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MARINE ENVIRONMENT EU strategy proposed for the seas
Call for obligatory energy certification A recently agreed EU directive will require an energy certificate for all buildings that are sold or rented out. The new directive will require each member country to set binding targets for minimum energy efficiency, which shall apply to all new construction. The requirements must also be met when space of more than 1000 sq. metres is renovated. All buildings must, when put up, sold, or rented out, acquire a certificate from an independent expert, testifying to their energy performance and including recommendations for cost-effective improvements. Certificates will be valid for ten years. Systems for energy certification must be in place within three years, with an extension for a further three years for countries lacking qualified and/or accredited experts. The directive also requires regular inspections of boilers and air-conditioning systems above a certain size. A compromise version of the directive from the Council of Ministers was passed by the EU parliament at a second reading on October 10, and final agreement by Council is expected this autumn. According to the Commission as much as 40 per cent of the energy use in the EU takes place in buildings, with domestic space heating accounting for 57 per cent of that total, heating water for 25 per cent, and electrical appliances and lighting for 11 per cent. Concentrations still too high The concentrations of ground-level ozone were again high in Europe this last summer, according to the EEA, the European Environment Agency. Background concentrations appear to be increasing, although peak levels were lower during that period. Under an EU directive of 1992 the member countries are obliged to measure the concentrations of ground-level ozone and report them to the Commission. The directive also contains the proviso that if certain threshold values are exceeded in a country, the public has to be warned or informed. Besides the EU members, ten other countries sent in data in 2002, and altogether 1718 monitoring stations were then considered to be operating in all the reporting countries. During the summer of 2002, the threshold value for warning the public (when the one-hour average exceeds 360 µg/m3) was exceeded in France (at one station), in Italy (one), and Spain (at three stations), all in June. The highest concentration was that recorded at Puertollano in Spain: 391 µg/m3. The threshold value for informing the public (180 µg/m3 as one-hour average) was reported to have been overstepped in eleven of the member countries as well as in six others - with about 33 per cent of the monitoring stations reporting such occurrences. Throughout the five months of monitoring this threshold was passed in France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. The concentrations when it was overstepped were highest in southern France, the Po valley and central Italy. The value was exceeded during four consecutive months in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and in three in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Ten countries - Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Romania - reported no overstepping of the threshold for public information, and this was the sixth consecutive year in which Ireland and Finland could report no exceeding of that limit. It is difficult, with the relatively short series of uniform measurements that is available (they were started in consequence of the directive in 1994) to say anything with certainty about the long-term trends, since the concentrations vary quite a lot from year to year, depending on the weather. The decline in peak concentrations that nevertheless seems to be occurring may be explained by the lowering of the emissions of precursors (nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds) in Europe during the nineties. It seems on the other hand that the average (background) level is increasing, possibly because of incoming transports both of ozone and its precursors from other parts of the northern hemisphere. The present ozone directive is due to be replaced in September 2003 by the third daughter directive to the Air Quality Framework Directive (96/62/EG), when the rules for reporting will be altered. For one thing there will be a new "alert" threshold of 240 µg/m3. This year that threshold was passed in 7 per cent of the cases where overstepping of the public information threshold was reported. Henceforth, whenever the alert threshold is passed, governments will have to set going plans for achieving an immediate reduction of concentrations "where feasible." Per Elvingson Air Pollution by Ozone in Europe in Summer 2002. Published by EEA, available at http://reports.eea.eu.int/topic_report_2002_6 Attaining ceilings At the end of September Finland made known its program for meeting the requirements of the EU directive on national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants.1 This directive, which was adopted last year, is the most important for improving the quality of the air in Europe. It sets binding ceilings for four pollutants - SO2, NOx, VOCs and ammonia - which have to be met by 2010. The program defines targets and measures for reducing emissions in the energy, transportation, agricultural, and industrial sectors. Attaining the ceilings will mean cutting the emissions of SO2 by 57 per cent (from 1990 levels), those of NOx by 41 per cent, VOCs by 42 per cent, and ammonia by 18 per cent. See table below. It is thought that in Finland 's case the ceilings can be attained without any need for further measures to out emissions. Decisions already taken, coupled with the effects of EU legislation, should suffice. Confirmation that Finland is already well on the way to compliance in this respect comes from its emission data for the year 2000. This applies especially to SO2, where emissions are already far below the ceiling for 2010. Lower margins for the other pollutants suggest however that it may nevertheless be necessary in their case to take further measures. Finland appears to be the first of the EU countries to set out a program for accomplishment of the NEC directive. As far as is known, too, it is the only one to have done so by the set date, October 1, 2002. Christer Ågren 1 According to Article 6 of the EU directive on national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants (2001/81/EC), member states should, at the latest by October 1, 2002, each have drawn up programs showing how they are planning to meet the emission ceilings for SO2, NOx, VOCs, and NH3 set out in the directive for 2010. The programs are to include information as to the policies and measures that have either been adopted or are envisaged, as well as quantified estimates of their effect on the emissions of these pollutants by 2010. Member states shall moreover make their programs available to all, including environmentalist organizations. Emissions in Finland 1990 and 2000 and emissions ceilings for 2010 of the NEC directive (ktons).
Parliament wants more trading At its first reading of the Commission's proposal for trading in CO2 emissions, the EU Parliament voted to make it not only obligatory as from 2005, but also to include all the six greenhouse gases in the Kyoto protocol. The Parliament also wanted more sectors to be included in the scheme, and proposed that 15 per cent of the emission allowances should be put up for auction in each country instead of being allotted free of charge. The revenue should be recycled back to industry for environmental purposes. The proposed directive is expected to be on the Council of Ministers agenda for December. Most of the countries are in favour of a mandatory scheme from 2005, but Germany and the UK have been arguing strongly for voluntary trading until 2008. The Parliament would be willing to accept some exceptions during the first three years, but it is a question whether that will be enough to satisfy the opposition. Source: Environment Daily. October 10, 2002.
Agreement on small petrol engines The Council and Parliament are now agreed on the directive for limiting the emissions from non-road petrol-driven machines that was put forward by the Commission in December 2000. This follows the October acceptance by the ministers of the amendments arising from the Parliament's second reading. This means that the initial set of emission limits will be applicable 18 months after the directive's coming into force, probably in autumn 2004. A second round of tighter limits will be introduced between 2004 and 2010, depending on engine type. Taking it thus in two steps will be instead of allowing manufacturers to bank and deal in emission allowances as in the system proposed by the Commission (see AN 1/01). The engines covered by the directive - in lawnmowers, chain saws, hedge trimmers, etc. - are estimated to account for 10-15 per cent of the emissions of volatile organic compounds in the EU. The Commission is now working on a second revision of the directive to tighten the emission limits also for diesel-driven machines. Source: Environment Daily. October 21, 2002. Causing many thousand deaths every year Data on the concentrations of particles in the air of twenty-six cities in twelve European countries has now been assembled in a uniform manner within APHEIS,1 Air Pollution and Health: A European Information System, part funded by the EU. Nineteen of the cities2 have used PM10 as the measure and the concentrations vary from 14 micrograms per cubic metre as a yearly average in the cleanest - Stockholm and Gothenburg - to 74 µg/m3 in the dirtiest, Bucharest. In a number of cities, among which were Cracow, Rome, and Seville, concentrations of PM10 were exceeding the EU limit of 40 µg/m3 yearly average that will be coming into effect in 2005. With the exception of Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lille, and Toulouse, all were overstepping the preliminarily stricter limit of 20 µg/m3 for which 2010 is scheduled to be the starting year. Many cities will also be having difficulty in meeting the future EU standard for a 24-hour average value for PM10. Among the cities that had not used PM10 as a measure, but had chosen instead black smoke, far the worst was Athens. By using known connections between particle concentrations and effects on health, the APHEIS researchers were able to quantify yearly deaths in the cities in question. As regards the nineteen cities using PM10 as the measure, with a total population of 32 million, it appeared that: · If the yearly average value were to drop to 40 µg/m3 (EU standard for 2005) in all cities, altogether 2653 premature deaths a year could be prevented, or 9 per 100,000 inhabitants. · If the stricter limit of 20 µg/m3 (proposed EU standard 2010) were met in the same cities, the premature deaths that could be avoided would amount to 11,855 a year or 43 per 100,000 of population. · Reducing the levels by just 5 µg/m3 would prevent 5547 premature deaths annually (19 per 100,000 inhabitants) in all the cities, even those with the lowest pollution levels. If black smoke is used as the measure, as it was in 15 cities with a total population of 25 million, the dose-response connection in cases of long-term exposure is more uncertain. However about 577 premature deaths could be prevented annually, or 3 per 100,000, if short-term exposure to outdoor concentrations of black smoke were reduced by 5 µg/m3. Two outstanding conclusions are that: 1. Even a small and achievable reduction in air-pollution levels, such as 5 µg/m3, would have a beneficial effect on health, and thus justify taking preventive action in all cases, no matter what levels any city had. 2. Although the general risk of death from air pollution is less than that from smoking, it is nevertheless real and worth taking steps against, especially as exposure is involuntary and affects the whole population. In continuation more cities will be involved, with improved methods of calculation and research given a wider scope. It is intended for instance to calculate the years of life lost, or reduction in life expectancy, in order to estimate the effects on health of long-term exposure to air pollution, and to collaborate with economists in calculating the costs to society in the cities participating in the program. Per Elvingson 1 A Health Impact Assessment of Air Pollution in 26 European Cities. Can be downloaded from www.apheis.net. APHEIS is financed by the EU in collaboration with participating countries. 2 Bordeaux, Bucharest, Budapest, Celje, Cracow, Gothenburg, Lille, Ljubljana, London, Lyon, Madrid, Marseilles, Paris, Rome, Seville, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Tel Aviv, and Toulouse. Fewer deaths after ban on coal A ban on coal burning had an almost immediate effect on people's health in Dublin, reports the British medical journal The Lancet.1 The quality of the air in the Irish capital had been steadily worsening during the 1980s as a result of ever more households abandoning oil in favour of bituminous coal for domestic heating. But after the use of coal had been forbidden in 1990, air quality improved faster and more dramatically than anyone had envisaged. The concentrations of particles, measured as black smoke, dropped straight away by as much as 70 per cent in the winter when the ban was imposed. Previously black-smoke levels had averaged about 80 micrograms per cubic metre in winter in Dublin. After the ban they plummeted to 20 micrograms. The improvement in air quality was accompanied by a drop in mortality from heart and lung diseases, say the researchers who had examined the death records for the six years before and after introduction of the ban. They found that deaths from respiratory diseases dropped by 15 per cent, and from cardiovascular disease by 10 per cent. The researchers - among whom was Harvard professor Douglas W. Dockery - say these health benefits, which were measurable within the first year of the ban, were substantially greater than previous short-term studies had predicted. Source: Environment News Service (ens-news.com) October 22, 2002. 1 Effect of air-pollution control on death rates in Dublin, Ireland: an intervention study. By Luke Clancy, Pat Goodman, Hamish Sinclair, Douglas W Dockery. The Lancet, Vol. 360, October 19, 2002. Can be read at www.thelancet.com.
Will be aiming at greatly reduced emissions Agreement between Social Democrats and Die Grüne means that Germany is bent on maintaining its leadership in matters concerning the climate. In the matter of the climate, Germany intends to remain in the lead among nations. Here follows some of the central extracts from the agreement between the coalition parties settled in October: Germany will be proposing that the EU declare itself ready to have reduced its emissions of greenhouse gases by 30 per cent in 2020 (from 1990 levels) as agreed for the second round of the Kyoto protocol. For its part Germany will be aiming at a 40-per-cent reduction by 2020 - provided that the EU adopts the 30-per-cent target. Emissions trading It will also be supporting the need to introduce a system of emissions trading in Europe. It will moreover be urging the following as directions for EU policy: · The measures adopted since 1990 for the reduction of greenhouse gases must be observed when allotting emission allowances. · The emission allowances should be allotted free of charge and be compatible with the flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto protocol. Ecotaxes It is suggested that in 2004 the price of oil, the state of the economy, the competitiveness of German business, and the public mood are to be re-examined, in view of the emissions of greenhouse gases, to see whether environmental taxation can be further developed. Moreover, during the next few years the incentives to the development of renewable energy will be raised to 200 million euros in 2004 and 220 million in 2005. Further: · The freeing of flights to other EU countries from VAT will be dropped. · The exemptions given to producers in respect of environmental taxes will be cut down. The success of the new rail fare system is to be followed up by making train travel increasingly attractive - especially for families with children - through a 7-per-cent reduction of VAT on rail tickets. Strongly supported by the coalition government are also emission charges for flights on European routes and a further differentiation of start and landing fees based on emissions of air pollutants. Energy efficiency and renewables Measures are to be taken to have doubled the proportion of renewables in the generation of electricity and the consumption of prime energy at the latest by 2010 (from base-year 2000 levels). The government will also be pushing for the development of combined heat-and-power and hydrogen cells in accordance with legislation passed during the previous session, and be collaborating with industry to these ends. Offshore wind farms are planned to add at least 500 MW to capacity by 2006 and 3000 MW by 2010. Heating from renewable sources is to be encouraged, the aim among others being to have doubled the installed area of solar panels during the coming four years. The German environmentalist organization GermanWatch was not satisfied: "Apart from some new ideas concerning long-term climate policy, the agreement has yielded only a patchwork of minor measures for saving the climate." Source: KlimaKompakt No. 22 / October 2002 (www.germanwatch.org/rio) Many countries are failing to comply with protocols It would appear from the last review made by the Implementation Committee1 that several countries are sometimes failing badly to comply with the protocols under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. This failure concerns not only the obligatory emission targets (especially those in the 1988 protocol for NOx and that of l991 for VOCs - volatile organic compounds) but also the obligation to report. During the year the committee examined the following eight countries for non-compliance with emission targets. Finland. It was noted in the previous review that Finland had failed to reduce its emissions of VOCs, as required, by 30 per cent between 1988 and 1999.2 It had however, according to the latest data, managed to reduce them by 26 per cent during the period of the last review, and is expected to have got them down by 30 per cent in the course of this year. Greece. The latest reported data shows emissions of NOx to have been higher in recent years than they were in 1987, the base year for the protocol. In 2000 they ran up to 320,000 tons as against 285,000 tons in 1987. The committee expressed deep concern at the prospect of Greece failing to comply even by 2010, by which time it will have been in non-compliance for thirteen years, and at its not having indicated a year by which it expects to achieve compliance. Italy. As in the case of Finland, it was noted in the previous review that Italy had failed to make the 30-per-cent reduction for VOCs - having brought emissions down by no more than 18 per cent from 1990, the base year for the protocol, to the target year 1999. The latest data do however show that there had been a 26-per-cent reduction by 2000, and that the 30-per-cent goal should have been reached this year. Ireland. Emission data shows the country's emissions of NOx to have been above the 115,000-ton level for the base year 1987 during all five years from 1996 to 2000. In that last year they amounted to 125,000 tons. By way of explanation, reference was made to the country's extraordinary economic growth during the nineties. Proposed measures should however make compliance possible at the latest by 2004. Luxembourg. Both in 1999 and 2000 emissions of VOCs were, according to the latest figures, only 21 per cent below those in Luxembourg's base year (1990) instead of the required 30 per cent. Norway. As both Finland and Italy have done, Norway produced further information last year in regard to compliance with the VOC protocol. The implementation committee found it worrying that in 2000 emissions had been 45 per cent over the required level, and that Norway did not expect to achieve compliance before 2006. It further noted that there was no evidence of any concrete steps having been taken to shorten the delay. Spain. Emissions of NOx were reported to have been above the level of the base year (1987) in all seven years from 1994 to 2000. In that last year they ran to 1,419,000 tons, 26 per cent higher than in the base year, when they were 1,121,000 tons. The committee expressed concern at Spain not having indicated a year by which it expected to have achieved compliance, and at the trend showing the country to be moving steadily away from it. Moreover, it was not complying with the VOC protocol either. Far from achieving the required 30-per-cent reduction, it had allowed emissions to be even higher than those of the base-year figure of 1,526,000 tons both in 1999 and 2000. Sweden. According to the latest data, by 1999 emissions of VOCs had only been brought down by 22 per cent from the 555,000 tons of the base year (1988), and in 2000 by 25 per cent. A large uncertainty was reported to remain in regard to the data itself, of which a thorough overhaul was however said to be under way. But no date could yet be specified by which Sweden could be expected to be in compliance. As to the obligation to report, the committee noted that as a result of the previous year's exhortations from the Executive Body of the convention, several countries had responded by sending information. Despite a general improvement there are however still some notable failures, Luxembourg and Ukraine being pointed out as being consistently in non-compliance. Some kinds of emissions data are still missing from Belgium, Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, and the European Community. Parties to the convention are also required to report strategies and policies for abating air pollution generally, and eleven were found to be still not complying. From an in-depth review of the extent of compliance with the 1994 Sulphur Protocol the committee concluded from the data received that nineteen of the twenty-five parties seemed to have met their obligations for the year 2000. Three - Canada, Croatia, and Italy - had not submitted the necessary data for evaluation, while in the case of three others - Belgium, Hungary, and Monaco - the protocol was not yet in force that year. After trying to review compliance with other obligations, such as to set standards for emissions and fuels, the committee had to admit that the reporting from more than half of the twenty-five parties to the protocol was so inadequate as to prevent any conclusions being drawn. The report, with its conclusions and recommendations, will be considered by the Executive Body of the Convention at its coming meeting in Geneva on December 10-13. Christer Ågren 1 The fifth report of the Implementation Committee (EB.AIR/2002/2 and Add.1). Can be downloaded from: http://www.unece.org/env/eb/welcome.html 2 The extent of compliance with the VOC protoco1 of 1991 was reported in more detail in Acid News 1/02, and that of the sulphur protocol in AN 3/02. Sources are all around Throughout the northern hemisphere emissions are creating pollution at levels above what they will have to be if the objectives for air quality are to be attained. Ozone and particles are cases in point. So far air quality has been mainly regarded as a local or regional problem. But research has now shown there to be an extensive transporting of pollutants across the whole northern hemisphere - of mercury and persistent organic substances as well as ozone and particles. In the case of ozone, hemispheric pollution adds to the local background kind when summer smog with high levels of ozone hits Europe, and significant part of it may have come from sources in Asia and North America. Similarly, European emissions can add to excessive levels in Siberia. Emissions from Asia, North America, and Europe have increased the hemispheric burden of ozone by at least 50 per cent since the start of the industrial revolution, according to leading scientists from all three continents, meeting in Germany this last October. Among the organizers of that conference was the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. "These conclusions confirm the need to continue addressing air pollution at an international level within the framework of the Convention, and to take an even broader hemispheric perspective in developing cost-effective strategies to tackle the problem," averred Kaj Bärlund, UN ECE Environment Director. Further information: www.unece.org/press/pr2002/02env09e.htm
Bad environment may become worse Unsafe levels of at least one pollutant in most cities, only four meet guidelines. Policemen directing traffic in Beijing are living dangerously. Given the concentrations of pollutants in the air at the city crossways, they are estimated to have an average lifespan of only 40 years. This is just a small detail in the mountain of facts in a report1 made by the Stockholm Environment Institute for UNDP, the United Nation's Development Programme. According to a ranking made by the World Bank, sixteen of the twenty cities with the worst air pollution in the world are Chinese. The concentrations of total suspended particles (TSP) are on an average 10-20 times higher than, say, in London or Brussels. As a measure of air quality the Chinese use an air pollution index, API, which is a compound of the concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and TSP. The State Standards system is based on the API, with Grades I and II being considered suitable for long-term living conditions, Grade III acceptable for short-term exposures, while Grades IV and V are unsuitable for humans. Of the 335 Chinese cities regularly monitored, only 33 per cent met either Grades I or II in 1999, with over 40 per cent falling into Grades IV and V (see Figure 1). Hence almost half of Chinese cities monitored - with a total population of 270 million - are unsafe by Chinese API standards.
Figure 1. Ambient air quality in Chinese cities. The percentage would certainly rise if the figures for each pollutant were known, and most Chinese cities experience unsafe levels of at least one pollutant. For example, using a different measuring system, only four cities - Haikou and Sanya (Hainan), Xiamen (Fujian) and Beihai (Guangxi) - met the WHO guidelines for air quality. Although the concentrations of small particles (PM10 and PM2.5) are not regularly measured in China, monitoring campaigns in Beijing have revealed episodes with very high levels of PM2.5, especially during periods of smog accumulation in summer. Attempts at quantifying the effects of air pollution on health have ended in widely varying results. One of those mentioned in the SEI report, referring to the year 2000, put the number of premature deaths due to air pollution at 600,000, cases of chronic bronchitis at 5.5 million, and respiratory illnesses 20 million. If the quality of the air were to be really brought up to Chinese standards, some 178,000 deaths, or 7 per cent of all deaths in urban areas, could be avoided each year. Each year, too, 7.4 million working days are being lost on account of health problems related to air pollution. Acidification has been a known problem in China for decades. In the 1980s, areas affected by acidification extended over large parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Guizhou. By the 1990s, the area had grown considerably, and included large parts of Hunan, Jianxi, Fujain, Shanghai and Shangdong provinces. By 2000, nearly one-third of China was affected. The consequences of acid deposition are exceedingly costly, one estimate putting the economic cost at 110 billion yuan in 1995, or almost 2 per cent of the GDP. Among the effects are damage to agricultural crops and forests, reduction in food production, destruction of lake ecosystems, and damage to buildings. Guangxi province is estimated to experience a 5-10 per cent general reduction in food crops, and since 1980, 85 per cent of the pine stands in forest areas have been affected, with the death rate reaching 35 per cent. The emissions of air pollutants are intimately connected with the use of energy. Although starting to decline, they still remain high from combustion in power plants, industries and households. With the gradual, ongoing modernization of Chinese cities, fuels have shifted from coal to coal gas or even natural gas, residential boilers have been upgraded, and cooking on open fires in street stalls is prohibited, while cooking with gas is encouraged. Coal still remains however the dominant source of energy, accounting for 70 per cent of primary energy use (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Primary energy use by source 1998 (Although not included, energy from biomass is estimated to equal that from oil). Road traffic is also adding greatly to pollution and the use of energy. Since 1980 the number of vehicles has been growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually in many urban areas. It is estimated that there are currently about 20 million motor vehicles in China, and the figure is expected to reach upwards of 50 million by 2010. During the 1990s, the transport sector's share of energy use nearly doubled. Oil is expected to be the fastest growing form of primary energy used in China, propelled by this surge in transport. To date the Chinese authorities have shown very little interest in developing alternatives in transportation, possible because the car is regarded as such an important symbol for economic development and success. Only in one respect have they imposed any environmental requirement at the national level, by forbidding the sale of leaded petrol. A ban on old vehicles has been introduced locally in Beijing, where taxis and buses running on liquid petroleum gas are also the order of the day. It is however obvious that if transportation should approach western European or North American levels, even large investments in the cleanest technologies will not suffice to resolve the problems for the environment. Although the use of energy is still low in China - being only about half the world average and a mere tenth of the US level - demand is steadily increasing, with some forecasts indicating a quintuple rise up to 2050. If anything like that amount were to be generated in the same way as today, the effects on environment and health would be disastrous. The SEI does note however that there is a huge unused potential for improvement in China. Although China has reduced the energy needed to produce 1 US dollar of GDP by more than half since the economic reforms set off, energy efficiency is still only one-quarter of the performance in industrialized countries. Therefore, energy generation need only increase by half in order to satisfy a six times higher demand by mid-century should China manage to reach the energy efficiency standards of industrialized countries. As to the way energy is generated there is also considerable room for improvements. The crucial point is the government capacity to promote the development of sustainable energy. With economic restructuring a major force for change, and environmental protection policies increasingly integrated with energy policies, momentum is nevertheless increasing to improve energy efficiency and promote renewable sources of energy. The report, which deals with much else besides air pollution, presents two scenarios for future developments in China. In the one, with market control where short-term interests are allowed to profit at the expense of long-term sustainability, society becomes even more inegalitarian and environmental problems mount catastrophically. In the other scenario, considered fully possible by the authors of the report, who call it "the green reform path," ever greater importance is attached to the efforts of non-governmental organizations and to a greater engagement of ordinary citizens in work for the environment, coupled with respect for traditional Chinese values instead of a western way of life all taken up with consumption. Per Elvingson 1 China Human Development Report 2002 - Making Green Development a Choice. Printed copies can be ordered from Academic & Trade Unit, Oxford University Press (China) Ltd., 18th Floor, Warwick House East, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. 150 pp. US$ 22.50. The report can also be downloaded in pdf format free of charge from UNDP. UNITED STATES Open market trading scheme criticized There are grave imperfections in the system for open-market trading that the US Environmental Protection Agency is trying to introduce, according to a recent report from the agency's own Office of Inspector General (IG). Contrary to traditional "cap and trade" programs, open-market trading allows polluters to trade emission credits between sectors and time periods without limit. Electric utilities could for instance continue smokestack emissions in return for a promise to carry out a drive to remove old, highly polluting cars from the road. Trading is not limited, either, to one pollutant: different kinds of pollutants can be exchanged for each other. The idea with open-market trading is to increase flexibility and make it easier for stationary sources to fulfill the requirements of the Clean Air Act. But the way the system is fashioned makes it impossible to foresee its effects on the environment. It lacks namely a mechanism to ensure that trades between sectors will be of like value - in other words, that apples will really be exchanged for apples and not for "a promise of a future guava," as one critic expressed it. Another weakness is that it will be allowable to sell left-over credits from, say, a shut-down plant. The IG's scrutiny was made at the joint request of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), but the agency's response suggests that it has no intention of taking any notice. "The EPA will ignore this report just as they have ignored four previous IG reports and numerous pleas from their own specialists," said Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director. "Until these problems are addressed, EPA's trading plans will remain a dangerous scam that threatens to undermine real progress towards clean air." Per Elvingson Further information: PEER has set forth its criticism of open-market trading in a white paper entitled Trading Thin Air, available at www.peer.org/publications/wp_trading.html. PEER is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals working to protect the environment.
Trading in brief Local program not working An evaluation by the US Environmental Protection Agency has shown that a local cap-and-trade program set going in California for controlling the emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides is performing below expectations. The Regional Clean Air Incentives Market program (RECLAIM) was adopted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 1993. It has more than 350 participants in its NOx market, and about 40 for SO2. "The program has produced far less emission reductions than were either projected for [it] or could have been expected from the system it replaced," was the EPA's conclusion. It replaced a so-called-command-and-control system in which industries either had to meet emissions caps or face fines. Like most of the new trading programs, RECLAIM cannot rely on market incentives, but will require additional government involvement to avoid industry manipulation, the EPA found. Source: Environment News Service (ens-news. com), November 13, 2002. The EPA's evaluation of the RECLAIM program is available at: www.epa.gov/region09/air/reclaim/
.. but emissions are declining nationally The annual evaluation of the Acid Rain Program1 that has just been published by the EPA shows that the emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides from the designated plants are continuing to decline. The emissions of sulphur dioxide from power plants in 2001 were 10.6 million tons, a full one-third reduction from 1990 emissions and down from 17.3 million tons in 1980. Emissions of nitrogen oxides from power plants also continued a downward trend of 4.1 million tons in 2001, a 25 per cent decline from 1990 emissions levels. The trading component of the SO2 program has significantly lowered the costs of compliance and has not resulted in any significant geographic shifts in emissions, according to the report. 1 EPA's Acid Rain Program 2001 Progress Report is available online at: www.epa.gov/airmarkets/cmprpt/arp01/index.html along with extensive information on emissions data, allowance transfers, air quality data and atmospheric deposition data. Refineries' emissions underestimated A new measuring technique has shown them to be far greater than would have appeared from the modelling that had previously been relied upon. It has been found that computing refineries' emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) by modelling almost always results in gross underestimates. At the end of the eighties the Gothenburg county council ordered measurements to be made in which the light types of hydrocarbons were to be singled out. Later measurements of all NMVOCs revealed that the emissions from one refinery alone amounted to 25,000 tons a year - vastly more than the theoretical assessment of 1000 tons. As a result of extensive abatement measures, the figure has now been brought down to 5000 tons, still far and away above that obtained from modelling. The measuring technique, called DIAL, differential absorption lidar, has subsequently been used at all Swedish refineries as well as at Sweden's largest port, Gothenburg. It has also been used in Belgium, where refineries in Flanders initially reported emissions of volatile organic substances totalling 14,000 tons at the end of the nineties. But it turned out that when estimated by the DIAL method, they were more than 18,000 tons a year, and that from only two refineries, answering for only a few per cent of the total of crude oil that was being processed in the area. The DIAL method makes it possible on the one hand to get a proper idea of where emissions are actually taking place, and on the other to find a basis for the most cost-effective measures for betterment. It has also revealed that the really big emissions normally come from storage - not, as modelling had indicated, from the refining process. It is believed that big investments will now be necessary at the refineries - those in Belgium for instance being under pressure to bring their emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds down to 9300 tons by 2010. The actual emissions from refining and storage are doubtless much more than has appeared from theoretical calculations in other countries too. "The DIAL technique makes it possible to discover leaks with great accuracy, and so develop cost-effective means of dealing with them," says Lennart Frisch, now consultant and formerly environmental officer for the Gothenburg county council. "Since the end of the eighties the all-over emissions from Swedish refineries have come down by 50-80 per cent." Per Elvingson For more information: Lennart Frisch, Agenda Enviro AB. Internet: www.agendaenviro.com. There will be a need to raise fares A study made by the Dutch research institute CE Delft for the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) has shown that the effects of air transport on the environment would definitely diminish if the airlines and other operators were forced to accept their environmental costs. The price of a 200-kilome |
