Industrial emissions

What are industrial emissions?

Industrial processes and activities generate emissions of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, ammonia, mercury and carbon dioxide, which pollute water, air and land and damage human health, the environment and nature.

Producing electricity, treating and managing waste, rearing livestock or making cement are examples of industrial activities which release polluting emissions into the environment.

The discharge of pollutants into the environment can lead to health conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, cancer and heart failure. Emissions are considered to be responsible for thousands of premature deaths each year.

According to 2017 estimates, industrial emissions cause damage totalling between €277 and 433 billion to human health and the environment each year.

How do EU countries address industrial emissions?

The EU has laid down rules for tackling industrial pollution.

The industrial emissions directive is the main piece of EU legislation for preventing and reducing pollution from large industrial plants, including livestock plants, in the EU.

The general objective is to help protect ecosystems and human health.

The rules aim to:

prevent and control air, water and land emissions from Europe's largest industrial plants
minimise the use of resources
make processes more efficient
encourage circular economy practices
ensure waste prevention and control

The directive covers over 50 000 plants located in EU countries which are collectively responsible for emitting 20% of all pollutants into the air and water, and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU (these numbers may increase following the revision of the directive adopted in 2024).

Industrial emissions directive: key figures (infographic)

The industrial activities regulated by EU rules include power plants, refineries, waste treatment and incineration facilities, the production of metals, cement, glass, chemicals, pulp and paper, food and drink, and the intensive rearing of pigs and poultry.

Greenhouse gas emissions are also addressed by the EU emissions trading system.

Fit for 55: reform of the EU emissions trading system (infographic)

How does the industrial emissions directive work?

EU rules require large industrial and livestock plants to report on and monitor their environmental performance and to make efforts to control their emissions.

The industrial operators listed in the industrial emissions directive are granted a permit to operate by the authority of the country in which they are located.

Emissions limit values for polluting substances emitted by a plant are defined in the permits, and are based on the Best Available Techniques (BAT). The BATs are defined by the Commission in coordination with experts from member states, industry and environmental organisations.

Permits must take into account the overall environmental performance of a plant, covering, among other things, emissions into air, water and land, the generation of waste, the use of raw materials, and energy efficiency.

EU countries must organise site inspections at least once every one to three years, using risk‑based criteria.

National authorities are required to make information publicly available about:

permits and application requests
monitoring results

The European Industrial Emissions Portal is used to collect and present data on industrial emissions.

European Industrial Emissions Portal

Trends in EU industrial emissions (infographic)

What will change in the industrial emissions directive?

An assessment by the Commission of the impact of the industrial emissions directive established that the EU rules have played an important role in reducing emissions of pollutants from industry, especially into the air. However, the study showed that the contribution of these rules to decarbonisation and the circular economy had been more limited.

In April 2022, the Commission put forward proposals to update and modernise the rules on industrial emissions (amending directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions and directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste).

The goal is to revise the current rules in order to adapt them to the EU's climate and pollution ambitions, as presented in the European Green Deal. The end objective is to stimulate a deep transformation of large agro-industrial plants to achieve a zero-pollution, circular, competitive, climate-neutral economy by 2050.

Main aspects of the revision

The main elements of the revision are:

including more industrial plants in the legislation
making permits more effective
reducing administrative costs
increasing access to information, transparency and public participation
giving more support to breakthrough technologies and other innovative approaches

The new rules will extend the scope of the rules to also apply to:

more large intensive livestock farms rearing pigs and poultry but not cattle
the mining sector
large plants for the production of batteries

Member states will have to establish effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for those who infringe the measures adopted to implement the directive. In addition, they will need to ensure that people are entitled to claim compensation where damage to their health has occurred as a result of a violation of the national rules transposing the directive.

The permits for industrial installations will now be issued electronically, via an e-permitting system to be set up by no later than 2035. This will make permitting procedures easier and more efficient. In the permits, competent authorities will set binding environmental performance limit values (EPLVs) to authorise the establishment and operation of installations.

The new rules will also require the Commission to assess the implementation of the directive by 2028 and every five years thereafter. In addition a review regarding imported agricultural products from non-EU countries could be carried out with the aim of ensuring that these products have similar environmental standards as those in place within the EU.

The revision of industrial emissions rules also concerns a regulation on the reporting of environmental data from industrial installations (EC No 166/2006). The new rules will replace the European pollutant release and transfer register (E-PRTR) with the European industrial emissions portal.

In March 2023 the EU countries within the Council agreed on a common negotiating position – a 'general approach' – on the revision of the directive based on the Commission's proposal of March 2022. Later in June the Council agreed on the regulation on the industrial emissions portal.

In November 2023 the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement at trilogues on the revised rules for both the directive and the emissions portal.

The new rules were adopted by the Council in April 2024.