Clean air - Danish efforts
From
the Geneva Convention
– to the Gothenburg Protocol and the NEC directive
In 1976 the Nordic environment ministers proposed a European convention on transboundary air pollution, especially with sulphur compounds. After negotiations in ECE, 34 countries and the EC Commission signed the Geneva Convention in 1979. The convention came into force in 1983, and has now been ratified by 47 countries on the European continent plus the US and Canada.
The convention is a framework convention that is supplemented with more specific protocols. So far 8 such protocols have been worked out and signed. Five of them are in force.
Air pollution can be transported across national borders, and it is therefore not always possible for individual countries to regulate the air quality and the deposition of harmful compounds by national regulation. An effective abatement of air pollution requires international collaboration. The Geneva Convention forms the framework of the only forum on the European continent where the common problems in relation to air pollution can be addressed.
The first protocol deals with financing of the technical scientific basis. Within this framework data have been collected, air and precipitation quality have been measured, and model calculations of the atmospheric dispersion have been carried out since 1985. By means of emission prognoses and model calculations it is further possible to evaluate the future pollution and the results of planned regulation. This has played a key role in later negotiations on protocols that aim at regulating emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons, heavy metals and POP.
The culmination of this work is the Gothenburg Protocol, which was signed in 1999. It is both a "multi-pollutant" and a "multi-effect" protocol aiming at reducing acidification, eutrophication and damages from tropospheric ozone. The strategy is a comprehensive effort against transboundary pollution with sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons and ammonia.
Danish emissions and targets for the four compounds in the Gothenburg Protocol
The diagram shows Danish emissions in the reference year 1990 and in 2000. Further are
shown the emission ceilings that Denmark is committed to as signatory to the Gothenburg
Protocol and the adoption of the EU directive on national emission ceilings.
Both within the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and at EU level, work is done to
control transboundary air pollution. For Denmark the results are identical.
(Source: Danish Environmental Protection Agency)
The objectives of the Gothenburg Protocol
The protocol has been negotiated on the basis of model calculations founded in national mapping of critical loads and the costs of reducing emissions. And it puts ceilings for emissions of the four mentioned compounds for each country in 2010.
The protocol operates with fixed targets for improvement of the state of the environment in all the areas comprised. The emission reductions, however, are carried out where it is most cost-effective, i.e. where the benefits to the affected areas are largest, and where actions have so far been taken at least towards emission control and further efforts therefore will be relatively cheap.
When the protocol is fully implemented in 2010 Europe's emissions of sulphur must be reduced by at least 63%, NOx emissions by 41%, VOC emissions by 40% and emissions of ammonia by 17% - all relative to emissions in 1990.
The protocol also sets out strict limit values for emissions from specific sources, e.g. incineration plants, power plants, chemical treatment plants plus cars and lorries. It is required that the best available technology is used in order to keep emissions down. VOC emissions from products like paints and aerosols must also be reduced. Finally, farmers must take specific measures in order to control emissions of ammonia. Guidelines decided in connection with the protocol suggest a series of abatement technologies and economic instruments for the emission reductions in the relevant sectors, including transport.
It is estimated that when the protocol is implemented, European areas suffering from too high acidification levels will be reduced from 93 mill ha in 1990 to 15 mill ha in 2010. Areas suffering from too high a degree of acidification will have fallen from 165 mill ha in 1990 to 108 mill ha.
The number of days with too high ozone levels will be halved. That means that the number of life years lost as a consequence of chronic effects of ozone loads will be about 2.3 mill. lower in 2010 than in 1990. And there will be about 47,500 fewer premature deaths as a result of ozone and particles in the atmosphere. The amount of vegetation that is exposed to too high ozone levels will be reduced by 44% compared to 1990.
The EU directive on national emissions
In parallel with ECE also the EU has taken action to reduce long-range transport of air pollution. The principal objective is the same: a cost-effective comprehensive reduction of impacts of acidifying, eutrophying and ozone forming compounds (SO2, NOx, VOC and NH3). The EU Commission has calculated proposed emission ceilings for each of the 15 EU countries - the socalled NEC (National Emission Ceiling) directive, which was adopted in October 2001.
In spite of a common basis for calculations the results are different, primarily because no account is taken of areas that are sensitive to acidification in Norway, which is not a member of the EU. For Denmark the ceilings for the four compounds are identical.
Consequences for Denmark
Danish emissions of SO2, NOx, VOC and NH3 are already so strictly regulated that the required reductions will be achieved if current legislation and existing environmental goals are fulfilled. For nitrogen oxide, however, the fulfilment will to some extent depend upon electricity export and Denmark's implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
It is also worth noting that even full compliance with the Gothenburg Protocol can only be considered a preliminary goal. It will not be sufficient to fully protect Danish nature and environment.