\/span>channeled<\/span>\u00a0emissions has been strongly advocated by the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and echoed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre based in Seville. Whilst government representatives from\u00a0<\/span><\/span>France, Italy, Spain\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong>and<\/span><\/span>Portugal<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0have so far sided with the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>interests of polluters<\/strong>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the NGOs, represented by the EEB, together with the government representatives of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,\u00a0<\/span>and Sweden have clearly voiced strong opposition to this approach.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cEU standards must play its part for safeguarding air quality and preventing pollution at source. The Commission’s proposed concessions to the chemical industry turns the declared zero -pollution ambition upside down. We\u00a0<\/span>need to get rid\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>mass<\/span>\u00a0flow\u00a0<\/span>thresholds or<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>at least\u00a0<\/span>ensure that the polluting mass flows\u00a0<\/span>of the\u00a0<\/span>raw gas<\/span>es are measured<\/span>\u00a0for verification<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0F<\/span>or<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CMR substances<\/span>, no\u00a0<\/span>threshold<\/span>\u00a0shall apply<\/span>\u201d concluded Christian Schaible<\/strong>, EEB Policy Manager for Industrial Production<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The EEB considers that the current proposal will fail to pass a positive vote, and work towards that end, unless all the following main critical contentious points are adequately addressed:<\/span><\/p>\n
    \n
  1. If at all, the threshold should apply to the raw gas (inlet) level.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. All relevant sources of the production line shall be considered and to be clearly defined.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. No thresholds for the worst type of CMRs (CMR 1A and B) and named CMRs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Data made available make it clearer that the EU Commission proposal will lead to a back rolling of the environmental level playing field to the benefit of the chemical industry, while contradicting the zero-pollution ambition and leaving most emission sources uncontrolled.<\/span><\/p>\n
    Find here<\/a> our analysis based on the provided data, highlighting the breathtaking results from the EU and 7 countries (AT, BE, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL).<\/span><\/p>\n
    The discussions are on-going and will be concluded on 2 July.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
    ENDS<\/p>\n
    ANNEX: <\/strong>Analysis of European Commission proposal for WGC BREF<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Air pollution prevention from chemical industries may enter into a deregulation mayhem under the EU Commission proposal for WGC BREF. Polluters-complacent countries would be rewarded with [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":104513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[191,626,328,52,149],"class_list":["post-104504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industrial-emissions","tag-air-pollution","tag-best-available-techniques","tag-bref","tag-chemicals","tag-industrial-emissions"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/patrick-hendry-6xeDIZgoPaw-unsplash.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Those BAT-Conclusions<\/span><\/a>\u00a0will constitute the binding \u201csafety net\u201d standards for preventing and, where not technically feasible, for reducing air pollution from the EU\u2019s chemical production sites for the next decades. This includes carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic pollutants called \u201cCMRs\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n