New NEC directive: What does it say?

Air pollution travels long distances and does not stop at national boundaries.

It affects health of the most vulnerable and is responsible for acidification and eutrophication. What does Europe do to tackle the problem?

Setting emission ceilings

Figure 5: Ammonia emissions in the EU have decreased slowly in the past two decades. The 2016 NEC directive sets national reduction targets for 2020 and 2030, respectively.

The European Union has put legislation in place to control air pollution. In 2001, the NEC (National Emission Ceilings) directive has set emissions ceilings per country for main pollutants (see table 1). In 2016, the NEC directive sets additional reduction targets per country. The reference for the reductions to be achieved at the horizon of 2020 and 2030 are calculated based on actual emissions recorded in 2005 (figure 5).

The current status and the goals set out by the NEC directive are summarized in table 2.

It is worth noting that in some countries (e. g. France) ammonia emissions have increased since 2005 due to the extensive use of urea and UAN.

Table 2: Actual emissions, ceilings and reduction targets for ammonia according to the NEC 2016 [3].