EU mulls more sectors in industrial emissions law

The EU's industrial emissions directive (IED) has reduced pollutant emissions but made only a "limited" contribution to decarbonisation, the European Commission said. The commission is considering including new sectors under the IED in 2021.

The commission has suggested that it might be "advantageous" to include in the IED cattle farms, mixed farms, extractive industries, aquaculture and installations in current sectors just below the existing thresholds.

The IED currently regulates 20pc of pollutant emissions by mass to air from around 52,000 of the EU's largest installations including power plants, refineries, metals production and cement as well as intensive rearing of pigs and poultry.

IED sectors account for 40pc of total EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with around 90pc of installations also regulated under the EU emissions trading system (ETS). IED permits do not include a CO2 emission limit value. And the 10pc of GHG emissions by IED plants that are not covered by the EU ETS represent around 4pc of total EU GHG emissions.

The commission evaluated the directive as "substantially" reducing pollutant emissions to air but the IED has not contributed "greatly" to decarbonisation, even if the commission sees divergent views on whether or not that should be a relevant goal.

The analysis points to damage costs of all IED installations' emissions to air declining by around 50pc between 2010 and 2017.

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