Updated European Pollutant Emission Register launched

EPER is publicly accessible through the Internet. Anyone can search the register according to criteria such as the name of a specific industrial facility, its post code, address or location, by sector of activity, name of pollutant or a combination of any of the above.

”In today’s Europe the public play an increasingly important role in environmental decision-making at a personal, local and national level. The EEA is working for access to environmental information for everyone so that they are better able to fulfil this important role. EPER is a stepping stone in the right direction,” said Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the EEA.

In Europe we have been very successful at reducing pollution from a single point e.g. an industrial plant. This has been achieved through cleaner technologies and ‘end of pipe’ measures, such as filters that prevent pollution reaching the environment.

Sectors such as transport, agriculture and domestic heating are known as ‘diffuse sources’ of pollution as the pollution comes from many small units such as cars, homes or small farms. These sources of pollution will be included in E-PRTR, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, which will replace EPER in 2009.

See: The European Commission’s press release