The European Commission and the European Environment Agency have launched a comprehensive new European pollutant release and transfer register – E-PRTR. The register contains information about the emissions of pollutants to air, water and land by industrial facilities throughout Europe. It includes annual data for 91 substances and covers more than 24 000 facilities in 65 economic activities. It also provides additional information, such as the amount and types of waste transferred from facilities to waste handlers both inside and outside each country.

In order to improve public access to environmental information, a new E-PRTR register has been set up, containing data reported by individual facilities. The register, which is accessible at the Internet, provides details of pollutants released from individual facilities to air, water and land in 2007.

The information in the register covers 30% of total NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions (i.e. most emissions from sources other than transport) and 76% of total SOx (sulphur oxides) emissions to air in the EU-27 countries and Norway. The register also shows the amount of waste and waste water transferred to other locations, including transboundary transfers of hazardous waste, and gives preliminary information on pollutants from ‘diffuse’ sources released to water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus loss from agriculture.

The website has a powerful search engine that allows visitors to search using one or more criteria and a map tool. For example, visitors can search the amount of hazardous and non-hazardous waste transferred from facilities in a country (waste search), or releases from a specific industrial site by name or location (facility search).

Background

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the ‘Aarhus Convention’) grants the public rights to access environmental information.

In 2003, parties to the Aarhus Convention adopted the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR), which entered into force on 8 October 2009.

From 2010 onwards, the information in E-PRTR will be updated in April each year. In addition to the 27 Member States of the European Union, it also includes data from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The website, including the information on diffuse source releases, will gradually be improved in coming months.

The former European pollutant register EPER covered 50 pollutants released to air and water from 56 industrial activities in 12 000 facilities in 26 countries (EU-25 and Norway). EPER required countries to report only every third year and included information from just two reporting years — 2001 and 2004.

About the European Environment Agency (EEA)

The EEA is based in Copenhagen. The Agency helps achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment by providing timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-makers and the public.